Expectations vs. Reality – A personal reflection and response to a recent post

From Rose City Counter-info

If the authors of this piece were so concerned the anarchist fair held this weekend was “organized by anti maskers”, I think that actually seeing the event, even just for a bit, would’ve alleviated their fears.

I was there for a lot of the event, mostly in a mask, and experienced no anti-mask sentiment. Throughout the event, some people wore masks, including people tabling and leading workshops, while others were unmasked, depending on their individual circumstances, or what they were doing in the moment, etc. To me, this made sense for an open outdoors event where people had food and hot drinks throughout. Someone brought a whole table full of stuffies dressed up in little black masks to give out, and someone else had some n95s available for those who wanted.

The evidence of the anti-anti-masker (?) activists’ visit the night before was clear; there were two tags as far as I could see- “real (A)s wear masks” and “anti maskers fk off” as well as some liquid mixture of shit (literally!!!) poured on the basketball court and next to the playground. No one seemed to take any issue with the messages, and the big banner hung on the wall of the elementary school was lifted high enough to avoid covering the “anti maskers fk off” graffiti. The shit was another story.

Some folks covered up the poop liquid with mulch and barkchips from the school garden and playground, and they found traffic cones to mark off the places where it was poured, but no one could really clean it up safely. The whole day I watched people warn parents bringing their kids to play so they could try to keep the kids out of the poop puddles, but of course a few toddlers managed to get into the shit-mulch before someone noticed. To be clear, this is disgusting and unacceptable. Even if the attendees WERE anti maskers, pouring shit all over the ground where kids play every day, where it will remain all weekend, long after the event is over, shows a complete disregard for any critical thinking or basic ethics, just a single-minded obsession with this one cause at the expense of caring about LITERALLY anything else, no matter who it might harm. Inexcusable. Obviously, spreading poop on a playground isn’t at all clean, safe, healthy; that’s far far more likely to get someone sick than the actual event. The activists who did it said they “wanted to remind attendees we actually can protect us”, but who can you protect with poop and graffiti slogans? Why not give out masks or covid tests or vaccine information or talk to people or anything at all?

In reality, we protected each other by cleaning up their shitty mess. We learned how we can protect each other at the Narcan training and at the anti-repression strategy workshop. We worked through how to care for each other better in the discussion about mutual aid. The poop-and-painters, whatever their intentions were, didn’t protect anyone.

Later on in the afternoon, a few people started a fight with the fair which I’ll do my best to describe.r

I saw someone snatch several stacks of papers off a table and try to take them away, and someone else grabbed the stacks out of their hands. Then the first person yelled “Fuck you antimaskers!” and ran and flipped the fire pit. Someone wearing a helmet and big airsoft goggles pepper sprayed someone, which started a fight, and they (helmet + goggles) got shoved and hit by a bunch of people and pushed away from the fair into the playground. In the chaos, another fair attendee got pepper sprayed, but I didn’t see how it happened. In the end, there were three of them getting walked out of the park until they were across the street and left, while a lot of people were helping the folks who’d gotten hit with pepper spray. People came together to get water, soap and clean cloths to wash off pepper spray, to go talk to the confused parents and other people at the playground about what had happened, to clean up the fire pit and coals that got scattered, and generally get things back on schedule.

Before too long, the next workshop, about ageing as an anarchist, began with the person leading it asking (joking?) for the audience to let them know if any more people wearing helmets came up behind them.

Afterwards, I can’t help but think that those three, so ready to confront an antimasker event, would’ve seen what was happening at the fair when they first showed up, seen people wearing masks, and had a moment to rethink their assumptions before rushing in to pick a fight. What if they’d tried talking to folks about it first?

