I've staked my entire life on being an individual who won't support a team, a religion, or a social movement (beyond individual points I agree with). I happen to believe that if everyone acted this way, we'd have a lot fewer problems as a society. I refuse to take the side of a movement that claims some holistic righteousnes, just like I refuse to accept religion and race. So on a case-by-case basis, I decide what seems fair. I should note that before that dog-beating kid drove his van into six cars, I went out there with a gun and a six pack of beer which I distributed to his 17 year old homeless friends, who I sat around with while they told me he was a crazy shithead. I think that was what really drove him mental.
Individuals. That's how the world functions. Everything else is theory.
So my rebellion didn't work? It did. I was gassed in the street in 2004 protesting the Iraq war. Everyone hates neocons now and hates that war, don't they? Did I do nothing? An argument is ridiculous if it asks every person to pawn everything they ever did to the next struggle in the future. Portland is a shit show in the real estate market, but where isn't? It's by leaps and bounds the most progressive city in America.
The boomers' homeless and ultimately functional children grew up richer than I did. They need to come halfway and see that acting savage and refusing completely to partake in society is not an ultimately winning strategy. They're not going to win some revolutionary war where they suddenly abolish all private property - and if that's their goal, they've really got to become more coherent and stop doing so much heroin, because I can't even understand what they're saying.
[edit] my contention is that the 20-yo shitting in my yard's problem is that he is spoiled and rich, by every standard I've seen everywhere I've traveled in the world. And that's why I can't relate to the conditions that led to him, or sympathize with his plight.
FWIW, such anecdotes help me understand the writer and where they're coming from. I don't think bringing a gun for self-defense and distributing some beer to a bunch of kids to figure out wtf is going on is "peacocking of how good of a person you are", it's just being a human being. Working with what you have.
This ain't about me being "good". It's about my right to exist and work and live whether some 18 year old is having a bad family life or not. It's about handling their problems, as I have had to handle my own. Funny. Sympathy only flows in one direction - towards the generation who were born of the richest fattest bulge of neocon shitheads in imperial american history. Who shit on my porch in the name of equity and social justice, literally, waving ipads.
You lost me at Ukraine. I don't see how that relates to this. But FWIW, you think it's gross that I explained both sides of my attempt to understand and my underlying dislike of the people outside my door? Cool, I'm not trying to be your friend. I'm explaining how I've chosen to deal with a world of spoiled shit spawn of boomers. Bit of carrot and stick.
[edit] also? >>they hate it because it is history now. They still love war
...is incredibly ignorant. We hated it because it was WRONG, the way Russians who protest now know that their war is wrong. This is recent and important history. The war just ended. It was the longest war in US history. It's a very good thing that people hated it. Because above all it happened for completely artificial reasons. Yes, this means you might have to admit that some wars are more artificial than others, but that one, for those of us who watched in horror when it started, was completely unjustified. So go ahead and shit on the people who were out in the streets protesting. You clearly know better.
The subtle psychology exposed in this sentence. You say you are an anarchist but here you are wanting to control others. You think you are smarter than these suffering people and will treat them like dogs with a treat to get them to do what you want.
> It's about handling their problems, as I have had to handle my own.
Again, you remain the individual. You think if everyone "lived like you" they would be fine. Not everyone can handle their own problems and some peoples problems are bigger and more complicated than yours were.
> So go ahead and shit on the people who were out in the streets protesting
I protested the Iraq war as well, so no idea what you are going on about here. I know it was useless because no one is protesting the U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine. Everything happening now, including all the propaganda, is the same as it was before the Iraq war.
If you want to know why Portland is failing, look in the mirror.
No, I used to be an anarchist. Now I'm living in an anarchic state and dealing with it pragmatically. There's nothing about individualist anarchism that says you can't attempt to moderate the behavior of other people around you, btw.
>> Not everyone can handle their own problems and some peoples problems are bigger and more complicated than yours were.
You just implied I had no right to attempt to affect other people's behavior. But somehow it's still supposed to be my responsibility to pay for their bad decisions in life? How's that?
>> no one is protesting the U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine
We didn't invade Ukraine. We don't have troops there. Not all things are equal.
>>If you want to know why Portland is failing, look in the mirror.
Oh bullshit. Portland's failing because it stopped being a weird, Amsterdam-like open-minded, leftish libertarian blue collar town, and started being a destination for intolerant, spoiled children LARPing as anarchists and destroying public safety in the name of an incoherent political agenda.
Then again, my definition of "not failing" might be different than yours. I think not failing would be downtown reopening, not having trash amd vermin all over the streets, not hearing gunshots all night, and people not having to worry about stray bullets coming through their walls. I bet you think not failing would mean giving more free shit away to homeless drug addicts who ride in from out of town. But that's not helping anyone who lives here, and it's not helping it not to fail.
