These noble anti-fascists needed to make a statement that fascists weren't welcome in this neighborhood. The anti-fascists therefore showed up to the same neighborhood to break windows and graffiti tag. Sort of like marking your territory by pissing on it.
FIRST: people showing up for this rally can't be pranked... it's a show of support for a welcome ideal whether or not the other side actually had a rally.
SECOND: some of the marchers vandalized/tagged my apartment building, of which i have photos if anyone at the stranger is interested.
Thank you Stranger and kudos for you calling attention to a very real threat. The fact that Hammerskins and KKK members exist here in the Northwest is not a hoax and its about time other Seattle media responsibly reported on this issue. I find it very disturbing mainstream Seattle media "reports" are absent of the name Hammerskins and appear to focus more on demonizing the anti fascists. Five hundred people gathering on for a counter protest is a strong community statement.
At least white supremecists know that they're not welcome in Seattle, whether they saw it in person or not.
I'd still rather have a little graffiti in our ever cleaner, wealthier and more homogenized city than white supremecists coming in to commit hate crimes.
Thanks for what? For disseminating an e-mail rumor and whipping its (dwindling) readership into a frenzy, while doing so little actual journalism before, during, or since the weekend that we still have no idea how this episode began, what did or didn't occur where, or why a "pro-unity" "counter-rally" (that may not have been countering anything) was marked by destructive tendencies.
All Sydney and Ansel appear to have accomplished is to further reinforce an expectation of scrutiny-free kudos for the brainsucking idiocracy that is our region's "youth activist scene", that loose federation of (almost entirely white) kids who believe informational accuracy and articulable political aims are beneath them, as long as they can run around kicking over trash cans while holding signs proclaiming values that every compassionate person on the face of the planet holds as well.
Dear clueless social justice blogger,
re: the broken windows and graffiti; these guys probably fall under the generic category of anarchists. This is old news; see the wto riots. For further reading check out John Zerzan, Derrick Jensen, or even Chris Hedges work; they explain why property damage is encouraged in these circles. If you have the fortitude to visit the next-gen, white race enthusiast websites [they now refer to themselves as the alt-right] you'll see that they regularly pull hoaxes on the media and SJW crowd. They recently hoaxed the mizzou protesters with reports of armed kkk members on campus which ended up spiraling out of control. These guys arent ex-con skinheads; they're programmers, engineers and hacker types. One of the most notorious hackers out there, "Weev" is one of them. I regularly geek out by following edgy, radical political groups and their propaganda/philosophy. The shit gets pretty dark.
We won. The racists lost. All these unverifiable anonymous Internet taunts amount to so much sour grapes. You sad sacks would piss yourselves if you could manage to get one tenth the number of people to turn out for your big annual event as turned out against you on the mere *rumor* you would show your faces. Imagine how big the counter demonstration would have been if a white supremacist rally was confirmed to be happening.
Just the fact that we came together against you makes us stronger.
@10, who has a valid point about misplaced energies at a time when fascist tendencies pervade the entire Republican presidential field? @12, who made a harmless joke about a typographical matter?
I've never seen "robot ghost"'s handle before, but if he's the new public face of the Fascist enemy that you seem to think, he's probably going to have to try a little harder to be, like, scary or something. Methodological needling probably won't cut it.
Half of this thread is just here to rah-rah this hollow, credibility-free "victory", while the other half is weeping for the state of the young Left, if this is what passes for solidarity and systemic agitation around these parts.
Funny how not one other person seems perturbed that we aren't well enough informed that we could even have a worthwhile discussion of the implications of this weekend.
Does no one remember real journalism anymore? Its body is barely cold!
Misplaced energies. People who leave the house and do actual things don't give a shit about what shut-in Internet know-it-alls think they should do with their energies.
Hundreds of people standing against white supremacist thugs in the streets means something. Whether white supremacist supporters like it or not. There have been attacks on gay people and others on the streets of capitol hill by these racist thugs previously which is largely being ignored by the mainstream press which primarily serves the status quo.
The hammer skins didn’t show up because they are cowards. They don’t like even odds or bigger odds. They like to beat up single, vulnerable people on the street like the homeless. They like to make threats over the internet which amount to empty bragging about what they would like to do but aren’t emboldened because they have too many enemies that would fight back. Incidentally, they chose to try to meet/perform in ballard (and they were hiding because they are afraid of the public) thinking that white people there would cover for them. Notice that they chose not to come to the central area or south end? They chose not to because they are afraid there might be more severe consequences for their racist intrusions. They were stopped and will continue to be stopped by antifascist forces. Whether people wore masks or not is beside the point it does not mean they were afraid of these thugs. Also it is very important that white people make a stand against fascism now because Trump et al are using racism and classism etc. to divide us. An injury to one is an injury to all.
"That's specious reasoning Dad."
"Thank you, sweetie."
"Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers?"
"Uh-huh, and how does it work?
"It doesn't work, it's just a stupid rock"
"I see."
"But you don't see any tigers around, do you?"
"Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock."
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the gathering of Hammer Skins was no hoax. They probably had their little show in an empty Ballard warehouse. Maybe they were scared off by several hundred anti fascists so didn't go to the hill as planned.
