Obviously I have Opinions™ on what needs to be said about the protests in Portland. I think they’re important and I couldn’t have come to that conclusion without thinking that certain specific things about the protests were important.
But honestly, these protests aren’t important at all unless they’re communicating something to people. Now, just photos of tear gas can inform us about the state of authoritarianism in US government, but there’s so much more to say, especially since general authoritarianism doesn’t tell us anything about the original goals of the movement: ending racism and racist violence in policing.
So of course I’ll continue to report, but I want y’all to get the information that is most meaningful to you. I genuinely care about what you want to know.
So, if you were going to the Portland protests, what would you investigate? What would you be trying to learn? What would you be looking to see?
in short, what can I tell you that you aren’t getting anyplace else?
Most requested/upvoted will get the highest priority, but I’m really going to try to get people everything on the list, if it’s in my power to do so.
Some previous suggestions from Wonkette’s comments where I’ve also been posting about the protests:
- Demographics, esp race.
- How much of the crowd is college students? How active are they? What about the olds?
- Any more co-opting by III% or Boogaloo Bungholes?
- I want to know if you’re OK, if you move been hurt by the feds and/or police
- if there’s anything we can do to help
- Part of me just wants to know all the little anecdotes.
- Another part of me wants to know what kinds of plans people are making to actually change things as we go forward – that includes holding the line on Trump et al invading cities like Portland, but more specifically, the issues around injustice and police brutality and ongoing systems on racism (sure, just a small basket of things, no trouble right?)
- I would like to know how it feels to participate in the protests, to be there?
You can suggest something totally new, or use these ideas as a take-off point, or just comment to give your +1 to one or more of them without adding your own creations.
It must be exhausting to not only be out protesting, but also reporting to your fans. (Legions of fans, I hope!)
I’m going to repost my question from your “Three offensives” post, in case you didn’t see it there:
I have seen a fair amount of coverage from the media, especially since it looks as if Chicago is next in the Tyrant’s sights. Apparently the mayor of Portland got gassed last night, so that is getting coverage as well.
I am curious about the mindset of the small group of people who are ripping off plywood from the building, setting fires, and (at least according to one article I read) breaking windows to provoke the feds. I see three possibilities, and I was wondering what your impressions were:
1) “I hate America and the federal government, so I will take any opportunity to attack it if I think I can get away with it.” This is the view taken of ALL the protesters by Trump and his cronies; of course, it also seems extremely unlikely.
2) “We are in a war of propaganda that is being fought with Snapchat videos. Videos of moms getting tear gassed does more to advance our cause than videos of peaceful protests, because nobody cares about peaceful protests, so we will provoke the feds to come out and get filmed committing atrocities until the nation backs us.” This seem to me to be the most likely mindset, which means the feds are being played like a piano by this group. It’s also stone cold — they’re basically using both the cops and the protesters as extras for their propaganda videos.
3) “The more conflict between different groups, the sooner civil society breaks down, which we hope will allow us to advance our agenda. Bring on the boogaloo!” Not terribly likely, because the boogaloo boys wouldn’t put themselves on the front lines without their precious guns, but still genuinely terrifying.
Questions noted! I’ll get to it, but not tonight.
I’ve been doing a ton of writing, and I honestly didn’t even know how to post videos to youtube before the protests, so there is some internet literacy learning going on as well. (It turns out that it is as simple as it seems, but we had an ISP problem that occurred literally at the moment I first tried to upload video, and not having done it before I was’t sure how long it was supposed to take, etc. Even after it was clear it was the internet connection, I couldn’t be sure whether or not it was the video upload that triggered the wonkiness. So I did a lot of ultimately irrelevant research.)
Altogether, it is a lot of work, and it has been pretty tiring, but I’m feeling pretty good today – much better than yesterday.
I’m getting a fair few upvotes on Wonkette, and there are always more readers than upvotes. I thought I was doing pretty well with 40 visitors an hour, but after PZ hyped my work it spiked to 350-ish / hour (peak 367) for about 4 hours, and stayed above 100/hour all day. Gotta slip him a thank you note.