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How anarchists captured Portland Left-wing rioters are burning the city to the ground — while the police do nothing

Portland Police amid the anarchy (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Portland Police amid the anarchy (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)


April 19, 2021   6 mins

On the face of it, Petunia’s bakery in Portland epitomises everything progressive about the city. Its pies and pastries are wheat-free, look pretty on Instagram and, more importantly, taste delicious.

But take a moment to read the sign on the shop’s window as you enter, and it soon becomes clear that Petunia’s has been drawn into a far darker chapter of the Portland story; one that tells of a city in free fall due to an almost accidental anarchist takeover, where residents have as much to fear staying home as going out and even the most harmless of shops is liable to have its windows smashed in.

The sign is Petunia’s special take on a Portlandian phenomenon that my wife Heather has come to call a “don’t-hurt-me wall” — a now-widespread attempt by local business owners to make anarchists think twice before vandalising their shop or café.

“We are a small, women and locally owned business,” Petunia’s sign pleads. “We are struggling like so many of us in this hard time, and love our community. Please don’t cause us any damage.” Welcome to Portland; the progressive dream that has turned into a nightmare.

When Heather and I moved to the city three years ago, after being spectacularly driven from our jobs at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, there was little to suggest that municipal embrace of anarchy was on the horizon. We considered moving to more than a dozen cities across the US, Canada and Europe — but in the end Portland won. With the city’s proximity to nature and world-class food culture, it seemed to provide the perfect balance. And then suddenly last summer, with the confluence of the George Floyd protests and the Presidential election, Portland came unmoored.

For what it’s worth, Petunia’s “don’t-hurt-me wall” is more explicit than your average Portland business. It has, for example, resisted the urge to simply and loudly proclaim that BLACK LIVES MATTER, presumably because its owners know that Portland is entirely composed of people who already agree with this obvious decree — including the police.

But its attempt to reason with the anarchists — by highlighting how it is a struggling small business, locally owned and run entirely by women — speaks volumes about day-to-day life in my home city, where negotiating with vandals has become an essential skill. Indeed, Portland is full of signs in windows and on lawns pleading with anarchists to move on and hurt someone else. These residents know they cannot depend on the police to either prevent crimes or arrest those who commit them, and who can’t manage to come together and face down a small but violent mob of misanthropes.

The streets of downtown Portland, once a bustling home to independent boutiques, are now lined with boarded-over windows and closed businesses. No neighbourhood is secure from the current wave of terror; the breaking of shop fronts, arson and harassment of sleeping citizens in their homes are all commonplace.

Rioting has occurred like clockwork, and often anarchist “direct actions” are announced in advance, so the police are never taken by surprise. And yet the city’s officers, under the command of our cartoonishly liberal mayor (who is also our police-commissioner), have stood by and — night after night — allowed the city to descend into chaos. Last September, rioters even targeted the Mayor’s own apartment building, breaking in and setting a fire in the lobby. The Mayor’s response? To announce that he was moving out of the building to keep his neighbours safe, a move any competent parent would recognise invites more terror. The anarchists have gained a strange kind of control over the city in their fight against Nazis and white supremacists they appear to have conjured in a quest to give their anger meaning.

America may be being torn apart by the tension between Democrats and Republicans, but that is not what afflicts Portland. The problem in Portland, as in so many the cities along the West Coast, is that the progressives have fully defeated conservatives, and without any opposing political force, their liberalism has become unhinged.

Anarchism has deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, but until 2020 it largely persisted on the fringe — they would blockade the federal ICE facility, or take over an occasional intersection, harass drivers and direct traffic. This, of course, caused them to be regarded by most Portland citizens as an irritant.

But that all changed last summer when, during the Black Lives Matter protests, the city’s anarchists discovered that, so long as they shouted certain slogans, citizens who once grudgingly tolerated them would now cheer them on with gusto. Suddenly, the absurd claim that “All Cops Are Bastards” became a mainstream belief, and “Abolish the Police” went from being a threat to a policy proposal.

Of course, all reasonable people understand that black people have faced oppression in North America since their ancestors were brutally imported as slaves. Liberals can be justly proud of our role in fighting this evil, from abolition to the civil rights movement and beyond. But as the current situation in Portland demonstrates, “the right side of history” has now been ceded by voices of reason on the Left to extremists who deliberately conflate a demand for racial justice with a desire to burn civilisation to the ground.

And this has put those of us who consider ourselves “of the Left” in a dangerous predicament. I am not a gun enthusiast. I never wanted to own guns, but I do — for the same reason I would if I lived in a war zone. The civil authority has abandoned the law-abiding citizens of Portland, and in so doing it has created a new Wild West in which we are each responsible for protecting ourselves from bands of roving bandits.

