So I’ve seen this thought process more than once.
Context: Hey X person… what do you think about Portland?
“Oh god… I have a {sister, brother, nephew, niece, close family member, lifetime friend} who lives there and they are telling me that the {anarchists, socialists, antifa, BLM/Soros forces} all come out past eleven when the normal people go home to cause riots / havoc / pull down statues / ATTACK federal officers.”
{Show them video of 45’s mercenary troops beating the ever-loving fuck out of kids, moms and journalists}
“Oh god, those monsters…. see what those monstrous {antifa, BLM/Soros forces, socialists, anarchists} caused?!?”
Look, buddy, that’s not protestors I see up on the screen or in the commentaries or depositions or interviews beating people up. That would be 45’s troops!
“They wouldn’t have DONE it if Antifa hadn’t started first!”
Bullshit. That’s the cry of the abuser: you started it first. There is no criminal activity where suddenly everyone’s rights are suspended due to mere -proximity-. Certainly no property crime.
Even “assaulting an officer”. You don’t get carte blanche to nuke the locals because someone hit your flak jacket with a bottle of coca-cola.
Boiling it down, into plainspeak…
A rogue armed force created by the executive branch consisting of several agencies under the Department of Homeland and paid mercenaries are currently being deployed to numerous cities to “restore order” without permission or state or local authorities OR definitive proof that there is really a situation that merits such an armed response.
In the first city that they arrived in, they hurt people. A lot. Targeted journalists and medics, people who weren’t even part of the group who were serving food.
No badges with identifiers. Dressed like soldiers. Used expired chemical munitions. Used “less than lethal” munitions in a deliberately lethal way.
None of the sides involved dispute the above facts. Ever. Conservative, liberal, OANN fucking propaganda. All agree that they did, are doing, and plan on doing this.
The argument from the conservative side is that they are justified in using overwhelming and horrifying force because some people started something somewhere.
They gas moms, kids, kidnap people off the streets, attack innocents because, somehow, the Bad Men disrupted “Law & Order”. They have to catch the Bad Men so that Law & Order can be Restored for the good of All.
The conclusion of everyone else with a pulse is that this is a move towards consolidating a dictatorship, seeing that this is the literal playbook. Historically, currently, through experts, through shrill-sounding writers and commentators and Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals.
It’s the goddamned playbook. It’s a textbook example.
I have friends in Portland who’s lives are at risk here.
The DHS declared that people who are in proximity –proximity– to a federal crime can be charged with giving aid to the “enemy”. Arrests can be proactive.
I need you to understand just how insanely fucking serious this is.
Proactive arrests. Making arrests before the citizen commits any sort of crime.
You want to step up, in the fight against white supremacy?
Now is that time. That ‘time’ in history you don’t want to be a part of. And it fucking sucks.
I’m begging you to step up for this.
Federal forces are assaulting protestors AND the public -regardless of whether they have done anything. And before anyone even raises this point, the federal forces are armed. People are not.
The terms the federal forces are OPENLY USING to hurt CIVILIANS are the exact same terms that abusers use to justify beating their victims.
This is the line.