Or maybe they didn't go to the Hill because the public transit is notoriously difficult on Sunday nights.
Or maybe the irrelevant t-shirt hate bands played past their allotted time, and the barely "few dozen" inconsequential members of a dying hate group got too distracted to continue on their hate pub crawl. (Those guys aren't especially bright, as you might have guessed.)
Or maybe they just took advantage of a palpable vacuum of logic and reason to stir up some generalized chaos and ill will, so as to bask in a momentary illusion of importance. Which is strangely not all that different than what "Rose City Antifa" seem to have been doing.
SECOND: some of the marchers vandalized/tagged my apartment building, of which i have photos if anyone at the stranger is interested.
I'd still rather have a little graffiti in our ever cleaner, wealthier and more homogenized city than white supremecists coming in to commit hate crimes.
Which is your neighborhood?
Thanks for what? For disseminating an e-mail rumor and whipping its (dwindling) readership into a frenzy, while doing so little actual journalism before, during, or since the weekend that we still have no idea how this episode began, what did or didn't occur where, or why a "pro-unity" "counter-rally" (that may not have been countering anything) was marked by destructive tendencies.
All Sydney and Ansel appear to have accomplished is to further reinforce an expectation of scrutiny-free kudos for the brainsucking idiocracy that is our region's "youth activist scene", that loose federation of (almost entirely white) kids who believe informational accuracy and articulable political aims are beneath them, as long as they can run around kicking over trash cans while holding signs proclaiming values that every compassionate person on the face of the planet holds as well.
re: the broken windows and graffiti; these guys probably fall under the generic category of anarchists. This is old news; see the wto riots. For further reading check out John Zerzan, Derrick Jensen, or even Chris Hedges work; they explain why property damage is encouraged in these circles. If you have the fortitude to visit the next-gen, white race enthusiast websites [they now refer to themselves as the alt-right] you'll see that they regularly pull hoaxes on the media and SJW crowd. They recently hoaxed the mizzou protesters with reports of armed kkk members on campus which ended up spiraling out of control. These guys arent ex-con skinheads; they're programmers, engineers and hacker types. One of the most notorious hackers out there, "Weev" is one of them. I regularly geek out by following edgy, radical political groups and their propaganda/philosophy. The shit gets pretty dark.
We won. The racists lost. All these unverifiable anonymous Internet taunts amount to so much sour grapes. You sad sacks would piss yourselves if you could manage to get one tenth the number of people to turn out for your big annual event as turned out against you on the mere *rumor* you would show your faces. Imagine how big the counter demonstration would have been if a white supremacist rally was confirmed to be happening.
Just the fact that we came together against you makes us stronger.
@10, who has a valid point about misplaced energies at a time when fascist tendencies pervade the entire Republican presidential field? @12, who made a harmless joke about a typographical matter?
I've never seen "robot ghost"'s handle before, but if he's the new public face of the Fascist enemy that you seem to think, he's probably going to have to try a little harder to be, like, scary or something. Methodological needling probably won't cut it.
Half of this thread is just here to rah-rah this hollow, credibility-free "victory", while the other half is weeping for the state of the young Left, if this is what passes for solidarity and systemic agitation around these parts.
Funny how not one other person seems perturbed that we aren't well enough informed that we could even have a worthwhile discussion of the implications of this weekend.
Does no one remember real journalism anymore? Its body is barely cold!
Oh, and then you gloated on Slog.
Way to move zero societal needles anywhere.
Seems like a lot less risk, since it is not illegal to declare a fake fascist rally.
The hammer skins didn’t show up because they are cowards. They don’t like even odds or bigger odds. They like to beat up single, vulnerable people on the street like the homeless. They like to make threats over the internet which amount to empty bragging about what they would like to do but aren’t emboldened because they have too many enemies that would fight back. Incidentally, they chose to try to meet/perform in ballard (and they were hiding because they are afraid of the public) thinking that white people there would cover for them. Notice that they chose not to come to the central area or south end? They chose not to because they are afraid there might be more severe consequences for their racist intrusions. They were stopped and will continue to be stopped by antifascist forces. Whether people wore masks or not is beside the point it does not mean they were afraid of these thugs. Also it is very important that white people make a stand against fascism now because Trump et al are using racism and classism etc. to divide us. An injury to one is an injury to all.
"Thank you, sweetie."
"Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers?"
"Uh-huh, and how does it work?
"It doesn't work, it's just a stupid rock"
"I see."
"But you don't see any tigers around, do you?"
"Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock."
Or maybe the irrelevant t-shirt hate bands played past their allotted time, and the barely "few dozen" inconsequential members of a dying hate group got too distracted to continue on their hate pub crawl. (Those guys aren't especially bright, as you might have guessed.)
Or maybe they just took advantage of a palpable vacuum of logic and reason to stir up some generalized chaos and ill will, so as to bask in a momentary illusion of importance. Which is strangely not all that different than what "Rose City Antifa" seem to have been doing.
Regardless, Theodore's Simpsons reference is correct: Specious reasoning. Questionable impacts. Debatable prioritization.