Sometimes, their threat is purely symbolic, as when they topple public monuments. In these situations, the city responds by helpfully removing the offending statue. But in other cases, these habitual rioters attempt to exert power, both directly and indirectly, over their fellow citizens. Graffiti in downtown Portland calls for the killing of local journalist, Andy Ngo, who continues to report on Antifa violence regardless. Having failed to intimidate Ngo, the rioters succeeded in shutting down Powell’s Books for several days when Ngo’s book went on sale.

Knowing the store would not be protected by police, Powell’s had already decided the book would only be sold online. Yet the unsatisfied rioters forced Powell’s to suspend operation, and the city for its part offered no defence of free speech, or of a free press, or of Portland’s iconic bookstore or of Andy Ngo, a citizen of Portland being openly threatened with murder. The city has also allowed rioters to march freely through residential neighbourhoods, where they intimidate sleeping residents by chanting “wake up, motherfucker, wake up”, shine spotlights into people’s windows and harass anyone who comes out to face them.

So long as rioters claim to fight for the oppressed, they appear to have carte blanche. If they decide they don’t like this article, if they come to my house to menace my family as they have done to Andy Ngo, Mayor Wheeler and countless anonymous citizens of Portland, will the police intercede? I honestly don’t know.

The truth is, I rarely see any evidence of even basic law enforcement here in Portland. The police are extremely slow to respond to emergency calls. The citizens and businesses have, over the last year, been left to fend for themselves against criminals thinly cloaked in progressive slogans. And given the way the Mayor and City Council have undercut the police and allowed them to be demonised by the anarchists, it is easy to understand their reluctance — they are doing a difficult job, under a microscope, where only their mistakes count.

And this is the great tragedy of Portland. As people flee New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, Portland has everything it needs to pick up the slack and be the next booming metropolis — everything, that is, except the political will to resist following those once great cities into a self-inflicted, depressive spiral.

Instead of capitalising on those cities’s errors, Portland is making them too, and in even more spectacular form. The combination of runaway taxes and a municipal authority that sides with criminals, against working people, is sealing the city’s fate. And the needless, coming collapse will fall disproportionately on the most precariously positioned.

Portland, ultimately, is a great city headed in the wrong direction. As Heather and I watch it fall to pieces, we can’t help but feel we have seen this happen before. Portland’s meltdown is, after all, eerily similar to the collapse of Evergreen. A city’s hapless mayor hamstringing the police at the behest of a woke mob that claims to see racists around every corner; it’s uncannily similar to what we saw in 2017.

And the result will be the same, albeit at much greater scale, with much higher stakes. Once again we are left with the question: Can anything be done? And once again, I fear that the answer is no.


Bret Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist, host of the DarkHorse Podcast, and co-author of the best-selling book A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.

BretWeinstein

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Vikram Sharma
Vikram Sharma
3 years ago

Anarchy is fun. Most rioters, vandals and arsonists don’t have a political aim that is achievable. In my middle age it is difficult to recall the heady intoxication of running wild that young men in particular find irresistible. Talk to football hooligans and they will talk of the rush of excitement that comes from the fighting; they are not trying to seek retribution for some injustice but crave the buzz of violence.
Throughout history the state has used differing means of violence (differing only in severity, the response is always violence) to control this. Like unruly children seeking boundaries from a parent, these young people also need to feel the very strong disciplinarian response of an authority figure.
Once the father is reduced to a simpering, gibbering, self-flagellating bed-wetter, the unruly has won. And will keep escalating bad behaviour, till discipline is imposed.
Superego versus id – humanity’s eternal conflict

Last edited 3 years ago by Vikram Sharma
Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

What enemies are being brought down? Portland is a Dem city in a Dem state. The mob is mostly white, chanting about injustices to black people in a city that has relatively few of them. The mob is essentially undisciplined children engaging in their own version of Lord of the Flies. Debate and discussion with this mob are impossible; that leaves only violence.

Alex Delszsen
Alex Delszsen
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

It’s the intimidation factor brought to other states, with happy Squad senators and representatives and lawyers and judges and corporations and non-profit corporations and media to spread it. Eat or be eaten, the leaders think. Time to make a profit, leaders and those climbing backs of others think. We aim to fall and become a banana republic, apparently.

