Do Justice, Make Peace: Portland BLM Protests 4 Years On

On the 4th anniversary of the first day of my protest coverage, I’ve initiated a look back and my experiences in Portland with the BLM protests in July and August 2020. The coverage will be on my Substack (always free, though donations accepted!) but I’ll try to post reminders and excerpts here. From the first post:

Despite being a homebody, I did have a long history of participating in progressive protest. I had thought to support the protests from home, as best I could, and avoid the consequences of exacerbating my anxiety. But when the first stories came out in mid-July 2020 of police snatching individuals off the street without the niceties like Miranda warnings that are normally mandatory for a lawful arrest, I knew I had to act. Supporting from home no longer felt sufficient. It no longer even felt ethical for me.

Post contains pictures! Come look!

 

 

Focussing On Right Wing Violence After The Attack On Trump Is Not Irrational

Why hello, fellow friends! It is I, your friendly, neighbourhood Crip Dyke.

For various reasons, since 2020 I’ve migrated farther and farther from FTB. This does not mean I do not love FTB. I do! The factors leading me to post elsewhere more often are much more complex than simply liking another site or not liking this one. I keep saying that I’m going to post more over here — cross posting, at least — and then I keep failing to follow through. I dislike disappointing people, so I will stop promising that. I will continue to post rarely here, but not never. And you are always welcome at my new primary writing spots Wonkette (where, yes, I am a paid writer!) and another Pervert Justice, which is my own Substack (yes, with the same name). The other PJ remains much like this blog, but on a platform that mixes mild social media-esque features (“Notes” like Mastodon or BlueSky in that they are intended to be short thoughts and do not have many options for formatting, but they don’t technically have a character limit either, at least that I have found, and you know how I go on.) plus a bloggy feature for writings I intend to be taken more seriously (or at least that I hope will be read more widely) plus comments and discussions (both public and direct message “chat”).

And that is more than I originally intended to say. Even those features do not entirely explain why I have been posting here less, but they are part of that larger explanation.

In any case, I hope that some of you will be tempted to read Wonkette — more news commentary than news, though depending on how much news you read, they are timely enough that sometimes a Wonkette article may be early enough for it to be your first read on a topic — and to visit my alterna-digs.

The current post is on the same general topic as PZ’s exploration of the media’s insistence on bothsidesing supposedly violent rhetoric after the assassination attempt on Trump. For a number of reasons, this is asinine, and I hope to make a good many of those reasons clear in my post. Here, have a taste, and maybe that will entice you!

Trump built a violent house. He led a violent riot against his own VP, Mike Pence, in Republican-on-Republican violence. Liz Cheney has endured unending, gruesome threats, Republican-on-Republican threats, because the violent movement Trump built felt betrayed by her. There is currently a movement that endorses violence for political ends in the USA, and it is not one of the left.

There is much more, hopefully as thoughtful and useful as anything I’ve written here.

Be well, and I’ll see you around. If not here, then maybe on Substack or on FTB in the comments of Pharyngula, Stderr, Mano Singham, Affinity, or the other blogs I drop in on occasionally.