Trump Inauguration Protests

[JackRiddler]

"Protestor" provacateurs running amok in DC on inauguration day.
Black-clad vandals breaking windows, reported on NPR and BBC.

https://mobile.twitter.com/BBCBreaking/ ... 49/video/1

Coppers fighting coppers. Another kayfabe.

[American Dream]

I used to be very quick to accuse black bloc people of being cops, because I didn't agree with what they were doing. Now I think provocateurs in balaclavas burning up newsstands is a possibility, but that we'll know when we know.

I still raise my eyebrows at some/most of the insurrectionary culture in the U.S. but it's hard for me to be as down on the recent Gasolinazo in Mexico, for example.

[JackRiddler]

I used to be very quick to accuse black bloc people of being cops, because I didn't agree with what they were doing. Now I think provocateurs in balaclavas burning up newsstands is a possibility, but that we'll know when we know.

I still raise my eyebrows at some/most of the insurrectionary culture in the U.S. but it's hard for me to be as down on the recent Gasolinazo in Mexico, for example.

It's the difference between an angry neighborhood crowd whose lives are being directly and violently attacked and someone who thinks he's Anarchist Batman acting out for the media attention even though it's known all this ever accomplishes is to be used as propaganda to tar the non-violent protesters who outnumber his group by 100:1.

.

[American Dream]

Yes, agreed. There can be a stronger affective dimension to the stereotypical "manarchist" in North America's insurrectionary acts: sometimes it feels so good to throw that brick through that window. Would that their strategic sensibilities were just as strong.

It is also the lost militance of the white masses here in Gringolandia that also makes such acts easy justification for police repression. In Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Brazil, etc there is much more popular support for expropriation and other such militant actions.

I used to be very quick to accuse black bloc people of being cops, because I didn't agree with what they were doing. Now I think provocateurs in balaclavas burning up newsstands is a possibility, but that we'll know when we know.

I still raise my eyebrows at some/most of the insurrectionary culture in the U.S. but it's hard for me to be as down on the recent Gasolinazo in Mexico, for example.

It's the difference between an angry neighborhood crowd whose lives are being directly and violently attacked and someone who thinks he's Anarchist Batman acting out for the media attention even though it's known all this ever accomplishes is to be used as propaganda to tar the non-violent protesters who outnumber his group by 100:1.

.

[JackRiddler]

One doesn't have to go to Mexico, Ferguson is already quite the contrasting example.

Agreed on the need to deal with the precious sensibilities not just of a reactionary press but of a large chunk of the public here. Not that I justify the show-boat vandalism in any way, to be truthful. It's stupid and wrong. It is usually preceded by a paramilitary police escalation, but still makes no sense given that context.

[Luther Blissett]

I marched today and it was a great showing despite the rain and chill, black and brown faces and voices to the front and on the microphones, antifa there ready to step in case the cops got handsy, the cops allowing a small delegation of us to march non-permitted in the streets to meet up with the larger group of organizers, a couple other RI posters in the crowd, and lots of encouraging passion from the young people ready to work before this administration even is.

No violence in our city today, at least not as far as I saw.

But I've been defending the diversity of tactics elsewhere, if that is what it is, with that Turé quote. Plus, Wombat, there will be fascists out in the streets, just like there was in DC today, that require some confrontation.



Plus, the image of that limo is so fucking beautiful, isn't it? Even if it was a cop that did it?

[Project Willow]

The violence of "liberals" I find quite disturbing, but not surprising.

http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/man-sho ... /486520649

People, Milo has different political views than you, you are not "liberal" if you do not allow him to speak.

How quickly ideals collapse when perceived survival is at stake. Here we see in real time how societies degenerate into authoritarianism. It comes from all sides, motivated by blind fear.

I posted this on FB tonight. It feels strange. I've always been eager to protest, and I do indeed hope to see a massive turnout tomorrow, but I cannot bring myself to participate. Not this time.

I marched against the WTO in 1999, and the Iraq war in 2003, but my pussy and clit hats are staying home with me tomorrow. If there were a march against elite trafficking (among all political persuasions) and US human experimentation, I’d be there. If there were a march against the Deep State, I’d be there. If there were a march against (domestic!) election rigging, I’d be there. If there were a march against US imperialism, neoliberalism, 8 years of war under Obama, I’d be there. Yet none of these issues seem to have mattered much to the vast majority of people who are gathering tomorrow. It doesn’t sit right with me to be crying foul when the crimes of the US state have been ongoing all this time, with the people who were paid with tax money to torture me still free and operating, to suddenly take to the streets in outrage.

There is also a growing authoritarianism among liberals that in some cases is matching the blind rage and violence of the extreme right. I’ve watched a steady stream of scapegoating vitriol, driven by fear and sculpted by mainstream propaganda, directed towards people like me. I’ve received private messages asking me to take down articles I’ve shared, accusing me of supporting the US’s perceived enemies. I fear that if I raised my voice in the crowd about the truth of my own experience and my views about our country, I could not be certain of my safety.