You got greedy, that’s all that happened. It’s nothing complicated. You LARPed an anarchist when you were a kid, you traveled around, then somehow made some money, and you were able to end up buying a house in Portland. And now, the very system you used to make that money is destroying Portland and you’re complaining about the people? I get complaining about the government, but you’re putting all this on the people? Do you think people are kids wanna grow up to be addicted to drugs?
Portland didn’t fail because the culture changed, Portland changed because of housing speculation and housing investments and a housing bubble. Portland’s failing because of capitalism.
And this is the reason why I said look in the mirror.
And you don’t have to invade country to instigate a war.
I don't know if you know about the residential infill project, but a vast amount of zoning in Portland has now been opened up for multi-unit development (including my block). The bubble grew in large part because a lot of people moved to Portland in the last 15 years. As far as me "taking advantage" of a system, I'm not a house-flipper or a real estate speculator. I think it's fair to work and save for 25 years and buy a house without being accused of being a greedy exploitative capitalist. It's also fair to want to live in peace without constant screaming outside your window.
>> you don’t have to invade country to instigate a war.
This is like saying Chris Rock instigated getting hit. To say that the US instigated it is ludicrous. By that logic, Saddam Hussein instigated the Iraq war, didn't he? Did America also instigate Russia's invasion of Georgia, or the flattening of Grozny? Did we make Putin drop chemical weapons in Syria? I get irritated when people somehow find a way to blame America for everything as if we're the only country capable of doing something egregious, and nothing bad would ever happen in the world if America didn't exist. Speaking of small-a anarchy, that is the natural state of affairs - and there are always people who want to terrorize or enslave others. If it wasn't America starting wars, it would be someone else; and in this case, it was someone else, so not recognizing that casts doubt on the seriousness of any more nuanced argument you might make about what Putin feels drove him to attack and bomb civilians in Ukraine. In this case I think it's pure victim-blaming to say Ukraine deserved it, or America instigated it. It's tantamount to saying that Russia is fighting a just war, which is insane considering you think war is unjust.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/30/homes/us-housing-market-bubbl...
>> you don’t have to invade country to instigate a war. This is like saying Chris Rock instigated getting hit.
I am in no way condoning the death and suffering the Putin is causing. There is no such thing as a just war.
But really? Comparing "the slap" to all the complexities going on in that region of the world? Is that how simplistic you see life? You think resources have nothing to do with the war in Ukraine? Why was the US pudding for Ukraine too enter NATO? Why is the US involved at all in a country halfway around the world? It means we have an interest there. You know who also has an interest there? Putin. Hence, war. A proxy war.
> Saddam Hussein instigated the Iraq war, didn't he?
No. That happened because the US lied that Saddam had WMDs. (You protested the war in Iraq and you really said that????)
> Did America also instigate Russia's invasion of Georgia, or the flattening of Grozny?
No, Mikheil Saakashvili instigated that when he started working as a stooge for the United States.
> Did we make Putin drop chemical weapons in Syria?
Putin did not drop chemical weapon in Syria.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/29/grayzones-aaron-mate-test...
Biden was not talking about Putins wife. He is working with NATO and Oil Companies to secure resources in a world where they are becoming harder to come by. I blame them BOTH for the war. I Balme the BOTH for lying and being psychopaths. I blame the both for the suffering of the Ukrainian PEOPLE. I blame them ALL for not trying more to work for peace.
Wy have you not brought up the war against the Donbas people in Ukraine? Why have you not brought up the war against the Palestinians? Or the war agains Yemeni? Do you think the CIA does not play a role in making countries unstable? Really?
You simply the war in Ukraine because it helps you cope with a complicated world.
Can you imagine what the US would do if Russia was as involved in Mexico and Canada as much as we are in Ukraine and Georgia? OF course to you, that would be a just war.
So you’ve taken up the I’ve pulled myself up with my own bootstraps defense. I don’t demean that at all, but you did not grow up the same way as a 20 year old in your yard did.
To be a progressive, and I’m not talking about these progressives that you think you have in the Portland government, is to understand that we all don’t share the same life experiences.
You were lucky growing up in the time You did and probably you were lucky growing up in a time in Portland actually embrace community.
Tell me all these horror stories does not do anything to address the fundamental problems that are causing the horror stories in the first place.
Can you talk about this peaceful rebellion that took place in the past. What? What rebellion? Those people turned into the boomers that bought up all the property in Portland as investment vehicles. These people aren’t revolting in any positive or not coordinated way. Their revolt is more primal and therefore A true rebellion. It is an unconscious rebellion and that scares people into conservatives.