Comments

3

Not everyone orders their bait off amazon fresh, some of us can still do things for ourselves the old fashioned way.

5

While the news is certainly upsetting, its important to not become slaves to our initial reactions. In all honesty, there is really no reason to be afraid of individuals who experience difficulties in reading and math. If anything, these people deserve some level of compassion, understanding, and an invitation or challenge to join the bettering of ourselves together. We do not yet know the full context of law enforcement's involvement with the militia groups or whether some of those examples were part of a larger, perhaps soon to become public, investigation.

Those "fuck your feelings" books and signs, in general, are marketed to people who feel lost, out of control, and are seeking some sense of power in their lives. The recitations of "fuck your feelings," help those who have felt uncomfortable, powerless, or vulnerable to reassert some sense of control and power in our chaotic mess of a world. The people chanting "fuck your feelings" are often communicating that they have not yet learned to manage their own internal feelings and would be overwhelmed taking on the the feelings of others.

Antifa isn't real. It's a delusional fairy tale used by domestic terrorist extremists to excuse their attacks on neighbors they disagree with politically. You'll notice that those invoking Antifa more often than not are using it to bolster their own business dealings or personal brands. Individuals claiming allegiance or rankings in Antifa are delusional cosplayers disconnected from reality. Anyone claiming to be a leader or community representative of Antifa should submit themselves to an urgent mental health assessment. Antifa isn't an organization. It doesn't have any membership. It doesn't have any infrastructure. It doesn't have any members. It doesn't have any spokespeople.

Antifa simply means prodemocracy. But extremists feel their cause is more just and powerful if they are struggling against something rather than facing the reality and the fact that their behavior is counter to democracy.

@Steak & Eggs, I'm sorry that sign scared you so much that you felt it was important for you to emotionally injure another human. We all have to deal with scary words and pictures at times, but that doesn't justify or permit us to lash out at others because we feel insecure about ourselves. I'm sure your unloading and venting your anger at that other human being made you feel strong and powerful. I'm sure after you had some space with that encounter or stopped bragging about it publicly or privately you started to feel a little bit icky about how you treated that other human. I'm confident you know you haven't been divinely burdened to make the world just or fair, and you know you do not have to treat others in anyway other then how you choose to treat them.

Would you like to be treated the same way you treated that man? Why or Why not?

6

On the night of September 11, 2001, I and a few of my neighbors went to a mosque that is also in the neighborhood. It's part of our neighborhood and its congregation are our neighbors, same as the church up the street, and synagogue. We just stood out front, makng our presence known to whomever drove by. We figured the cops would show up if there was a need.

You see, I used to believe that the police would stand between me and the mob. Because that's their job. The oath they swore and all that.

It never occurred to me, until the events throughout the summer of 2020 and the epiphany of January 6, that the cops could be the mob. Or perhaps more accurately, I didn't want to believe that the mob could be our sworn law enforcement officers.

Right wing gun nuts like to spew "When seconds count, the police are minutes away" as their justification for having a fucking arsenal under their beds. I used to laugh at these whackjobs. I knew they were thinking of people like me when they talked about preparing for "The Zombie Apocalypse" but seriously, here? In Portland?

I'm pretty sure the people of Sarajevo and Chechnya and the Ukraine and, and, and never believed "it" could happen 'there' either.

The summer of 2020 was an eye opener. January 6th the warning. Peace, love, and warm fuzzy happiness is exactly what that mob wants from us. That mob, our police force, wants that we meet their violence with our intellect. We make much easier targets that way.

We are only as fucked as we are willing to let ourselves be.

7

@R, just R, it seems we come from different backgrounds, I've never understood the police to be anything other than a tool of those with money and power to impose their will upon those with less privilege.

I don't know how old you are, but your note of surprise at the revelation that cops could be the mob, indicates you may be young or unstudied in history.

January 6th was a release valve, it has now allowed us to identify those who are disingenuous about their values in public. It provided us with markers to identify the authoritarians in our own midst, and provided us with a blueprint of how to renovated our democracy in a manner to make it more resilient to those who wish a return to ruling styles of Hitler or Stalin.

I agree with your statement "we are only as fucked as we are willing to let ourselves be" but I would personally modify it to "we are only as fucked as we believe we are."

It's a democracy, if you want, you can choose fear but why do you want to choose fear?,

The police force, your mob, wants you to meet their violence with violence, that has been their strategy all along, and undereducated idealist have been playing right into their hands. The only tool and skill set they have is violence, and the only environment where that is valuable is a violent one. By continuing to play into their psychodrama those engaging in violence are weakening there own hand, and reinforcing the big lie that only might make right.

If Portland were to approach this in a smarter way, we would benefit in funding and mandating weekly requirements of psychological counseling and therapy for our officers and fully fund measures that help us approach and lead the world in a rapid disarmament of policing.

You don't defeat bullies by beating them up, you defeat bullies by helping them overcome the trauma and insecurities that make them feel their skills for violence are the only value they can produce. Yes, this is a harder way, and it removes your excuse to be violent yourself... but think about why you want to be violent against others who are violent and you think that their violence is bad, but your violence is good, because you are being violent against those being violent to people who were violent to others who were violent to others who were violent to others..... you get the picture.

There is nothing wrong with the world that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

8

7, @ruth,

"It's a democracy, if you want, you can choose fear but why do you want to choose fear?,"
No ruth, it's a republic.
January 6 was not an exercise in democracy. January 6 had the guardians of our republic running for their lives, from a mob consisting of what is confirmed to have included members of various police forces, Porland's, sadly, among them.

Wrong again ruth. Neither young nor unstudied in history. My surprise is in those who identify as liberal, failing to recognize precisely what you opened with:

"I've never understood the police to be anything other than a tool of those with money and power to impose their will upon those with less privilege."

Expecting the police to come to their rescue. Failing to grasp that what happened in Yugoslavia and Chechnya can happen here. While the monied elite gather their troops and arm them with the latest weapons, we stand by and watch. Failing to remember that this country came about because of a group of armed liberals. There is only one reason any entity starts a war, civil or otherwise. They believe that they'll prevail.

Thomas Frank described quite accurately, in his book 'The Wrecking Crew', how the GOP was first hijacked by fanatics, and then set in motion the mechanism being used now to render our civility toward each other moot, by dismantling every institution needed to bring about the fairytale you write about.

It worked. Our police forces have become occupying armies and our cities wastelands of the destitute. Our institutions have been deliberately weakened by those empowered to manage them. Our sidewalks have become home to thousands because of an engineered collapse of our economy, which benefited members of our government on both sides of the aisle, some to the tune of millions.

You can preach love and happiness all you want. Just remember that those who orchestrated the insurrection of January 6, the "release valve" as you so naively call it, are still enjoying the luxury of wealth, instead of awaiting trial in a jail cell.

An insurrection in which real people died ruth. Some kind of "marker" huh?

10

@9, Tovarich, my gut says otherwise. My gut tells me that this is another who has surrendered themselves to a utopian ideal that may help them sleep tonight but will shatter in the full glare of reality. And then find them begging help from whomever comes along.


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