Facebook was the "Paul Revere" of the story: Antifa is coming, and the Minutemen were ready.
 |
| Minuteman |
America is seeing grassroots organic versions of direct action protests. There are two versions of it. One side has signs with messages calling for justice. The other side has guns, equally a message.
It is symmetric warfare in a country divided.
Southern Oregon hit the national news. NBC covered the story with this headline:
"In Klamath Falls, Oregon, victory declared over Antifa, which never showed up."
This was not a case of "a well regulated militia" nor was the town sheriff trying to raise a posse of sober town-folk. They were volunteers, on their own, responding to rumors of a threat.
Apparently it began with a white nationalist provocateur posing as Antifa saying he was plotting to "mess up" white communities. That was the match that lit a fire. A Facebook news group posted this:
"I’m not one to spread fake news, but there are two buses heading this way from Portland full of antifa members. They’re loaded with guns and bricks, and they’re going to destroy Klamath Falls. They’re going to murder police officers and they’re going to go to residential areas and they’re going to mess up the white neighborhoods."
The result was that two hundred volunteer citizens brought their guns to downtown Klamath Falls to protect it from an upcoming Black Lives Matter protest march.
Men buy AR-15 rifles for contingencies like this. America celebrates the notion of citizen soldier and defender. The sign-carrier protesters were peaceful, but It turns out there was, in fact, a bit of the confrontation. One gun carrier was arrested for disorderly conduct, a few others detained and released. The Chief of Police told local media, which was reported nationally, that the real problem was "mostly intoxication."
MSNBC reports that the event was live-streamed by the gun carriers, and that a website described this as a victory for townspeople with the headline "Antifa RETREATS from Suburb After Business Owner and Neighborhood Show Up With Guns."
NBC quoted the owner of a local bar:
"I have never felt a threat to my business as I did last night. Antifa didn’t make it to the courthouse and my bar had no incidents. Antifa walked into a hornet’s nest. It was like a sixth grade football team walking into the Oakland Coliseum to take on the Raiders. They were just trying to make a peaceful demonstration, and they ran into a fight."Rural rube frame. The frame of the story on NBC and in Slate was Klamath Falls gun carriers were foolishly pretending to have scared away a threat bourn of their own gullibility and imagination as they playacted as a western movie posse. They were dangerous vigilantes at worst; tipsy buffoons with guns at best, and the world is lucky that no one started shooting. Disaster narrowly avoided. Click
This is some truth in the picture, but it is not the only picture, and it is a dangerous notion for educated, urban Democrats to hold. It misunderstands the gun carrying counter-protesters, and therefore perceives them as political enemies and hardens them into that role. They think they are brave patriots, doing their duty. There is an American tradition of the citizen soldier, that ultimate backstop defender of our democracy when all else fails--the laws, the government, even the military. Town squares have statues of the minuteman, a gun in hand, a plow to his side. Such men are understood to be heroes.
That image of patriotic heroism is part of gun culture. They knew there was a good reason for buying that AR-15. The gun was a tool for a worthy duty. There will be exceptions, but most do not perceive themselves as racists defending racial injustice. They think they are the good guys, defending the lives and property of their community from vandals, looters, murderers, and anarchists.
They are white, but they cannot help that, and resent the implication they are fighting for whiteness. They are easy to mock, and they resent being mocked, with their motivations misunderstood and mischaracterized.
Like the people protesting carrying signs, they consider themselves patriots, doing the right thing, volunteers for America. In Klamath Falls they faced off. It turned out OK. This is a time when national leadership of unity would be useful for the country, but Trump is committed to the notion that this is a base election, and some on the left agree. Turn out your base. One does not motivate a base with empathy. It is done with suspicion and fear.
What could go wrong?
10 comments:
I appreciate the perspective.
One thing I’ve noted in the press coverage of this in Portland, for example, is an utter dearth of mention of Antifa. How did it just miraculously disappear after all the dumpster fires of Antifa/Patriot Prayer of the last few years?
Color me skeptical of the “journalism.” Which seems increasingly bent on conveying the “truth” it is sure it knows rather than the “facts” it could report. NPR is a major offender here, Peter, sorry to say.
This has been going on across the country. There are people who write about the dangers of antifa (usually the “enemy” they choose), and that they are headed towards a specific area. Happened in Washington state — with an owner of a gun store spreading this idea far and wide as something he trusted. (Later we heard that many in that town knew him as a problem.) The armed citizens headed for a town that was a target — and ended up terrorizing a mixed race family of parents, child and grandma. (Locals helped the family.)
