Thread by @HeatherEHeying

Dude, please. “GOP supporters believe that rampaging mobs burned and looted major cities”?

I’ve never voted GOP (not that it should matter), and I know—not believe, *know*—that a tiny but rampaging mob continues to do damage in Portland on the regular. [thread 1/11]

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1385216421236510720

Saturday, April 17, downtown PDX. The night before, yahoos set a dumpster & the bathrooms on fire outside the Apple store. Awning is gone, tree is charred.

Burned to the ground? No.
Insane to accommodate this kind of behavior? Yes.
Insane to deny it is happening? Also yes. 2/

New graffiti nearby from the same night. This is the sentiment that you are de facto defending when you claim this isn’t happening, or that all the protest is peaceful, or indeed, that this particular thing has anything to do with protest at all. This is raw, vengeful hate. 3/

Also this, from the same evening (April 16, downtown Portland): 4/

And this, from the same evening (April 16, downtown Portland): 5/

And on the evening of the Chauvin verdict, there was more. Why? Because the yahoos are, in their own words, “ungovernable.”

The Portland Police Bureau largely has its hands tied. Meanwhile, homicides and fatal car crashes are also way up. 6/

https://twitter.com/PortlandPolice/status/1385096320810053634?s=20

Democrats now give cover to a fringe group of anarchists who are quite clear that they will not be satisfied, have no interest in being governed.

I am still on the left, because my values haven’t changed. I’m no longer a Democrat though. 7/

I still see the need for government services like roads & education, social services & the police.

Yes, the police.

I believe in a social safety net, and in creating and protecting a society that has strong & capable people, and that helps those who cannot help themselves. 8/

I’m not a Democrat anymore because the Democrats have changed, not me.

I don’t know what the person who wrote this was thinking, but I agree—New Portland sucks, and the new Democratic Party sucks, and the new national conversation and culture suck, too. 9/

One thing I believe is that most of us aren’t fringe lunatics who get off on hating and bullying and silencing a manufactured enemy. Even if it feels good in the moment to score one on line, it always feels better to actually make a connection. 10/

Between the screens and the legal drugs and the crap parenting and the postmodern educational practices and the willingness of nearly every industry to try to virtue signal its way through this mess, though, it’s hard to tell that connection is what we all want. /end