Last edited 3 years ago by Alex Delszsen
Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

When there is intellectual famine the Devil feeds on flies.

stewartfrankel1
stewartfrankel1
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

it’s not even standing in the way of it. it’s simply forgetting to pledge fealty, to kneel and scrape, while busy trying to survive in the allowed madness. thus, the poor store owners, undefended by a depressed and de-toothed police force, rushing to pledge their allegiance. sickening, and allowed by the most vile public officials in the history of our nation. sleeping safely, in their lily white apartment buildings, or comfortable subdivisions, or taxpayer funded official “mansion”…

Last edited 3 years ago by stewartfrankel1
Warren T
Warren T
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

This is the first time I have heard of the Herd and this is my first article. I thought it was well written and honest, especially given the left leaning perspective of the author. We need more of this type of journalism on both sides vs. the click bait hyperbole we see everywhere else these days.
We are witnessing in Portland the culmination of what happens when a generation of children are given participation trophies and indoctrinated in schools and universities to hate their country. They were also told that God is a myth and that they have the freedom to determine what is right and wrong.
So, if you agree that anything should go, then ANYTHING will go, including anarchy and destruction. Who becomes the arbiter of right and wrong without God? Hollywood?
What has always been frustrating for me to accept is that the left has been cheering on this “liberalization” of society all along, and suddenly might be realizing that we have reached a breaking point, in their opinion. Conservatives have been warning of this for decades, of course, but we have been jeered off the stage of ideas or simply mocked for being an out of touch Neanderthal. How telling is it that the author now owns a firearm, for heaven’s sake! I just hope he wasn’t one of those advocating to abolish the 2nd Amendment.
We all need to come to the realization that good and evil has existed in the world since the beginning, and no amount of platitudes, pandering, wokeness, empty slogans, court packing, or eliminating the electoral college will ever solve this problem. It’s also the reason why wars have been fought over eons of human history.

False Progress
False Progress
4 days ago
Reply to  Warren T

Your invisible (yes, mythical) God is the product of minds who believe things in a similar mob mode as Antifa’s, so be careful with that angle.
Aside from greed, global warming denial comes from a belief that the supernatural will save us from ever fully respecting Earth’s limits (everything’s kept vague to allow for endless growthism).
As much as I’d like to in recent years, I can’t vote Republican because of Creationist attitudes toward nature, including peak oil denial. Keep an eye on the Permian shale during Trump’s second term.

Cheryl Jones
Cheryl Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

I agree, have thought something similar for a long time. Discipline, duty, resilience and self-regulation no longer seem to be in the toolbox of parents or institutions – what a bizarre turnaround in society I have witnessed in my lifetime and it does not bode well for the future because these young anarchists, with none of the tools expected of them to be ‘adults’, will in turn become parents – what will they teach their kids??? Will their uselessness and self indulgence result in an (even more) Idiocracy-style society – or will it give rise to a new uber puritan backlash like the Dark Ages that descended after the fall of Rome? I am not sure which would be worse.

Johnny Sutherland
Johnny Sutherland
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

“Discipline, duty, resilience and self-regulation no longer seem to be in the toolbox of parents or institutions “
Of course not! Teachers are no longer allowed to maintain discipline in their classrooms, competitive sports are discouraged, marking in red for errors is no longer allowed in our local school because others would see a mistake had been made.

and then we turn to parents – woops

steve horsley
steve horsley
3 years ago

most of the problems stem from the attitude of the modern teachers.indoctrinated at university they are invariably left wing liberal types,guardian readers and part of the new wokery.they have strong unions which will call for industrial action at the drop of a hat.i for one am glad that my kids aren t taught by these people who can do immense damage to impressionable kids.

Vikram Sharma
Vikram Sharma
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

Fathers have been Daddified. Instead of imposing authority, fathers are supposed to seek approval from their offsprings.
The fall of Rome led to great European enlightenment, but after the dark middle age. You and I will not see the return to sanity, but sanity shall prevail. Or humanity won’t.

parkalot01
parkalot01
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

nice to hear the cheery thoughts

Jerry Jay Carroll
Jerry Jay Carroll
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

Puritan backlash?

Simon Cooper
Simon Cooper
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

Yet the media still thinks the Jordan Peterson is the devil incarnate and his books on getting your life in order is oppression.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Simon Cooper

“Jordan Peterson doesn’t need my help. He does just fine on his own”, Satan.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

“The fall of Rome? You should have been there,” the Visigoths.

Simon Baggley
Simon Baggley
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

Who are the enemies ? – it’s a democrat city – there are no dissenting voices

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
3 years ago
Reply to  Simon Baggley

The enemies are themselves, they are blissfully unaware. Pogo’s quote about enemies applies. But the antifa bunch manages to travel widely in their crusade to create chaos everywhere.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
3 years ago
Reply to  Simon Baggley

A one-party town leads to groupthink to (ironically) non-creative problems-solving. Check out the thousands pouring out of New York City for the same reason. Midtown, today on a Monday, looks empty, sad & depressing. I guess that will signal that the riots should begin here as well.