Anti-maskers, those who are against masks being worn, often violently so, are absolutely worthy of hostility, even violence. The reactionaries who yell at you for wearing a mask, call you “sheep” or worse, spit on people, try to rip masks off peoples’ faces – they cannot be tolerated. Anyone determined to exert such control over someone else’s bodily autonomy should be unwelcome anywhere. I don’t think there was anyone like that at the event, and I wonder if the anti-anti-mask activists even do. Is the label “antimasker” even being used honestly? Maybe the rhetoric has become so warped that to them an anti-masker is just anyone who is unmasked in the moment, no matter the circumstances? It would help to see some sort of proposal alongside simplistic slogans and provocations.

At the fair, a COVID discussion had been on the schedule all day, and ended up getting skipped over because of the pepper spray, which, somewhat ironically, happened during its assigned time slot. I wish that it hadn’t been left behind, because clearly there’s a need for more real discussion of what a consistent anarchist practice of care should look like. I’m not sure exactly what it must include, and while I know masking has a valuable part to play, I can’t imagine there’s any place for slinging shit and pepper spray at every gathering of anarchists eating together in a public park.

There are 43 Comments

It’s hopelessly incompetent that this arguing is happening in public channels y’all. But here we are. Nothing is real to this kind of activist unless they can get engagement on twitter. A space for local anarchists to hang out, eat, and exchange ideas is clearly secondary when a single zine and some opinions held by its organizers apparently! threatens their whole existence. You thought you were providing community but these smart cookies were there to let you know that you’re actually doing genocide. Friends, the people who engage in pouring SHIT in an area CHILDREN play in aren’t the type to be grounded in perspective or taken at face value. And doing this because some people weren’t wearing a mask at an outdoor fair and comparing their behavior to rape apologia is wild. It’s offensive. It doesn’t matter how many loaded terms you tack onto whatever the hell this was supposed to be, the call is literally coming from inside the house. I’ve been habitually harassed in public over my identity and never had someone involve shit or felt the need to involve mine. What are you doing. Does it really need to be pointed out to you that not masking outside carries less risk than children exposed to your shit? Because for me, it totally undermines everything you’re saying. Like, I would want you to figure out whatever is causing you to do that first and then get back to the rest of us. I would personally worry that if people started kicking out anyone that wasn’t wearing a mask at their events just for you, that might encourage you to start using shit at other actions.

Yes, this is gatekeeping our spaces from people who commit biohazard war crimes on friendlies for the sake of a night of twitter juice, or whatever it is they tell themselves in their group chat.

There are actual genocides happening. There are actual fascists to fight. There are threats. Right now, here and abroad. Yes, that includes COVID. Literally no one responding to this ridiculous behavior is arguing that. But none of that is happening in the space you attacked in a way that warranted how you attacked it. You can’t act surprised when you get your ass beat over it either. You may not have weighed the risk of the actions you took – competently anyway – but here’s a little perspective. People don’t know who you are or what you intend when you approach a space and start wrecking shit. It’s going to get a response though. And that response is not something you can draft and draft before you hit send tweet. It’s going to be fluid – in the moment. Taking someone’s sight is a potentially lethal threat and can trigger fight or flight. It doesn’t matter if your sorry ass popped off that pepper spray when you realized you bit off more than you could chew. No amount of whataboutism to back up a silly connection to transphobia changes that. No one is tallying the amount of punching they give terfs vs the amount of punching a trans person receives, its a non-sequitur. They have nothing to do with each other. That’s not how these situations work. In other words, the situation became violent because your behavior made it violent.

This is not the way to spend your time. And if you have such a big problem (has to be considering what you did!), then stop complaining about limited anarchist spaces and add a new one. If shit slinging is the type of conflict resolution you’d like your events to have, I’ll probably pass on it. I wouldn’t even shoplift with a group of people who support this level of unhinged behavior and rhetoric. But maybe people who are into spreading disease to prove a point about spreading disease would attend.

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https://rosecitycounterinfo.noblogs.org/2023/11/please-log-off-a-reflect...

yeah, acting like this is a great way to get shot! couldn't agree more

No anarchs use Twitter anymore, boomer brah. Save your QQ advice for your Dear MAGA Diary.

