Friend: "Yeah, but this is an ideological conflict. What types of people & ideologies come together in a moment like this to..."

Me, cutting him off: "My only ideology in this moment right now is, 'do not burn my stuff.' It's on that low a level at this point, which is a "

I can grasp & nod along with all kinds of talk of stolen labor & reparations & diversity of tactics & on & on. But when I see people's stuff on fire everywhere, & think "wow that could be my stuff that my family & community depend on for basic life functioning", it hits different

I won't tolerate fascism, won't have communism, & in general I have my opinions on the isms I like or don't like. But right now? I'm lately real heavy into "just don't burn my stuff"-ism, which is one of the most primitive, uncomplicated isms you can be into. The Old Gods, sorta.

This thread is a warning to every bluecheck & egghead who thinks we're in some abstract battle of narratives, some ideological conflict in a discursive space.

No, guys, that was LAST week.

This week we're getting down to "Hey that's mine. Don't you burn it."

Maybe if we called the phenomenon of burning people's stuff "mob asset forfeiture", on the model of "civil asset forfeiture", we could get some more people to come out strongly against it.

"It's like cops taking your stuff, but a mob burns it instead of auctioning it off."

Yes. This is what's dangerous. There are supposed to be all sorts of ideological lines for me to navigate. But I'm getting cornered in a place where there's only 1 line: btwn "People ok w/ Jon's stuff burning" & "People NOT ok w/ Jon's stuff burning." https://twitter.com/trapc45/status/1299439396618461186

How much of this "people ok with burning Jon's stuff" threat is real vs. how much is social media? Hard to tell, really. But I know this for certain: it was all a bunch of social media hype for the residents of Kenosha, WI up until the night it wasn't.