Penelope Lane
Penelope Lane
3 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

A one-party town leads to groupthink to (ironically) non-creative problems-solving.
This resonates with me. It cuts through the Left/Right debating dead end, eschews the lazy way of just complaining about bad end results, and actually offers a neutral, practical way of looking at the problem which might hold out some hope of solutions.
Thankyou..

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

“I agree with that comment,” George Orwell.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
3 years ago
Reply to  Simon Baggley

You are not hearing the dissenting voices because they are indeed intimidated. That’s the point. Of course there are dissenting – but mostly quieted – voices (Portland is not a monolith and there are still sane residents- case in point Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, and there are plenty more besides, perhaps even a majority). The enemies are any who are willing to stand up to the illiberal takeover of our country.

Last edited 3 years ago by Zirrus VanDevere
David George
David George
3 years ago

A comment from Chris Nathan re the Paul Rossi letter:
Who does not look back on the great moral crises of our past and hope, had we been there, that our courage would have risen to meet the terrible moment? Who does not feel anguish at the almost universal silence which enabled the monsters of our shared history? Would we have just followed orders? Or would we have sheltered Anne Frank? Would we have crossed the Selma bridge? Would we have joined the Salt March? Would we have risked everything? Would we have risked anything?
We think: of course we would. Or at least that’s what we post on Facebook. And then we say a little prayer of thanks that our time is nothing like that. Except that once again it is like that. Paul Rossi has taken a stand for the children he teaches. It cannot help but make a difference for them. In fact it clearly already has. The bigger question is: will it make a difference for the rest of us, suddenly forced by his example into our own moral reckoning, and the awful recognition that for each of us our own time of choosing is here. History is back.

Last edited 3 years ago by David George
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
3 years ago
Reply to  Simon Baggley

The history of radical movements shows that revolutionaries often devour each other, as happened in both the French and Russian revolutions. Empty slogans and an emphasis on defining traitors are all par for the course.

These radicals never have hesitated to attack and even kill each other if the circumstances arise.

Johnny Sutherland
Johnny Sutherland
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

Your post reminds me of Mary Harrington’s article “The virtues of masculinity

kathleen carr
kathleen carr
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

There was film from Portland last summer showing a young female protester who came up to an old woman using a zimmer frame and simply emptied a tin of paint over her. viva the revolution-that showed the boomers. The boomers should stop the pocket money-a lot of these protesters are students. People like the author will have to join together with others to stop the violence-or just wait until they come for them.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  kathleen carr

A variation of the popular Knockout Game from the progeny of an amoral liberal generation?

Charlie Walker
Charlie Walker
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

Vikram – thanks for this.
I really look forward to reading your posts. Excellent as usual.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

The Monster from the Id says, “Go home and mind your own business, dad.”

Seth Rich
Seth Rich
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

OK, reality check time. These creatures are very well funded by the globalists. There is nothing organic about this situation.

Devin Watson
Devin Watson
3 years ago
Reply to  Vikram Sharma

“In my middle age it is difficult to recall the heady intoxication of running wild that young men in particular find irresistible.”
God that was funny, thanks. I’m 36, not particularly young, but I can’t wait to get back out on the soccer field and run around – maybe retaliate against a dirty player by some dirty play of my own Mamba Mentality, who knows! 😉

George Bruce
George Bruce
3 years ago

Here is my prediction for the Chauvin trial.
1 Chauvin will be found guilty and severely sentenced
2 BLM and their supporters will celebrate
3 Some of those in 2 will riot and loot anyway
4 Large sections of the media will describe things as mainly peaceful and certainly not use words like riot
Are there bookmakers for these things?
If more complex bets are possible, I want a little money on at least one death ensuing too.

Alex Mitchell
Alex Mitchell
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

Or, (1) He is found not guilty and 2, 3 and 4 happen then, too

George Bruce
George Bruce
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Mitchell

Well, Alex, that is what I am saying. He will be found guilty – but they will get their BLM (burning, looting, mayhem) anyway.
It is a little like Churchill comenting on Munich.
You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

Heads they win. Tails we lose.

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

My post above is ‘Awaiting For Approval’ as mine usually are, but I believe different to you. I think there is a good chance he will get off, but 2-4 will happen, with even more gusto. Pity I am not a ‘Member’ to be able to watch this interview, as I always just get banned I see no point in joining (my posts are moderated mostly now, a sign I am being moved on soon) as this writer would be fun to listen to, I am wondering what the proportion will be between ‘Struggle Session’, Outrage, Justification, ‘They are wrong….But…’ and SocioBiology. I am curious as he bought a gun, so there seems to some hope, possibly even awareness.

