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pay your respects to the vultures

@cathoderituals.bsky.social

490 followers 240 following 3.2K posts

pdx anarchist, antifascist, hater of cops, tired as fuck (they/them)

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 3d

Folks, it’s not complicated. Antifa = Antifaschistische Aktion, as it was originally in 1930s Germany. AFA, 161, Antifa, these all mean the same thing. Not simply anti-fascism.

Antifa then and now aren’t 1:1 identical, but this is the root of the word and idea. Militant direct action.

Antifaschistische Aktion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Antifa is a short-hand for Antifascist Action, pulled from the original group in the 1930s, not short-hand for anti-fascist. Note the lack of the dash too. I literally made a post about this a day or two ago. It is explicitly about militant resistance.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

I didn’t say no other tactics are valid. I’ve been consistent that nonviolence on its own, with no one willing or able to engage in physical defense, offense, or direct action, is not particularly useful. The constant refrain of don’t give them an excuse, don’t resist too hard, are naive.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

That’s effectively what I’m saying, yes. Dinosaur costumes don’t stop or challenge people who throw molotovs, break bones, overturn cars, and carry AR15s.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Well, I hope folks stop to think on the fact that the only people shoved out so far are antifascists. There are fash swarming all over the waterfront, and that’s without many of their brawlers.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Like I’ve said before, people are gonna blame us if we show up, and if we don’t show up to defend them when the violence hits regardless of all the theorizing. We have more first-hand experience with them that people don’t care to listen to, so I hope everyone is right that antifa have no place.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

That’s not exactly true, but there’s also only so much precedent with these specific groups. They were stymied because by the time Biden rolled in, they got their shit rocked. Violent fash go back in the region many years across admins, but people’s attention shifts away when a Dem in office.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Exactly this. Folks have taken it as well, we don’t need antifa or black bloc, and uhh… ok.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Yep. Literally ran away with their tails between their legs, same day Skyler Jernigan fired a shot. They were live streaming and saying “we can’t let them win!” as they ran. This year is the first time they’ve come back to Portland since, and still not with any sort of large rally of their own.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

Sure, though I think that stuff is also pretty common over the years in varying ways. Here’s just before they shot flashbangs in 2016. Plenty of silliness at WTO ‘99 too.

Photo from 2016 protests depicting marchers, including one in a giant skeleton costume

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 4h

I get it, but I think a lot of people are just leaning on it because it’s resistance without resistance. No one is being challenged, whether at a state level, street level, or personal level. It goes down easy and soothes fear, and they’re desperately clinging to the idea that it will all work out.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 5h

Olympia mainly, as I understand it, but I haven’t seen anything concrete about what’s being done to people sent north. It’s like they just disappear without a trace.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 5h

My mom wouldn’t shut up about how great it is 😐

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 5h

I’m over the frogs. Absurdity has its place in conjunction with other tactics, but by itself, it’s a meme for the lulz. Like lib marches and online dunks, it may be comforting, but who are you even talking to? Look around. This isn’t an election. The right is talking mass murder and imprisonment.

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Reposted by pay your respects to the vultures

talia jane ❤️‍🔥 @taliajane.bsky.social · 11h

but because so few spend any time actually analyzing how protests function, they see viral moments and seek to replicate them, believing this to be what solidarity is.

would they replicate the shadowy figures throwing gas cans back? no. they don’t want to get their hands dirty.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 9h

By and large, this stuff is designed primarily to direct people back to the Democratic Party. A huge part of the backing stems from 'grassroots' orgs like Indivisible, which some organizers have previously straight up lied about.

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 9h

Good call out, LLMs are unquestionably a factor

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 9h

Anyone else been noticing that it seems like Google search results now primarily serve up far right search results if you look up almost any political topic? Or things that frame the far right in a bad light are harder to find, or non-existent when you look for something specific that should appear?

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 9h

Milkshake lover Andy has cited at least a dozen people as "the leader" of antifa, and it's always been a grift for his phony ass journalism, even though he's almost never present at anything.

Take down every single 'official' looking antifa website on the planet and it won't change a fucking thing.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 10h

And there was the whole shot someone thing (o.o)

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 10h

Definitely this. Gonna be thinking a lot about making stew here real soon too.

Reposted by pay your respects to the vultures

Uzza @uzzamodea.bsky.social · 3d

Far-right asshole Josh Fulfer, who called for vehicular assaults on Portland protestors, has come up from California & is filming on the ground tonight.

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Reposted by pay your respects to the vultures

Sage Divinorum 🏳️‍⚧️ @trans.bsky.social · 13h

an attention eating machine optimized around inducing cortisol loops fucks you up? damn who knew. 🫤

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pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 12h

Yeah, but it's because I'm severely mentally ill and isolate myself for months at a time with little to no human contact. Which isn't great! But also not women's fault.

More folks need to see a psych or therapist instead of just blaming everyone else for their woes.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 13h

My first protest at age 21 against Bush, cops fired flashbangs at a crowd that was completely docile here in Portland, and the violence has only ever escalated more and more over the years. 2020 started with Black women just standing there. Cops escalated that too. It's always them.

pay your respects to the vultures @cathoderituals.bsky.social · 13h

The important thing here is to be law abiding, which has historically never resulted in dead bodies

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