And drinking was reported in at least one other area (where the “protectors” did hurt sone peaceful protestors), with seemingly new gun owners drinking heavily. What could go wrong? /s
I wish these incidents and the dishonest rabble-rousing would be spread far and wide, so that people with good intentions wouldn’t get taken in, at least being cautious about assuming there’s truly a problem.
"Antifa" is a sentiment, not an organization. An increasing number of people are concerned that the Republican party is becoming fascist. To wit:
"Fascism 1: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control..."
If the shoe fits...
These sentiments are mostly expressed online, attracting a number of individuals who then react in counter protest, sometimes in Ninja outfits. Because "Antifa" is not an actual organization it can also be co-opted by white supremacists in order to fear monger. Unfortunately, the recent demonstrations provided an opportunity for criminal behavior which has been attributed to "Antifa" by white supremacists online. This has been documented and seems to be what triggered the Klamath Falls response.
In the gun culture there is a subset of those who feel compelled to publicly display their weapons in order to feel virile. Marches and rallies provide that opportunity.
These folks would be of no consequence politically if it were not for the Republican party and the NRA that has cheered them on, promoting the notion that they are patriots, including the delusion that they could repel a military takeover.
Much more can be said about the mentality of rural America, but we'll save that for another time. The episode in Klamath Falls would be amusing, except for the guns.
"No Black Woman VP, No Show by Racial Justice Voters"
What fun over in Klamath Falls! I hate that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) upstaged our little "waiting for Guffman" drama with the Seattle forced occupation of an entire neighborhood by a chaotic coalition of Antifa and Black Lives Matter! If only CHAZ weren't a virtual GOP voter enthusiasm machine, then it would be fun too.
Although the GOP includes the most virulent racist Black haters, our party remains secure as America's stronghold of systemic racism. Our bluest New York City maintains the most segregated schools and neighborhoods for African Americans. Dixie and Jim Crow were unchallenged in Democratic strongholds until the 1970s when it became taboo to openly use racial epithets. But systemic racism richly thrives in blue America and is quite comfortable co-existing with our lofty, liberal, egalitarian language. White parents in NYC, DC and San Francisco say they "wish" their kids could go to public schools but they are just too "substandard", and "would love" to be a part of a Black community, but would feel too guilty contributing to gentrification, so alas my friends were "forced" to live in the white enclaves of Manhattan rather than the Bronx, in DC's Dupont Circle rather than Anacostia, and in Nob Hill rather than, well as the movie says, where "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" lives.
If Black turnout is lackluster in November, we lose. Polls consistently show a "precarious enthusiasm gap". But because we are such thoroughly systemic racists, most of us don't insist that Biden name a black woman VP. We are so systematically deaf that less than half of Democrats told pollsters last week that it would "make any difference" to them if the Biden ticket is all male and all white. But Blacks, well that's different-- they care. 55 percent of Black voters said their enthusiasm will be diminished if the VP pick is not a black woman. Another 20 percent of Blacks said they aren't sure what to think of Biden if he doesn't pick a black woman. So what's the problem? It is that consultants say the most important criteria in VP selection is "chemistry" with the nominee, but Biden has no chemistry with Black women leaders. Obama picked him not because he was enlightened, but the opposite, to deliver the rust belt white male vote. Joe was Barrack's very white very male bro! By contrast, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren displayed open contempt for Biden during the primaries. Anita Hill has never been forgotten.
It still stings Blacks and women that our party in the year of the woman and pitched racial inclusiveness rhetoric ended up with Biden. Why? Because he was considered "safe", "the most electable", "the least risky" candidate. Systemic racists that we are, we just don't grasp that this is Democratic dog whistle for black and women candidates "aren't safe", are "less electable", and are "too risky". "If only we could have taken the chance", we somberly shake our heads, but don't worry "next time for sure"!
This kind of thinking in the Democratic party is the very definition of "institutional racism". And our base will have no "enthusiasm" for it.
If I thought the Portland activists were heading to my village, I'd try to bar the door, too.
I've lost patience with anti-racist activists breaking windows and screaming Black Lives Matter in a city that is 2.9% African American. If true blue Portland feels so strongly, why not invite tens of thousands of African Americans to take up residence? Finance their journey, help them buy homes and get jobs. Make a real change.
Maybe rescue them from Tulsa, with an African American population of 15.6%.
Thad,
It was black voters in South Carolina who handed the nomination to Biden. That seems inconsistent with your theory.
Two years ago, the 240-year-old American Academy of Arts and Sciences created a bipartisan commission to analyze the state of American democracy. The group has issued a report detailing 31 recommendations for how to strengthen it; google it.