But SocioBiology…I had extensive run ins with it, I assume this guy is into it with his evolutionary biology. There is an odd kind of world view coupled with it. Dawkins and his ‘Selfish Gene’, His ‘Blind Watchmaker’, I knew it well, wrote a main paper on it once. It is the bible of Secular Humanism. In it is ‘Creation’, ethics (‘Altruism cannot exist by evolution, it says’) Morality tales, it is an Entire Religion in its self. Religion is best defined as ‘That Which Is Of Ultimate Importance’ And de-bunking Religion is of ultimate importance to Dawkins. But the problem is it leads to Nihilism, Utilitarianism, relative morality, situational ethics, and then to existentialism, and before you know it you are at the door of the Frankfurt School.

mike otter
mike otter
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

If only Dawkins had read more philososphy he’d know how dangerous “sociobiology” is. I’ve read most of his work and he seems driven as much by ant -Christian feelings as the desire to know more about the human condition. Only lefties, with their stunted minds, could believe in Nihilism and Untilitartianisn at the same time!

parkalot01
parkalot01
3 years ago
Reply to  mike otter

“Untilitarianism.” is that like, ‘until i have to get a job I won’t work?”

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  mike otter

“Some people need to re-read my books. They apply more today than when I first published them”, Friedrich Nietzsche.

Peter Dunn
Peter Dunn
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

In other words full circle.

Susie E
Susie E
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

He hosts a podcast on YouTube with his wife, Heather Heying (also has a PHD in Biology) called the Darkhorse Podcast. It’s free and I sometimes watch it to get a different perspective on what’s going on.

Wonder Walker
Wonder Walker
3 years ago
Reply to  Susie E

Their podcast is excellent and has kept me sane over lockdown!

Last edited 3 years ago by Wonder Walker
kathleen carr
kathleen carr
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Yes the number of liberals who believe in gun control but are buying guns for themselves has shot ( forgive the pun) up.

Alex Delszsen
Alex Delszsen
3 years ago
Reply to  kathleen carr

And some non white militants. Ironic how they protect the same senators and mayors and their like, while those same protected class want to make life more dangerous for everyone else.
Stop voting everyone. This is a rigged game. Stop playing. We should all symbolically move to Canada. They suck, too, but we need to make a point.

Last edited 3 years ago by Alex Delszsen
kathleen carr
kathleen carr
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Delszsen

There was an area where the council voted to disband the police then promptly demanded private security for themselves-probably cost same as the price of police force.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  kathleen carr

Like the alleged $930 million 2010 G20 security for Toronto? Nothing to show for defending the system against Black Bloc.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/28/g20-security-bill

Neil John
Neil John
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Delszsen

Canada’s west coast is almost as bad, Vancouver especially so, so expect more of the same there too.

GA Woolley
GA Woolley
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

You should have written a ‘main paper’ on non sequiturs; you’ve majored in them here.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  GA Woolley

I agree. It’s hard to trim a garden hedge with non sequiturs.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

If you were to listen the Bret’s Dark Horse podcast you would learn that he has a very keen awareness, in fact, and very much believes in the utility of religion. You should listen in, I think you would be pleased.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

“Hell is other people”, Nausea, Jean-Paul Sartre.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

I don’t see anyone providing odds that will enable you to make money – they are going to riot regardless of the outcome.

dturtleman150
dturtleman150
3 years ago

People only bet, when there’s uncertainty about the outcome.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  dturtleman150

That’s cause it’s hard to find anyone to take your bet when there is. Unless, of course you’re wrong.

Uta Pau
Uta Pau
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

No riots. Looks like you were wrong.

kathleen carr
kathleen carr
3 years ago
Reply to  George Bruce

apparently you can be found guilty of both murder and manslaughter for the same event. The crowd will just wait for the next event-the police shot a girl who was trying to stab another girl-whos the wrongdoer here? Its the police of course.

Clive Mitchell
Clive Mitchell
3 years ago

“Can anything be done? And once again, I fear that the answer is no”.

Actually it isn’t, the real answer is “yes, but it won’t”. And that is the tragedy here. You still have the option of voting, the question I want to know is who will the people of Portland vote for next time?

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

They will vote for the same people. Neither the Republicans or a conservative mayor will ever be elected in Portland or Seattle of SF etc.

Clive Mitchell
Clive Mitchell
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Yes I agree that’s the likely result. To which I say for those that vote for the current mayor, serves you right you deserve it, for those who don’t, leave.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

They would sooner move to a red state than vote for a Rep or a conservative. The problem being that they will then endeavour to turn the red state blue and create yet more Portlands.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

There was a very good piece on this issue by a Mr Carlson

JP Martin
JP Martin
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Always. I know people who left California for Montana and Colorado but still vote Democrat. It’s pathological.

