Hi there. As you know, I wandered undercover around the Salem rally today. Little/nothing exciting happened while I was there, but I learned stuff about the current far-right mood

Tl;dr: they're waiting to see how the legal battle turns out. No big insurrection vibes currently
If I had to sum up the current far-right logic it would be as follows:

1. As freedom-loving Americans, we would accept Biden as president as long as the election was fair

2. The election was not fair, there was massive voter fraud in every state including Oregon
3. Since the election was unfair, Trump's legal challenges will fix things

4. If they don't fix things, we can't accept these results. We have been very patient but we can't allow democracy to die

What #4 actually looks like in practice remains to be seen
As long as the legal battles rage, I predict you'll see this kind of attitude. People showing up to far right rallies, pissed off about the "stolen" election, but believing things will work out in the end once the judicial system weighs in
Until the legal challenges to the election results end, I predict we'll see basically this level and type of activity. Maybe escalation over time but then again, maybe not
I definitely saw a lot of hostility towards press today, and apparently Vancouver was worse. That could also escalate as the media continues to insist on reporting, like, election results

Press should be extra careful right now. I certainly will be https://twitter.com/shane_burley1/status/1325222974639628288?s=19
I'm not getting a strong insurrectionary vibe right now. Salem focused on dislike of Antifa, as they have for years

Reality has shifted and none of us have quite caught up yet. Everything remains in flux

It'll be interesting to see how attitudes evolve over the next few weeks
Anyway it looks like a dance party downtown and I hope everyone is having fun! I'm gonna eat some soup dumplings and go through footage

Solidarity with everyone still out here ✊
(link to my Salem coverage tweet thread:) https://twitter.com/1misanthrophile/status/1325175352994402304?s=19
You can follow @LauraJedeed.
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