My war is not with struggling citizens who, in misguided rebellion, voted for Trump. I do not accept that the majority of them were driven by hatred. My war is not with one figurehead, however sociopathic. Sociopaths wear many faces, sometimes they wear calm, clever, caring masks. Sometimes they carry the banner of feminism. I understand the fear of being governed by a sociopath. I grew up with them, at home, and in the labs. It is terrifying, but fear renders you ripe for manipulation and vulnerable to all number of behavioral and strategic blunders. If there were a march against succumbing to fear, I’d be there.

My protest is against those who pull the wool over the people’s eyes, through kindly seeming figureheads and media manipulation, who keep us falsely divided and hateful towards each other, so our anger never reaches the real centers of power. If and when there is a great awakening, and the outrage is focused not on figureheads, or the symbols of our problems, but the entirety of the system, nudge me, and I will join you in the streets.

[SonicG]

And under the paving stones of the street, the beach...Yes...there can no longer be a critique of the whole spectacle because it has finally consumed every inch of the planet...Trump is like an orange loogie it hacked out one morning...

[Nordic]

So I'm assuming those fires were caused by Hillary supporters finally immolating their "I'm With Her" swag?

[Nordic]

The violence of "liberals" I find quite disturbing, but not surprising.

http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/man-sho ... /486520649

People, Milo has different political views than you, you are not "liberal" if you do not allow him to speak.

How quickly ideals collapse when perceived survival is at stake. Here we see in real time how societies degenerate into authoritarianism. It comes from all sides, motivated by blind fear.

I posted this on FB tonight. It feels strange. I've always been eager to protest, and I do indeed hope to see a massive turnout tomorrow, but I cannot bring myself to participate. Not this time.

I marched against the WTO in 1999, and the Iraq war in 2003, but my pussy and clit hats are staying home with me tomorrow. If there were a march against elite trafficking (among all political persuasions) and US human experimentation, I’d be there. If there were a march against the Deep State, I’d be there. If there were a march against (domestic!) election rigging, I’d be there. If there were a march against US imperialism, neoliberalism, 8 years of war under Obama, I’d be there. Yet none of these issues seem to have mattered much to the vast majority of people who are gathering tomorrow. It doesn’t sit right with me to be crying foul when the crimes of the US state have been ongoing all this time, with the people who were paid with tax money to torture me still free and operating, to suddenly take to the streets in outrage.

There is also a growing authoritarianism among liberals that in some cases is matching the blind rage and violence of the extreme right. I’ve watched a steady stream of scapegoating vitriol, driven by fear and sculpted by mainstream propaganda, directed towards people like me. I’ve received private messages asking me to take down articles I’ve shared, accusing me of supporting the US’s perceived enemies. I fear that if I raised my voice in the crowd about the truth of my own experience and my views about our country, I could not be certain of my safety.

My war is not with struggling citizens who, in misguided rebellion, voted for Trump. I do not accept that the majority of them were driven by hatred. My war is not with one figurehead, however sociopathic. Sociopaths wear many faces, sometimes they wear calm, clever, caring masks. Sometimes they carry the banner of feminism. I understand the fear of being governed by a sociopath. I grew up with them, at home, and in the labs. It is terrifying, but fear renders you ripe for manipulation and vulnerable to all number of behavioral and strategic blunders. If there were a march against succumbing to fear, I’d be there.

My protest is against those who pull the wool over the people’s eyes, through kindly seeming figureheads and media manipulation, who keep us falsely divided and hateful towards each other, so our anger never reaches the real centers of power. If and when there is a great awakening, and the outrage is focused not on figureheads, or the symbols of our problems, but the entirety of the system, nudge me, and I will join you in the streets.

Damn, Willow, that is powerful. Thanks for writing that.

[jakell]

Felt compelled to log in just to snatch this animated gif.

Beautiful isn't it?... all the more so for being on a loop (porn)

[coffin_dodger]

One can only hope that the image of violence displayed here, to be enjoyed by good liberals everywhere, is not a portent of what is to come. Though a sense of irony would be appropriate - if it were to escalate from subjective to objective for those that revel in its base depravity.
Welcome to the country you crave.

[Sounder]

People that sucker punch others are generally creeps.

So we have a member here that see's fit to put, on a loop no less, an equivalent to the statement; I'm a creep, I'm a creep.

And this does what for the cause of 'anti-fascism'?

[Luther Blissett]

Some people would like to prevent mass murder.

[Blue]

Poor Richard Spencer. But nice try to smear the left as violent creeps.

Spencer's words:

Atlantic magazine, which is recording footage of Spencer for a documentary, published a video of the same event showing audience members apparently giving the Nazi salute.
"Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!" Spencer declared.
His remarks then were filled with racist imagery -- including references to "the black political machines" and Latino housekeepers -- as he bashed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's minority supporters.

Spencer denied being a white supremacist in a December 2016 interview with Ganim. But, in that interview he said, "Only white people can support what we call Western civilization." He also has said there should be a "peaceful ethnic cleansing," meaning individuals not of European descent should voluntarily leave the United States.