Also remember to wear a mask because you UGLY

Nah its good that at least some of this is in the light. The vast majority apart from some unhinged liberal losers from Portland are on our side. This event was very specific that this wasn't for these unhinged nutters, they show up anyway and got beat. This is pretty much literally how things should go from now on. And now that this has happened and most people our on our side others will be more apt to throw their own events in a similar way. And willing to beat the shit out of people who are obviously trying to disrupt events no matter if they are "trans" or what not.

Seriously good on the people who beat them up. Wish I could have been there to help, would have been fun.

We will continue to fuck your shit up. Set your fuckin watch to it! War (against transphobes, anti-maskers and rape apologists) is endless, and we will never stop.

Solidarity with our black, trans and disabled comrades!

Even though this is just an anews troll, the obvious issue here is they were in fact the ones who got "fucked up." By like 20 people mind you. What you think is gonna happen the next time they try that? Probably not walking away.

its is impossible to tell theses days between a troll, chatGBT, an "anarchist", an authoritarian asshole, or just a wingnut. there is way too much overlap.

if you dont wear a mask to be in solidarity with your disabled comrades and you commit genocide against them are you even an anarchist?

And it's embarrassing that the only place you see this rabid insistence on masking these days is at anarchist events. Your hyper-fixation on masking as the greatest threat to 'disabled comrades' would be laughable but it's clear you're absolutely serious in your claim that " it was fascists forces whom originally paved the path of COVID as a genocide since April 2020 through the blood of primarily Black and Indigenous disabled people, a road of bones which now many liberals and ableist anarchists goose-stomp on in collaboration with the fascists to maintain a “normal” for keeping bars and other viral-friendly entertainment operating at the expense of disabled lives." You're clearly desperate for attention and think that throwing a hysterical tantrum about "COVID genocide" is going to make people take you seriously. But we're all cringing and embarrassed for you.

From another of your hysterical screeds: "This was done against libertarians posing as anarchists whom avoid taking responsibility for the violence they have perpetrated by spreading SARS-CoV-2 and its strains without mitigation. Their violence follows the logic of settlers who unleashed smallpox on the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. " Oookay, edgey cringelord. Here's to you getting your ass beat again the next time you fuck with anarchists.

To the commenter who wrote -"Please Log Off – a reflection"

I applaud your decision to condemn the mentally ill anarcho-democrats who did this, but you are still perpetuating a falsehood. Covid has a 99%+ survival rate for healthy people under 75 yrs old. It is in no way a "genocide". The only possible way you can argue it is, is if you are arguing the likely scenario that covid was cooked up in a biolab in either Wuhan China or the US (under the guidance of the NIH & Fauci) and then accidentally leaked or intentionally released. Either way, the only ones who would be to blame for this are those who created it and those who ordered it to be created, i.e. Fauci, the US government who oversees the gain of function research, and the CCP. The average person who doesn't wear useless masks bares ZERO responsibility for this and you are just as deranged to claim we are committing genocide by not masking.

Anyways...

Sad to see that the mods at Anews are paternalistic democrats who believe in censorship. Yeah a bit of my comment you deleted was a inflammatory, but so what. Are the readers here 8 year old children who must avert their innocent little eyes away from a mean comment before mommy and daddy Mod can scrub it away? Pathetic...

Go away, fascist!

So true, it is disgraceful how Covid was politicized!

lolol everyone supports direct action until their shop window gets a bit dented, rofl!

i love how they dismiss the message on the grounds of "format, not content." Libruls m i rite?

those folks claiming anarchists are easy af to divide and get to choose sides may not be far off the mark!

I'm one of the people who fucked y'all shit up this weekend and I just wanted to pop in rq to let you know that I'D FUCKIN DO IT AGAIN BITCH!!

*pats head* we know, darling. cleaning up baby's poopies is what us mommies know we're in for when we give birth to cutsie wootsie widdle baby anarchists who think that wiping their poops all over common space is so vicious and violent, rawr! keep going, cutie! we actually love when you spread disease frfr by spreading poop where children play, love! a magnificent effort, poopsie woopsie! cheers to you!

