Post by Brian on Jun 13, 2020 23:00:20 GMT -8
During last Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil, a man walking across the street stopped to shout at us. He said something about "antifa" and called us "domestic terrorists." I knew about the far right antifa conspiracy theory, but nothing about domestic terrorists who stand on a corner and hold signs.
A few minutes later, a woman who'd seen our vigils over the years approached me on the sidewalk, asking if I'd heard of armed militias patrolling white rural towns up north, all of them expecting busloads of invading protesters. On her cellphone, she showed me a long Daily Kos thread aggregating reports from Humboldt to Idaho.
When I unwrapped my Los Angeles Times on Saturday, this story from Northern California was on the front page:
www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-13/george-floyd-racism-protests-rural-california
Clearly, I've gone out of my way to avoid exposure to the wackiest conspiracy theories, unless the president repeats them and I have to take notice. Before he came along, Obama had a secret military force based underneath Walmarts in Texas, and Hillary ran a child sex ring in a DC pizza parlor. I recently re-read some novels by Don DiLello, who's been showing us for decades how paranoia is usurping religion as our collective belief system. We've always had wackos and conspiracy theories. But now the craziness has come to my turf as a lifelong nonviolent protester, and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.
By the way, George Soros -- where's my check? You can pay me in euros if you want.