Norman Powers
Norman Powers
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

They just did have a vote. Ted Wheeler won, largely because his only opponent was actually an open Marxist who wore a skirt with the face of Marx, Mao and Stalin on it. Wheeler is a ludicrous and mentally weak mayor, but he is at least not that much of a cheerleader for communism.
As the article astutely notes, the problem in Portland is that the left successfully drove out all the conservatives. Having defeated them they are now doing what the left always do after having seized power; destroying utterly everything in a ideology-fuelled mad rampage. Portland’s inability to summon even one non-crazy politician speaks to a culture that has dropped off a cliff.
And of course, the issue is the left struggle to learn lessons. The authors apparently were driven out of their previous institution by a Marxist and yet they chose to flee to … Portland?! Famous even before the anarchists for being extremely liberal? I feel sympathy for the authors but not that much sympathy because they could have gone somewhere that did have conservatives, where they would have been protected. But they chose not to. I am also somewhat doubtful they signed up to campaign for the Republicans, so what did they expect? They jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, and seem to like sitting in it. After all, there’s nothing for them in Portland now and the fact that this has been going on for a year should tell them that Wheeler isn’t about to suddenly get a grip.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

The author seems blind to his own culpability in all this. Anyone on the left knows where it all ends

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

They moved at a time before portland blew up. All of this was of course obviously coming in hindsight, but nobody knew it was coming then. And Portland at the time was but a light beer compared to Olympia, WA’s 110 proof liquor. So from that perspective it’s easy to see portland being a vast improvement.

But I have to respect somebody who jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire, and decides to stop running and make their stand to try to improve the fast-spreading problem. Moving to a redder state would be giving up on the entire northwest region. I’m glad they aren’t doing that, I don’t want this unique part of the country to simply be handed over to the radicals.

Tom Krehbiel
Tom Krehbiel
3 years ago
Reply to  Charles Rense

It wouldn’t be the entire Northwest, just its bigger cities. There are still plenty of Republicans in the small town and rural areas of the region, and a few in the suburbs as well. That’s why much of Oregon is in for a merger with Idaho and/or a new state called Jefferson, in conjunction with the Far North of California.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Charles Rense

Not so much ‘frying pan into the fire’, more like the oblivious frog in the saucepan of slowly heating water..?

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

The authors apparently were driven out of their previous institution by a Marxist and yet they chose to flee to … Portland?! 

Precisely. That was my first reaction too – i’m not even american but i was well aware of the “Portland” caricature more than a decade ago.

I feel sympathy for the authors but not that much sympathy because they could have gone somewhere that did have conservatives, where they would have been protected. But they chose not to. 

Again, precisely my sentiments.

Vic Timov
Vic Timov
3 years ago

Portland does however have an excellent Japanese Garden.
Hopefully it hasn’t been condemned as cultural appropriation.

Last edited 3 years ago by Vic Timov
Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Vic Timov

For now. How long before it goes up in flames for being “oppressive” or “whiteprivileged” or something. That’s what happened to Portland’s Elk statue last year, apparently it didn’t wash well with the blm sensitivities so they set fire upon it.

Hopefully it hasn’t been condemned as cultural appropriation.

That won’t happen, it being Japanese. According to woke dogma, Japan is the epitome of whiteprivilege & all that, and cultural appropriation is only ever done at the expense of ‘les vulnerables’, i.e. the blix. Never the other way around.

Last edited 3 years ago by Johannes Kreisler
Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago

“Blix?” You sound a bit Boer-ing…

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago

I mourn the destruction of the beautiful granite fountain at the base of the Elk. It infuriates me that the vandals damaged the plinth so severely that the Elk had to be removed for its safety. Until last summer, the sight of the Elk gave me a lift every time I passed it.

Last edited 3 years ago by Bruno Suares
dturtleman150
dturtleman150
3 years ago
Reply to  Vic Timov

It’s probably already been used as a public bathroom, and then set on fire.

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  dturtleman150

As in the popular prank: Set fire to a paper bag on someone’s front door containing dog shit. Ring their doorbell and run away. The angry home owner opens the door and enthusiastically stamps out the burning bag of dog shit…

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Vic Timov

It better not be, it was donated by Portland’s sister city in Japan, as were the cherry blossoms on the waterfront.

Dominic S
Dominic S
3 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

You forgot to say that, “having successfully driven out all the conservatives they now live in a utopia of their own making…”
🙂

Last edited 3 years ago by Dominic S
Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

Speaking of Jean-Paul Sartre, “You don’t arrest Voltaire,” President de Gaulle, summer riots, Paris, 1968.

