The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

It's IMHO a variant of whataboutism. "Everyone did it since always, so let's stop talking about how it shaped our country and what it means for us today like it was anything special."

[garbon]

If Candance Owens is involved, no point in wasting your brain cells.

[Syt]

Not sure which thread to put this in, so let's place it here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/portland-oregon-clashes-protests-proud-boys-antifascist

Hundreds clash in Portland as Proud Boys rally descends into violence

Running street battle ends in gunfight after 'Summer of love' protest in a parking lot of a former Kmart store

A rightwing protest in Portland on Sunday has culminated in a gunfight, when antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.

The firefight took place in the heart of downtown Portland, soon after 6pm. As antifascists followed a man at a distance who they were trying to eject from the area, he took cover behind an electrical substation box, produced a handgun and opened fire. He fired at least two shots before an antifascist returned fire with their own handgun. At least seven shots were fired.

Portland police bureau confirmed that a man had been arrested over the shooting but did not have any information on any injuries.

The incident came after a day of protest descended into running clashes involving hundreds of protesters and counter protesters.

Earlier that afternoon, in the city's suburban east, Proud Boys discharged rounds from airsoft guns, while antifascists threw firework munitions, and both sides exchanged clouds of choking mace and countless blows in a chaotic running street battle that lasted the better part of an hour.

The earlier confrontation, which began around 4pm in the carpark of an abandoned Kmart where about 200 members of far-right groups had staged a rally billed as a "Summer of Love" event, eventually spilled out onto a busy arterial road and the carpark of nearby Parkrose high school.

It began when a group of around 30 antifascists – almost all clad in "black bloc" attire – walked past the rightwing rally at 4pm and Proud Boys gave chase. The forecourt of a neighboring gas station and a convenience store were soon racked by explosions and gas-propelled airsoft projectiles.

The two sides briefly disengaged at about 4.15pm, and street medics on both sides attended to participants who had been beaten, shot, or overcome by mace.

Soon, however, traffic was intermittently brought to a halt on busy NE 122nd Ave as the renewed battle stretched across the street and into the grounds of the high school.

There, Proud Boys set upon a small pick-up truck, smashing windows, slashing tires, scattering the vehicle's cargo of bottled water, and severely beating the male occupant.

When antifascists retreated from the carpark, Proud Boys erupted into chants of "Whose streets? Our streets!".

Back at the carpark, another vehicle was turned on its side and spraypainted with the letters "FAFO", an acronym for the Proud Boys catch cry, "Fuck Around and Find Out".

Returning from the high school at about 5pm, Proud Boys began to leave the rally venue. From a red pickup truck men fired airsoft guns at a small number of antifascists gathered at the entrance of the carpark, and then one of them trained his weapon at a group of reporters.

The Proud Boys announced their intention to cross the Columbia river, and the Washington state line, to regroup at a city park in Vancouver.

Even before the black-clad group arrived, the rally had already departed from its avowedly peaceful intentions after Proud Boys and other participants streamed away from the speakers platform – bedecked with a giant American flag and an 8ft replica of the Statue of Liberty – to confront a group of three women who were waving placards opposing the protest.

In downtown streets, and during the suburban fracas, Portland police were nowhere to be seen, until the exchange of fire near 2nd Street and Taylor brought forth dozens of officers in cruisers, who arrested the suspected gunman and blocked surrounding streets.

Asked about their absence in the Parkrose confrontation, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) repeated in an email the advice that police chief Chuck Lovell had given in the days leading up to the clashes.

"As the chief stated before the event today, people should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation", the spokesman wrote, adding that arrests may not be made in the moment, and may come in succeeding days.

Mayor urges protesters to 'choose love'

The 2pm rightwing rally in the city's outer north-east had been moved from its original venue on downtown Portland's waterfront to its suburban location after antifascists began publicly mobilizing to oppose it.

Many of those antifascists maintained their focus on the original planned location for the rightwing rally on Portland's downtown waterfront, with around 200 attending the site.

