What could have happened, if it not for Joey Gibson’s histrionic drive to quench some insatiable thirst for attention, fame, money, and glory? Imagine how different these days leading up to August 4th, 2018 would be if Joey Gibson had stopped his hysterically greedy lust for fame, and any point in the past? How would the beautiful city of Portland be functioning if Joey had the cognitive capability to put aside his ego and let people just be? What could we be doing on August 4th instead of yet another political brawl?
In fact, here’s a very non-exhaustive list of things anyone with any modicum of involvement in the street politics of the PNW could be doing if not for Joey Gibson and his band of Star Spangled Ding Dongs on a lovely Summer Saturday in Portland:
-Visit Washington Park, Forest Park, Hoyt Arboretum, or any of the many gorgeous parks.
-Escape the heat and dip into one of the many nice movie theaters to catch a flick
-Volunteer with one of the many organizations actually trying to make Portland more liveable
-Check out The Grotto, a Catholic Shrine
-Stop and smell the roses at the International Rose Test Garden
-Tour the U.S.S. Blueback
-Saturday Market!
-Visit the Chinese Garden, and have a lovely cup of tea while you’re at it
-Go thrift shopping
-Take a soak at the pool at Kennedy School
-Wander through the shelves at Powell’s and then sit outside a nearby cafe with your new book
-Explore the Shanghai Tunnels in Portland
-Play some awesome games at Ground Kontrol with a pint of beer
-Check out the Peculiarium and get a bug sundae
-Have some Salt ‘n’ Straw Ice Cream, sans bugs
-Ride the Skycar to see some beautiful panoramic views of a lovely city
But regardless of your position in the gaseous orbit of the the train wreck called Patriot Prayer; there are better ways to spend the day than street brawling and potentially ending lives over a demagogue who is as mortal as the rest of us (that’s right kiddos, one day Donald Trump will die and won’t get to play super special truck boy anymore).
Unfortunately, in his quest to be famous just like his favorite reality TV star (and ideally, just as loved); Joey Gibson is going to keep on his crusade to be Popular Online, regardless of consequences; until he too gets to be as loved as the super special big boy on TV. Joey will shrug off any and all consequences and contort himself every which way he can to stay out of trouble. All as long as he gets his next hit of validation.
I would say it’s fairly likely that Joey has fallen into some old habits he reportedly had before dropping out of college (namely, snorting up his family’s money). Very likely that he has fallen (back?) into alcoholism, as he’s been removed from several bars due to being an overly intoxicated asshole, despite his claims that he was removed for being “Christian”, “Conservative”, or “Freedom Loving” (if that is true, why were other patrons who are Christian/Conservative/Freedom-Loving allowed to stay? I love freedom and had a complete meal at Brickhouse, it was incredible).
I am sure he is absolutely addicted to attention, especially online, and is willing to do anything to anyone to get more; and unfortunately, it looks like he’s willing to end other people’s lives over it. Never have I seen such a spectacle of gluttony and pride; I don’t think anyone, myself included, can avert our eyes any longer from this grotesque circus.
Unfortunately, we cannot ignore it. Joey’s brand of Lust For Pride is infectious, as evidenced by the sheer amount of cell phones on a stick and live streams that surround him like a miasma. And as a diseased air is said to do, it is killing (or at least brutally harming) innocent people. Even at this time last year; the fear that Joey and his little friends would morph into the terrorists they are today was real as it is today.
That fear is coming to fruition, we did not do enough to crush this malignant rot on our society fast enough and are paying for it dearly. Some of Joey Gibson’s BFFs, Tiny and Donovan Flippo, tear through Vancouver in a truck beating up people they think don’t like Trump.
Another truck tearing through Portland turned out to be filled with Proud Boy types who kidnapped, raped, robbed, and assaulted a woman of color. Two men were killed on public transit by a devotee of Gibson’s cult.
On the daily; their social media feeds are filled with their “thoughts” regarding how immigrant babies should be punted over a wall (but mention kicking a “white baby”, and Haley Adams will tear out her crunchy blonde hair in distress), Muslims are destroying some made up “western civilization” and need to be stopped (point out McChristian imperialism continuing to destroy lives, and you will be quickly branded as a globalist). With that in mind let’s consider a quote by someone the Gibsonites commonly echo:
“Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become…habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny! What we think we become.”