Peter Dunn
Peter Dunn
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

Brett and Co are going to have to ditch their leftism&look for different politics&politicians to vote for..
I sincerely wish them well in Portland.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
3 years ago
Reply to  Peter Dunn

Look into articlesofunity.com – they have been trying hard to come up with a better vision for the future.

Johnny Sutherland
Johnny Sutherland
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

As a SF fan I can only point to three of John Brunner’s novels:
The Sheep Look Up
The Jagged Orbit
Stand on Zanzibar

Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Clive Mitchell

“It all bears an uncanny resemblance to Kristal Nacht. Now we’re all Jews”, Dr Joseph Goebbels.

Charlie Vetter
Charlie Vetter
3 years ago

This bakery reminded me of Kristal Nacht too. It reminded me of a German shop putting a message on their window saying their shop is not owned by Jews so loot the store down the block that is. Cowards.

Ray Mullan
Ray Mullan
3 years ago

Promo code BLM — for your 100% discount on Nike!

I wish I could take credit for the joke but what the heck anyway, it is too good not to repeat. And repeat. Again and again. Everywhere. Until it is in the head of the next entitled little dork who picks up a brick to throw at a shop window, the next sanctimonious charlatan from HR seeking to peddle the snake oil of DIE.

They will hardly laugh but others surely will — Ridicule has power.

Richard E
Richard E
3 years ago
Reply to  Ray Mullan

In the end businesses will quit the inner city and black areas, and move online only for those communities. Then that will be used as another race card issue for BLM, ANTIFA and the rest.

Ray Mullan
Ray Mullan
3 years ago
Reply to  Richard E

What I really like about the joke is that sharp sting it directs at the cynical pose of corporations in all of this. In my opinion the discount will never be big enough to make the appropriate and well–deserved hole they should have coming to their profits.

Second thoughts, I think I’ll have two — thanks, Nike!

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Richard E

Various retailers in places like Chicago have already done this.

Mark Preston
Mark Preston
3 years ago

BLM = Buying Large Mansions

Judy Posner
Judy Posner
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Preston

Give me a break! Is that really the best you can come up with.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Judy Posner

It is both accurate and moderately clever. I like it.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Judy Posner

BLM = Burning Looting Marxists.
Better?

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago

In the US, BLM used to mean Bureau of Land Management. I see no reason it shouldn’t still stand for that.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Charles Rense

Nor do, i, frankly. About time the Bureau of Land Management reclaimed its rightful acronym from the mobsters.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago

I’m just saying BLM is trying to manage land.

Ri Bradach
Ri Bradach
3 years ago

I think you need to raise the year to “everyone born after 1990”. As someone born in the late 70’s I am very aware of the importance of contextual history, as I think my generation commonly are.

We are dealing with this very issue in my company now. The original team – the Spartans – are being joined by Thracians and Athenians as we grow and we are learning that not everyone can be a Spartan and that the vile tendrils of corporatism are driven by craven laws and mores that force corporate double speak.

I used to say that if you have a problem with constructive criticism (ie, if taken on board, you will be better at your job) then your ego is the problem. However, I am assured that in the modern work place, this is no longer the case and we must not say what we think for fear that offence will be taken. Better, apparently, to be ossified by fear than to grow as individuals and as a team through direct, Socratic dialogue.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago

Thank you Brett, you and Heather’s podcasts have really helped me find some sanity as my hometown has been burning.

JP Martin
JP Martin
3 years ago

Only a strong state can prevent the descent into tribalism and private violence.The elaborate show trial and human sacrifice of Derek Chauvin will not appease this mob. It has been allowed to go too far and now it will be even harder to bring it back.

Cheryl Jones
Cheryl Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  JP Martin

Not just a strong state (although that should be defined – who wants a heavy-handed state poking its nose into all our lives?) but a strong sense of shared citizenry and community. Strong communities largely police themselves – which is where we get unwritten codes, manners, etiquettes and rules enforced through peers. The American melting pot used to work because wherever you were from you could become AMERICANS, which means pride in the flag, hot dogs, the Superbowl and so many other things that we all recognise as being distinctly ‘American’ – not hyphenated Americans where you drag your old prejudices and loyalties to your new country and seek to re-establish them in a parallel society that might actually be hostile to American culture. The American experiment worked pretty well for a while, as long as there was that strong overarching culture.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
3 years ago
Reply to  Cheryl Jones

That culture is steadily being lost in the drive for ‘diversity’ by the left. Along with the newspeak diversity means only one idealism is permitted. There once was a Republic but it’s in the process of dissolution. The left has won.

Armand L
Armand L
3 years ago
Reply to  Hardee Hodges

>That culture is steadily being lost in the drive for ‘diversity’ by the left.