Thad, so appreciate your take on racism. As Dorothy Roberts has said: "Racism isn't a product of race. Race is a product of racism...the very concept of race was INVENTED to create and enforce (sic) hierarchies." Most of us are captive to seeing race, particularly the color of someone's skin, when we talk about racism when what we need to see is that racism is an historic tool of exploitation. The democrats, as you rightly point out, are up to their ears in systemic racism.
As Rick points out, Anti-fa is not an organization. The media should just talk about "people who are against fascism"...which should be all of us...otherwise why did we fight WWII?
Anonymous,
I've lost patience with fascists looting our country over the decades and causing rampant death and destruction via systemically "acceptable" means. A few broken windows and stolen goods pale in comparison to the death and mayhem that systemic capitalist exploitation has wrought. Having said that, it's important to make the distinction between looters and protesters; they are not one in the same. In fact, I would venture to say that most of the looters are capitalizing on legitimate protests with even a few agent provocateurs thrown in the mix. I would also offer that mayors like DeBlasio are well aware that allowing the underclass, the marginalized, to blow off steam (especially on small business owners) is a small price to pay for over three trillion dollars in corporate bailouts.
Andy Seles
The Most Electable" is our Dog Whistle of Systemic Racism"The Most Electable" is our Dog Whistle of Systemic Racism
(In answer to Michael Trigoboff)
That Black South Carolina voters cast all their ballots for white men is a result not a validation of the systemic racism that wiped Blacks and women from our slate of leading candidates. Kamala Harris, a sitting US senator and former Attorney General of our largest state, was one of the most modern pure Americana presidential candidates to ever emerge from our party. A multi-racial crowd of 20,000 turned out for her Oakland campaign launch. Yet on December 3, 2019 before the first caucus or primary was held, she was forced to drop out for a single reason: lack of money. She explained: “I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete. In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do."
I did not know, nor did this blog feature, a single Democrat for whom Biden was their preference. Instead, from the start Biden was promoted as "the most electable". Indeed, all of the "most electable" candidates were white males, and the polls and the money aligned accordingly. So by the time of South Carolina where Blacks got their first chance to have any meaningful say, the only financially viable candidates presented were white, and the top four were males:
Joe Biden 48.4%
Bernie Sanders 19.9%
Tom Steyer 11.3%
Pete Buttigieg 8.2%
Only structured and systemic racism within the society and the Democratic Party can produce this result. The very concept of "most electable" and media driving the polls and funding by perpetuating and pushing "the most electable", is systemic racism. "We need our white male to topple your racist white male even though we would prefer a woman of color" is as structurally racist as it gets.
We still have a chance to take a stand against systemic racism. Joe Biden has not yet been offered the nomination, there has been no convention. Like me pushing the systemic racism narrative by contributing to this blog, we can do something by demanding that our party and our delegates at the convention decline to nominate Joe Biden and to throw open the process with the absolute resolve that a Black woman like one of the following replace Biden:
1. Senator Kamala Harris of California
2. Stacey Abrams, former minority leader of Georgia legislature
3 Susan E. Rice, Former National Security Adviser
4. Val Demings, Congresswoman from Florida's 10th congressional district
4. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor of Atlanta
I am not willing to pretend that America is the same society and culture as it was before the murder of George Lloyd and a pandemic that targeted people of color. Our responsibility has changed. We must change and do it now.
Andy Seles says,
“ As Rick points out, Anti-fa is not an organization. The media should just talk about "people who are against fascism"...which should be all of us...otherwise why did we fight WWII?”
Call it what you will, is that how you see Antifa in Portland the last few years? Equivalent to fighting WWII?
Since the Soviets did most of the fighting, is that their equivalency?
Posted for John C
It's still early but there seems to be groundswell happening. Like sports - other companies are lining up to support BLM and the right to protest systemic injustice. They wouldn't do it if it weren't strategic. Starbucks - which has a rigid dress code lets employees wear their own protest gear, until Starbucks issues standard-issue protest/support gear. "Standard protest gear?".
T-Mobile, Disney, ABC and Papa John's has pulled all ad-buys from Tucker Carlson's show in spite of its big audience. T-Mobile is having employee all-hands (voluntary) listening meetings. Every business unit and department had an open forum where people shared their experiences and stories. People of color and non-white immigrants shared - sometimes scary stories of harassment and threats. There were over 400 people on one call. It was unscripted and sometimes pretty raw, but it was real. The company is doubling down to use its platform for change. With over 100 million customers and 80,000 employees, the leadership is right in thinking they must take a stand on something so fundamental to so many employees and customers.
Businesses are another bellwether to public sentiment.
By John C.
Post a Comment