RE: [AMERICAN POLITICS] The Protest in the Park and the Incendiary Nature of Invoked Response
I think I basically take the laziest approach and assume that every side of all these arguments have valid points, every side has some terrible points, and every side has a smaller group of terrible, terrible people that have attached themselves to one side or another with all the horribleness they can muster. I have no doubt that most of the people in masks could just as passionately commit their energy to either side... they're really just spoiling for a fight.
The irony of the girl in the mask and helmet pushing against the photographer saying she doesn't feel safe with him there was incredible.
Basically people have always been the worst... the old saying of 'Never speak of religion or politics' exists for a reason... people often will irrationally and violently defend their particular position without consideration of any other viewpoint... in which case any discussion really is pretty pointless.
I just wish we were all better at recognising terrible individuals and disassociating them from whichever particular group they've attached themselves to.
Sometimes the whole point is to get together with terrible people of a like mind and do terrible things. It's been true since humans could self organize into groups of those with similar ideas. It happens in every venue, in every medium, and in every place, at every time.
I am all for giving people what they want, however. If they want to fight, it's in my best interest that they get satisfied in that desire. However, it's also in my best interest that if I am involved in said fight that I when. Without hesitation, concern, or abdication of my self-interest. Which means they have to lose.
For them, but want to avoid engaging with people who really want to win but there engaged in exactly the kind of behavior which causes people of like interest in violent conflict to want to go head-to-head with them and went.
Or, in short, antifa is made of stupid people. It is impossible for me to not root for stupid people to feel the repercussions of their stupidity.
I think that's the component of free speech that everyone forgets about...
You have the right to say whatever you like... but you're also free to deal with the consequences of what you say.
I don't think that people don't understand that. I think everyone's pretty much on board with that being the case.
Well, all sane, not stupid people.
The problem is that the media landscape is made of a monocultural, self-selected group of individuals who have similar reactions to stimuli based on similar backgrounds, similar education, and a self reinforcing employment strategy. Because they all tend to move in the same direction independently, it's very easy to confuse mass media response with what "everybody thinks."
Those employed in the media landscape really, fervently want to believe that they are both free to say whatever they like and that they are free of consequence for how they report things, how they structure stories, and how they say things – and only they are free of those consequences. As a result, if you look at the media as a proxy for what "everybody believes," you come away with an inherent falsehood.
I can almost guarantee that if you took a real survey of the people that live in Portland, you'd find that antifa and other activist groups are not very well thought of. You blocked the road, you impede business, and you make the city look bad – and people that live in the city don't like you much.
But don't expect to see any reporting on. That would be a violation of the monoculture.
I actually do live in Portland... and I can tell you that is definitely the case.
There was a similar situation the day after Trump was elected. There was this big 'Not my President' protest a couple of blocks from us... that was incredibly peaceful, until masked hoods interspersed with the protest and started smashing windows and wreaking cars. The march went past a car dealership and they wreaked everything... the dealership was obviously innocent... and the group who organised the protest were devastated because the destruction overshadowed all the press and their actual message was lost. People talked about it for weeks afterwards, and no one in any my groups shared any positive feelings towards the masked, hooded, baseball bat wielding "protestors".