"fucked y'all shit up" by making toddlers play in your poop and getting your ass beat lol

I wish there was video or at least a webcomic of these people getting knocked tf out and thrown out. I have major FOMO

As I stated before, go to an actual right wing event with real anti-maskers and try that. You won't, because you're a coward and you know they're going to beat the shit outta you. So you instead attack and intimidate people who you know won't fight back. I'm completely repulsed by mentally ill anarcho-liberals like you so I have absolutely no desire to be around you, but next time I hear about about any of you hypochondriac freaks having an event, I'm making a guest appearance with some of my anti-mask buddies. We'll be massless so you can come talk to us if you have an issue.

Idk what your endgame was but now if you show up anywhere else from now on people are (at the very least)going to violently remove you.
And I don't think this is a fight you want to pick.

Stay away from events, spaces, gatherings, music shows, talks, and anything else where you might run the risk of being removed.

Your actions led to small children getting into human shit while trying to play on a playground. How the fuck can anybody, especially people who so seriously want to stop the spread of illness, justify that?

huh, not to kinkshame but maybe we're all just playing into some weird masochist public humilation thing here...

Portland is full of white people pretending to be disabled so that they can receive more clout in their twisted social justice world. Anarchists there regularly attack other anarchists and many advocate for positions and politics more or less commensurate with forms of crypto fascism, or social democracy.

Anarchists elsewhere should avoid looking to pdx as a model or plqce interesting ideas or strategies can come from

ON the contrary... from the get go this looks like a fun battleground to battle liberal anarchoids. Catch me up sometime next year for a scene drama of epistemological proportions, hopefully!

I meant ESCHATOLOGICAL proportions!

Only a GOD can make mistakes. lol

its too bad these shit throwing mentally ill liberals didn't leave that action completely disabled. Hopefully next time, make sure there's no cameras around. Fully support anarchists disabling likely feds and nutjobs

as someone who is friends with and has worked with a lot of "nutjobs", fuck you 9:22.

also, simplifying people who are inappropriately violent as "likely feds" is also simplistic and not helpful.

you/we need different words for people who do fucked up things out of confusion or stupidity, not to lump them all under labels that are already demonized by those around us, and or general society.

Whats the difference? Seriously, does it matter if they are feds? Their entire point here is to stop actual anarchist events from happening. If they actually believe what they are doing is justified, they are mentally ill. It is not hard to come to that conclusion. If you don't like the word nutjob fine by me but in my mind, I want to weaponize every possible thing out there to alienate anyone like this forever from our spaces. I want them to feel totally uncomfortable and scared to be around. Enough is enough. Clearly something has to give if people won't even allow conversations about covid to happen. Clearly something is very wrong if people are throwing shit on a childrens playground.

Clearly theres something seriously fucked if anyone feels comfortable marching into an event and doing this in the first place. What kind of "movement" do we have if that is the case?

Maybe you are right, words whether offensive or not are cheap. These people would have been better served potentially walking away with permanent injuries.

I seem to recall a certain other group disrupting anarchist speaking events around the country literally one month ago. Both groups deranged if you ask me

Honestly not sure what you are referring to. Either way, anyone trying to stop anarchist events from happening should be immediately marginalized and made an example of. If you don't like something have a discussion, if that doesn't lead to your desired outcome than clearly whatever event it is isn't meant for you.

Lol, if this is referring to Block Cop City.
That was vocal arguing and disagreements in the public sphere.

No-one maced anyone, used biological warfare, smeared and slandered people as "fascists, libertarians, nazis" etc. (even though SOME tiqqunists/appelists/"post-insurrectionists" did baselessly call their critics antisemetic).

Also, if you want to call those speaking events "anarchist" you're fooling yourself.

Its true nobody used violence and that is not a small detail.

They did coordinate across the country to mimic Liberal talking points about an even they could have simply not gone to.

Also that one piece calls out structural antisemitism in the form of the conspiracy theory, which is different than calling people bigots directly.

