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So I'm reading this and seeing, more than I previously have, how people--pretty much always the same types of people--fall for the idea of becoming revolutionaries and begin trajectories identical to those who came before. Call it the ideologues' do-si-do https://www.amazon.com/Tonight-Bombed-U-S-Capitol-Explosive/dp/1501170120
You know how this dance goes: protests, violence, breakdown of traditional units, give over the kids to be raised by the group (gotta show commitment!), poisonings (hey, Rajneeshees!), "communism didn't work bc they didn't do it right," Stalin, that old softie...
Reporting from Portland 2020, I sometimes privately told people, "I think people are building bombs in basements here." I don't think it's the journalist's place to put ideas in people's heads (as if), but anyone who knows about history/human nature deduces the trajectory
How this tension ratchets up requires more space than a tweet thread; I'll post a links at the end, but to begin: a small portion of the populace primed to revolt; local officials show active/passive support (in this case, bc they hated Trump) and then lose control they never had
Mayor Ted Wheeler for a long time either believed in the progressive cause or thought it the road to appeasement. When I wrote the following, I asked, what happens when *you* become the hate group? Now he knows https://reason.com/2019/02/12/portland-wants-to-ban-hate-groups-has-no/
This is from last night https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/04/mayor-ted-wheeler-extends-state-of-emergency-asks-public-to-help-unmask-violent-demonstrators.html
It's hard to see things getting better in the current climate. You'd need a massive groundswell of civic support for Wheeler/the police. I think the chances of this are low. Plus it only takes a few people committing violence to destabilize the city, which is of course the point
So, smart people, people better schooled in revolution that I: What happens on the ground now? Do they grow more ambitious than they were a decade ago, as I alluded to here? https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/good-luck-portland
I know, if not for a few years, several women like those in M19: educated, committed, willing to go on the offensive against what they see as injustice. You won't see them pelting the federal building with flaming trash, they will work more strategically, perhaps extralegally
One thing "Tonight We Bombed the Capitol" emphasizes is the alliances formed in the 70s/80s with groups already committing serious violence. I think people forget how many bombings there were then, how many gunfights and people murdered in the streets. JC let us not revisit this
But I think we are fooling ourselves if we don't see the current climate courting such behavior, people attracted to it saying, "We've tried everything else"; I've been told as much again and again, including in the lede here, it's always a lie. Try harder https://reason.com/2021/03/22/the-dream-of-the-90s-died-in-portland/
