Still seeking a Horst Wessel, RW hate groups have tried to offset Charlottesville by regular protests in Portland Oregon. Today may be no different, with disinformation, threats and even a coded attempt by POTUS* to excite the confrontation between RW protesters and counter-protesters.
The assault on (Andy) Ngo, combined with the push toward the demonization of antifa in general, has been galvanizing for the Proud Boys. Members of the organization, communicating largely through the encrypted messaging app Telegram, saw it as exactly the boost that was needed. Much discussion focused on what could “be done” about antifa, juxtaposed with some “light fantasizing” about how other members of the Proud Boys would have defended themselves in that situation, according to Jared Holt, an investigative reporter at Right Wing Watch. “At least internally, the people in the organization really ratcheted up and energized,” he says. Now, as the Proud Boys gear up for another rally in Portland on Saturday, August 17th, all eyes are on the organization to see whether it will continue to disintegrate, or whether a push from mainstream establishment players will make it stronger.
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They have rallied against, among other things, transgender people, Muslim people, and, for some reason, masturbation. Above all else, their target is the overall “feminization” of Western culture, or the idea that masculinity has been slowly degraded by leftist ideology; their core beliefs can best be summarized as a mélange of neofascism, Fight Club-esque hypermasculinity, and early-2000s-era hipster trolling. (The obsessive focus on hypermasculinity is all the more ironic in light of the origins of the group’s name, a deleted musical number from the Disney movie Aladdin called “Proud of Your Boy.”) Samantha Kutner, a researcher who works as a consultant for the anti-extremism group Light Upon Light, refers to them as “a violent crypto-fascist-extremist organization,” noting that “every element of that title has data to support that.”
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That’s not to say, however, that the Proud Boys have been totally underground. In the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland, a long-standing battle has been raging between anti-fascist protestors and the far right. Kutner has logged more than 20 violent incidents in the city, as opposed to other cities in North America, where the number falls between one and five. Some anti-fascist protesters have accused Portland police of being overly sympathetic to members of the far right, particularly after texts between a Portland police lieutenant and far-right-group Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, in which the officer appears to consult with Gibson about issues related to safety and public protest, were leaked in February. In response to the leak, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced he was calling for an investigation into the police department. (In response to a request for comment from the Portland police department, a representative referred Rolling Stone to press releases issued following the initial incident, adding, “we will continue to reach out, with our police liaisons, to various groups who plan to hold rallies in our city to help facilitate safer events.”)
www.rollingstone.com/...