Anyway, build your clique on sectarian squabbling, dont be surprised if insane people do the same to you. Glad the poop spreaders got beat up

I didn't think (((tiqqunists))) could outdo these poop-smearing basement-dwellers in laughable ridiculousness but here we are.

No one "coordinated across the country to mimic Liberal talking points about an even they could have simply not gone to," ya fucking nerd! It is (((you))) who coordinated across the country to host your pathetic little talk at anarchist book stores and events. It's fucking hilarious that you think anarchists raising criticisms of your grooming new activists into participating in an action without being honest about the risks "mimicking Liberal talking points" when the action was literally an NVDA, as liberal as it gets!

* Yes we know you're not a part of the cabal. We also know that you are all on the same signal threads circle-jerking over every new article gets published on Ill Will or each time a new struggle reaches public consciousness. Fuck outta here with your accusations of cliquishness. We had already forgotten about you before you came back trying to stir up your same bullshit (ha!)

1. anarchists are already marginal; can't use your marginal micro society to try to further marginalize others, there are many other open arms waiting to receive passionate actors and benefit from shaping their actions.
2. you can only learn through experience, you can only assess the effects of an action through performing it and letting the results come in. you're welcome to feel angry or to judge those folx as inconsiderate or antagonistic; it seems like they meant to be antagonistic. but whenever you point a finger, there's three more pointing at you.
3. subjectivity shows that you can't know what's going on in their heads, and their intent. everyone there learned something from the experience, and look at what a vibrant troll fest and conversation it created here after the fact. if you disagree with the disruptive action then be my guest to address its residual physical effects, but diversity of tactics leave you with no ground to try to shun or "teach these people a lesson." cause and effect are complicated gods, and for a moralizer its impossible to take a complete tally of the good and bad values that comes from a contentious action. they've certainly made a strong point that anarkitties can be full of shit developed nation trapped comfort-trapped optics-trapped middle class kids who can't even disrupt themselves from generational patterns of wage slavery, saving, and meeting most needs through officially provided supply chains.
that's what i read from it... antagonism is oftentimes clarifying

I'm koo koo crazy in the head mentally ill and I think the poop slingers are definitely authoritarians but who tf knows if they're mentally ill Or if that has anything to do with those actions? Just as a response to some of the "they're mentally ill" statements. I feel like the common denominator for ppl who do this kind of (literal) shit is authoritarianism, weaponizing care and identities, etc, not whether they're riding the crazy train. But yuh, glad they got shlapped.

Listen son, I agree, these youngsters radicalized on such a petty mandate as the wearing of masks to prevent fatalities of 1.5% amongst octogenarians on life support really annoys me. Like, is that the most radical they can be from their bourgeois urgeois bubble of privilege? There are far more pressing causes to support, like the transparency of truth to be exposed on serious health issues like the prevalence of preventable fatal diseases amongst children in indigenous and oppressed populations. HoO Haah!

I appreciate your comment. A lot of people feel like they have to compare these authoritarians to crazy people/children/feds/what have you to make the point that their behavior sucks, but you really just don't. Their behavior sucks and so does their politics. If they really gave a shit about stopping behaviors that are a threat to comrades they would slash their friends' car tires, slap cigarettes out of people's hands, and distro safe use implements. But they probably 'got radicalized' in 2020 and screeching about covid is where they've been able to find a niche where they can be shitheads (lol, accidental pun) and no one will fight them on it.

Well, I guess a few did fight them on it, haha

Tell us youre a white person who lives in a safe walkable area without telling us youre a white person who lives in a safe walkable area

What does this even fucking mean, lol? You think only white people think these shit-flinging clowns are dumb as fuck? Looks like you're dumb as fuck too.

I didn't want to have to go three but y'all have threatened the serenity of my dojo. Consider this your only warning. Keep Portland properly representing the St. Paul Principles that I single-handedly revealed to the anarchist milieu or I will force blast you into a a million tiny pieces.
Everybody knows this.

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