We know what they think. We are watching them become what they think at an exponentially dizzying rate, at great cost to the rest of us. History is very clear what they will become.
Yes, it would be wonderful if we could just ignore these ding dongs. I personally would love to ignore them and spend the day doing Literally Anything Else. But they are so full of hatred it appears to spill over, like an overfilled coffee cup; rendering them incapable of controlling themselves around anyone who is not explicitly in lockstep with their master’s cause. Usually, when things ferment, a delicious and/or good time is coming up, but not this time. Joey Gibson is at worst actively encouraging violence against “wrong thinkers”, and at best letting it slide within his cult with a wink and nod while giving lip service about McPeace to a Facebook LiveStream. If a lone child was assaulted by a gang of grown ass men over some fake, mortal “ god”, how can we be sure the rest of us are safe, especially if we even just appear like we may question the Undeniable Truths By Facebook Livestream Guy(TM)?
I have never seen a more deranged violent group of such intolerant people with my own eyes, and we cannot avert our gaze or lower our fists or they will take it as acceptance of what they are doing. They are attention, hungry idiots. We must feed them, but we do not have to feed them things they would enjoy. If their hunger goes unsatiated they will devour everything in sight (and eventually, each other. But Joey has put too many innocent lives in danger.) Since they are so hungry for attention and willing to devour anything to fulfill that hunger; maybe our best choice is to not just feed them, but to feed them with what you best see fit for them to have and don’t stop until they burst.
I must give credit where it is due, however. Joey and his cult absolutely excel at making their terrorism simultaneously terrifying yet somehow absolutely stale and boring. It’s a tactic commonly used in abusive households and somehow Joey has wielded what I can fairly assume to be his parenting tactics into something that can be applied to cities. His escalations are routine at this point; it’s stale. In a year of observation I have lost count of the time Joey’s tactics “changed” following this routine:
1.Do something that gets people’s attention (Ex. Yell some bullshit at Terry Schrunk Plaza and walk around the block)
2.Get that attention (Ex. People showed up, and some more people than last time walked around the block)
3.Keep doing the same thing
4.Still doing this same thing, except suddenly all the people who supported you are bored and have moved onto something else (Ex. the last “rally” had significantly less turnout)
5.Panic and desperately do the same thing over again but maybe in a different place and more violence so people will look at me on Facebook.
It has created an atmosphere of terror ,yes, that is the end goal of terrorism. But Joey has made it so mundane, and predictable, and un-mysterious. There’s no question of who the jackasses in the truck waving Anti-Fascist flags with a homophobic slur painted on it and jumping people are. They live stream their actions under their legal names wearing t-shirts with their organization’s name on it, and will only change what they are doing once the livestream views start to drop. But just because they do the same things over and over and over again until everyone is so bored of walking around the same block
or watching the same things be repeated online doesn’t mean it has real life consequences for working class people. How mundane violence is does not change it’s material consequences.
Imagine, also, for a moment all the energy and resources he has spent to do what he has done, and then imagine what else he could have accomplished that would have achieved his stated goals. Driving about an hour of the middle of the night to make Facebook videos of yourself and your friends fucking around an already-abandoned Occupy camp didn’t seem to help accomplish Joey’s stated goals of “reforming the system” or “bringing back MADE IN THE USA” as stated on his website. Neither does defending Nazis, getting kicked out of restaurants for being a belligerent drunk , losing your wife, and grooming 14 year olds to be religious/identitarian extremists. But all of those things take a lot of effort, time, and money. For someone who claims to love capitalism, Joey is piss poor at getting a return on his investments.
I know it has been difficult for him. He has lost his wife, friends, family, financial security, integrity, a chance at any career, and is on an express train to losing his life unless he pulls the brakes. But he has shown absolutely no sign of slowing down, in fact, he is trying to accelerate this process of decay. All he is doing is pulling off the veil too fast. People see what Joey truly is: a grifter, a thief, a liar, and emblematic of the swamp his favorite TV show character claims to want to drain. It will only get more difficult for him to continue on this path, because the rest of us are not going to be complicit in being dragged down with him as he speeds himself off a cliff.
