Tomorrow (Saturday June 29) officially marks the beginning of “idiot right wingers from Vancouver traveling to Portland to stir up shit” season. Two competing groups of dummies—the Proud Boys and Haley Adam’s #HimToo nincompoops (apparently Patriot Prayer’s Joey Gibson can’t make it because he has other people to annoy)—will be marching around trying to engage Portlanders in fights starting at noon in some or all of the following places, according to Portland Police: Pioneer Square, Chapman Square, and Waterfront Park.
If you plan on actively ignoring these sad, insecure, attention-starved losers… GOOD FOR YOU! Go enjoy a nice day and prepare for the World Naked Bike Ride tomorrow night. (Consider getting a spray tan.)
However, if you’re more in the mood to stand up to the right’s hate-mongering bullshit, and show their victims that we stand on a much higher moral ground—GOOD FOR YOU, TOO. But consider this….
These groups thrive on attention—yours specifically. They are under the very mistaken impression that because the majority of the world doesn’t agree with them, that must mean they’re simply not being heard. So they scream their inaccuracies ever-louder and when that doesn’t work, set out to punish the rest of us—usually by trolling. (As with children, sometimes negative attention beats no attention at all.)
Here’s something I wrote last year about how to combat the Joey Gibsons of the world, and I think it holds true for the Proud Boys and Haley’s sad-sack men’s group:
Activists are right: Simply ignoring this roving band of dorks doesn’t do enough, and the refusal to confront their racism only makes their targets feel less safe.
However—and this is what we’re forgetting—there are different types of confrontation. If the past year has taught us anything, physical confrontation is exactly what these losers want in order to promote their disingenuous “we’re so persecuted” narrative. And local and national media are all too happy to play along. What’s the primary focus of news reports that follow these altercations? Is it the hundreds of peaceful anti-fascists who show up to counter Patriot Prayer’s misanthropy, or the minuscule number of people who throw a punch? (That’s a rhetorical question, because you know the answer.)
So if we put aside punch throwing, what kind of confrontation can work? A possible answer is “creative humiliation.”
Fact: Right-wingers and Republicans are the least funny people on earth. And humiliation is their kryptonite. So consider marching beside them carrying a sign that reads, “Aliens Have Infiltrated Our Government!” (Don’t forget to misspell both “infiltrated” and “government.”) If they ask who you’re with, just smile and say, “You!”
If you’re part of a large group, turn your collective backs on them when they walk by. This will hurt their feelings, because they got all dressed up in their gladiator costumes, and secretly want you to be impressed.
Or go to a more positive counter-protest like the one being put on tomorrow by PopMob called “Milkshake,” which is “a counter-protest and LGBTQIA2S+ allied dance party against fascism.” They’re inviting “all Portlanders to join us in Lownsdale Square [from noon to 3 pm] for a surprise special guest DJ, dancing, free vegan milkshakes, and showing the alt-right we won’t let hate grow here — especially not on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising!” These people know what they’re doing… so why not join ’em?
We all know by now that we can’t trust the Portland Police to stand up for Portlanders in this situation—and if you disagree, may I remind you of THIS? That’s why we need a different way of reacting to these hopeless right wing dummies. They’re not playing by your rules. So change the rules again, this time in your favor.
So have you interviewed these folks? Gimme’ a issue date and I’ll check it out.
“We all know by now that we can’t trust the Portland Police to stand up for Portlanders in this situation”
Riigghhtt. Do you keep saying it hoping repetition will make it true?
Too many media sources (thankfully not here) give these clowns a platform to grandstand platforms that amount to little more than internet memes.
These people are the Nazis people watches in Charlottesville trying to burn down historic black churches and attack minorities. The nation looked on in horror only to succumb to the staggering theory that the groups taking part (Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys) are somehow different. If one can see these selfsame people marching with Nazis, there should be no escape from the conclusions that arise from that.
These people are dangerous, whereas in the past, they were young, shaved head wore the skinhead uniform, they now (that’s to billionaires in tech) have grown their hair, branches out and have become more dangerous than ever. It’s optics they’ll tell you.
Sure they’re nothing more internet trolls, 50 yr old virgin Archie Bunker admiring hillbilly-cum-hipster slobs from the sticks but they are a gang. They must be documented in what they do so they can go the way of Tom Metzger and be exposed and bankrupted.
Otherwise, on the street it’s up to us, as a community to fight back against these bullies. Wishing it was so, doesn’t get results and they have more Jeremy Christians in their ranks.
And no, I’m not antifa, not even close. I’m a working class.person who has had the misfortune of having to fight people like this throughout my life and wear the scars to prove it
Too many media sources (thankfully not here) give these clowns a platform to grandstand platforms that amount to little more than internet memes.
These people are the Nazis people watches in Charlottesville trying to burn down historic black churches and attack minorities. The nation looked on in horror only to succumb to the staggering theory that the groups taking part (Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys) are somehow different. If one can see these selfsame people marching with Nazis, there should be no escape from the conclusions that arise from that.
These people are dangerous, whereas in the past, they were young, shaved head wore the skinhead uniform, they now (that’s to billionaires in tech) have grown their hair, branches out and have become more dangerous than ever. It’s optics they’ll tell you.
Sure they’re nothing more internet trolls, 50 yr old virgin Archie Bunker admiring hillbilly-cum-hipster slobs from the sticks but they are a gang. They must be documented in what they do so they can go the way of Tom Metzger and be exposed and bankrupted.
Otherwise, on the street it’s up to us, as a community to fight back against these bullies. Wishing it was so, doesn’t get results and they have more Jeremy Christians in their ranks.
And no, I’m not antifa, not even close. I’m a working class.person who has had the misfortune of having to fight people like this throughout my life and wear the scars to prove it
Your bias is so glaring that even a blind person could see it. Crazy how being a patriot in 2019 is frowned upon and gets you labeled a racist. Just open your eyes I work in downtown Portland this shit is crazy, literally people shiting in the streets . This is a very liberal city along with all the other shitty cities
Yeah, why can’t you just be a patriot and spend May Day bashing women over the head with 2x4s, the way the founders intended? It’s a damned shame that if you say all Muslims should die and black people are genetically predisposed criminals, you’re called a racist. I miss the old days when I, a native Oregonian, could take out Pappy’s Klan robes and play Cross Burn with my girlfriend cousins before dragging my 12-year-old self into the forest and clear cutting 20 acres. The whole state of Portland is going into the toilet.
@Smokiedopey420
What does the homeless crisis have to do with out of town white supremacist groups coming into our town & protesting. This actually wastes valuable tax dollars that could be better spent on a myriad of other things than having to pay the ineffective cops to hang out & pretend to oversee what’s going on. Each & every time they come to town itt’s another waste of our tax dollars–why don’t the Proud Boys protest in their own home towns & cost their won tax bases some money for a change.