Thread by @TerryBoutonHist

Spent another day at People’s Convoy camp and noticed some changes from our first visit. Two weeks in there were fewer trucks, cars, and outside visitors. The dancing at the live bands was painful to watch.

But that’s not the story.

(w/@_Noelle_Cook)

Here are our four most important observations:
1) The encampment has an ever-changing population. There are plenty of stalwarts who have been there from the start. But most of the camp is filled with people who stay for a few days or a week and then head home.

Most people we talked to had arrived last week and were leaving soon. Some were on their second or even third stays. Many of these people came, left for work, returned, and are leaving for work again.

One trucker we spoke to hauled liquid natural gas from NY to NH between stays. Four cars from NY toured the camping area as they left, honking and yelling through little bullhorns that they'd be back next week. These strangers had met in Hagerstown and left as a group.

Most of the people there for long stays seem to be either truckers or retired baby boomers. Dark-money donors pay truck-fuel bills but individuals are on their own. Most of the big-name truckers have social media funding, payment apps, gifts from followers, and sell swag online.

2) The people there are happy, energized, and excited for more. People keep coming back (and new people arrive daily) because they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and this protest and encampment gives them a sense of community and purpose.

Nearly everyone expressed some kind of loneliness and isolation back home. Some as a result of the pandemic. Some from losing jobs. Some because their politics were too extreme for their local communities. QAnon folk talked about friends and family no longer speaking to them.

As a result, people there were eager to talk. Everyone we spoke to wanted to share the powerful feelings of belonging and connection they experienced at the People's Convoy. It was like they were testifying at church. They wanted to share the good news with everyone they could.

A women from Indiana said she no longer felt alone. Two different men said this was the first time they had been happy since losing spouses to cancer. An iron-worker from OH in his 70s got choked up talking about being depressed for years & this place being "home" and "family."

The live band was not well attended because it was Sunday, and many were leaving for the work week and they wanted to spend the last day talking with their new-found friends. We were told, "Don't go before you sign my car!" It was like kids leaving summer camp.

3) This is a well-organized communal village. These people may be against socialism but they are all about communal living. Everything runs with volunteer labor and is scheduled and coordinated. The kitchen is headed by a chef from DE who used to run the restaurant at a Marriott.

Packaged food donations are stacked high on tables, organized by type and kind. When they run low, a truck pulls up filled with donations and people pitch in to unload it. We were told there were several trucks filled with more. Lots of new dry goods donations arrive daily.

Individual donors also supply fresh food. A local farmer donated 2,000 eggs. One man showed up, asked what was needed, and when they said, "fresh food," he went to Walmart and came back with hundreds of dollars worth of fruits and vegetables. (The scraps are collected for pigs).

There's a shower truck with 12 stalls. A medic and volunteer barber on site. If you need laundry done you put it in a bag with your phone number on it and it comes back clean, dry, and folded. No one we spoke to knew if it was done by a service or by local volunteers. All free.

There's a rack of donated clothes and coats and a section with toys. One woman forgot to bring a towel for the shower truck. Soon after a donated one appeared on the hood of her car. A local benefactor dropped off a truck load of seasoned split wood for all the many campfires.

The truckers are in charge and control the $ but they sometimes spread it around. A man from TN told us he bought a heater for his tent & was surprised to get reimbursed. He and a few other car-campers said they were given gas cards donated to the truckers by online followers.

4) Despite the niceties, this is extremism. People talked about the Convoy being "open to all religions, races, and political parties." But once you got to talking, they started identifying their enemies as Democrats, liberals, Black Lives Matters, ANTIFA, "Illegals," etc.

We heard how liberals had no souls & were disposable to God, & Democrats are evil and Satanic. Lots of QAnon and anti-vaxx conspiracy madness. Lots of anti-immigrant talk. Anti-CRT Moms for Liberty. A security guy casually dropped the N-word and no one even flinched.

This is Christian community for white Christian nationalists and their QAnon brothers and sisters. Organizers have tried to keep the rhetoric inclusive and urged followers to refrain from expressing extremism when media is around. Later, they let it rip in campfire conversations.

Later this week, racing season starts and the Convoy has to move. Rumors have it heading to a large RV park or state park in VA. There was also talk of 1,000s of bikers arriving this week from different biker convoys.

The worst may be yet to come.