While those activists were watchful, but mostly peaceful in the early afternoon, at the fringes of the event, some people who fell under activists' suspicion were confronted, with one man on a bicycle being maced, and two street preachers from Kent, Washington, being chased from the vicinity of the park.

On Sunday, many proud boys were open-carrying handguns, and armed with batons, bottles of chemical spray, and baseball bats, while at least one man carried a pickaxe handle emblazoned with the Proud Boys insignia.

In the lead-up to the rallies, Portland mayor Ted Wheeler, other elected officials, and a number of progressive nonprofits urged protesters to "choose love" in a virtual rally and press conferences.

One of those nonprofits is the Western States Center. In a press release issued following the day's events, that organization's executive director, Eric Ward, demanded that "elected leaders from our neighboring jurisdictions, our state and our federal government" assist in helping Portland deal with the far-right incursions into the city which have recurred since the beginning of the Trump era.

"The idea that Portland, or any city, can single handedly defeat white nationalism is a fallacy", Ward added.

[Sheilbh]

Really enjoyed breakfast TV looking at warning signs your kid's an incel:
https://twitter.com/austerity_sucks/status/1429530311189221380?s=21

[Josquius]

I mean, it is This Morning and there's some valid points in there.
This is definitely something we need to pay more attention to in the UK. The white far right is a far bigger threat than the Islamic far right.

[Malthus]

Really enjoyed breakfast TV looking at warning signs your kid's an incel:
https://twitter.com/austerity_sucks/status/1429530311189221380?s=21

Problem is that going after internet buzz words that are popular with teens has the potential to backfire spectacularly.

This has some of the feeling of 'signs your kid may be becoming a dangerous hippie - like Charles Manson - if you catch him saying "cool" or "right on".

Problem is that it is difficult to tell the difference between (a) the kid is becoming sucked into a hardcore and harmful ideology; or (b) the kid is picking up on terms that are just becoming common currency among his generation ("based" or "cringe").

Kids always do stuff disliked by their elders. It's a way of asserting their own identity. In the past, it was based more on appearance - dressing either too provocatively or too 'punk' - and now, in the era of the Internet, with memes and language.

[Razgovory]

What does "based" mean?

[Valmy]

It's IMHO a variant of whataboutism. "Everyone did it since always, so let's stop talking about how it shaped our country and what it means for us today like it was anything special."

It is this weird conspiratory thing where they pretend there is this propaganda that only white people in the United States ever did slavery and the brave conservatives need to expose the lie!!! I went to shitty public school in the US and it was certainly mentioned how slavery existed in other places, we did do world history.

[Valmy]

Languish may know all that but the general public often have a more simplistic view on the history of slavery.

Or more specifically just doesn't care unless it impacts their lives directly, like most people.

[Valmy]

What does "based" mean?

Well back in my day, the ancient times of the 80s and 90s, it meant you were addicted to crack. You were freebasing cocaine and shit.

Now it means you are anti-woke basically, or at least a "free thinker" who rejects the main stream media propaganda lies like a non-flat earth or vaccines aren't an automatic death sentence.

[The Brain]

Heaven forbid you accept your kid as an incel. Incels can adopt, can't they?

[Valmy]

Heaven forbid you accept your kid as an incel. Incels can adopt, can't they?

Depends. Not being able to get laid or find a partner despite making an honest effort is one thing. Identifying as an Incel with all the self loathing and misanthropy that goes along with that is something else.

[The Brain]

Heaven forbid you accept your kid as an incel. Incels can adopt, can't they?

Depends. Not being able to get laid or find a partner despite making an honest effort is one thing. Identifying as an Incel with all the self loathing and misanthropy that goes along with that is something else.

You don't sound like a cool adult.

[Josquius]

Yeah, being an incel is far more about the beliefs than the actual involuntary celibacy.

[The Brain]

I wouldn't be surprised if ex-incels are way more likely to commit spousal abuse. Be careful what you wish for.