Yeah it’s the immigrants who are at fault! Genius, absolute genius.

Richard E
Richard E
3 years ago

Portland reaps what it sows.
I think it is a great example to America and the world, as to what happens if they follow the woke, politically correct left liberal route with critical race theory, identity politics and victim politics all mixed in.
Let Portland destroy itself and burn as an example to the world 🙂
As for the police and other public employees. They’ll just stop turning up – which is what the police seem to be doing already.
“When physicians, nurses, managers, et al. stop showing up for work, the system breaks down very quickly. Not showing up can take a number of forms: early retirement, sick leave, a demand to work halftime, a workers compensation stress leave, and of course, resignation/quitting.” Charles Hugh Smith (oftwominds.com)

Last edited 3 years ago by Richard E
Edward Paul Campbell
Edward Paul Campbell
3 years ago
Reply to  Richard E

“I love it”, Emperor Nero.

mdoocey
mdoocey
3 years ago

When you’ve been driven out of your work by the increasingly totalitarian Left and then choose where next to live based on “its proximity to nature and the food culture” it seems to me that it’s time to actually wake up and stop feeding the alligators.
And btw, want to find authentic Liberals? Take a look at Conservatives and Libertarians; we are the only Classical Liberals left in America.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

Portland’s police were substantially ‘defunded’ last year, and the Firearms Investigation Unit was disbanded. Since then, homicides have increased by over 1000%. Happy days for progressives everywhere!

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

It’s fairly clear that gangs are responsible for much of the recent gang violence in Portland, yet the Portland City Council recently approved a gun-violence-reduction plan that makes no mention of gangs or of their role in the spike in gun violence.
The ulta-woke Black city council member Jo Ann Hardesty has said police should play no role in violence prevention. In violation of nondiscrimination laws, Hardesty recently hosted a town hall where in-person attendance was limited to Black men between the ages of 14 and 44. The purpose of the event was to discuss people’s response to police violence,

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

I see that an earlier post has been removed. I will simply say that it’s great to see Bret here. I always watch most of the two weekly Dark Horse podcasts that he and Heather put out. On their latest podcast they show pics of a trip they made to downtown Portland.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Is the heavy hand of censorship visiting these pages more and more? If so, it will destroy this community of course and drive intelligent, polite commentary away.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

He’s an interesting guy but burdened with some political myopia. Weinstein desperately wants to cling to a status of “liberal in good standing who thinks all the right thoughts” while his side goes off the rails.
I simply cannot imagine a right-wing equivalent of the antifas being allowed to run roughshod over any city for months on end. When it goes on this long and Dems at the local and state levels do nothing, it is not unreasonable to think that their inaction is a form of tacit approval.

Last edited 3 years ago by Alex Lekas
Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

We have known for almost a year that Dems at the local and state level, and their fellow travellers in the judiciary and media etc, approve of these riots.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Right, which makes Weinstein all the more perplexing. He’s not in favor of rioting, yet I can’t see him voting any way but Dem.

Dennis Lewis
Dennis Lewis
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

He has been very critical of the Dems and the “Orange-man-bad” discourse. Weinstein has even proposed the formation of a third party.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

I happen to know who he voted for last year, and it wasn’t Biden

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

We had a right wing movement occupy a small community in Easter oregon for months on end.

Funny thing is, the same governor who wanted the national guard to stay out of Portland also wanted them to come in and bust heads on that occaision. Yet as armed as they were, those guys didn’t kill anyone.

Geoffrey Simon Hicking
Geoffrey Simon Hicking
3 years ago

How ironic that Liberals are destroying America due to a fear of racism and colonialism…. when Liberals were often the progressive imperialists that wanted to conquer the world to civilise it, whether the world liked it or not.
If Liberals want to atone for that sort of thing, can they do it in a way that doesn’t involve toppling statues and attacking innocent people? Or are the habits of 1789 still too entrenched?

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago

This mob will eventually kill someone. Well, someone else since the first murder has already happened. Local and state officials alike excuse the mob, refuse to even speak against it let alone act, the mayor let himself be run out of his own condo.
For normal to return, the response will have to be so overwhelming that it will look like war, but what’s the alternative? Wait until a building that’s set on fire with people inside – and that has happened – burns to the ground with dozens of casualties? And even then, there will be people who justify the carnage. The irony is that one of the whitest cities in the country in a state founded largely as a haven for whites pretends to care about black people. While burning down or shooting at their businesses.

Andy Martin
Andy Martin
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

This mob will eventually kill someone.
I’m wondering if the reverse might happen – someone possibly the owner of such esoteric hardware as a 50 calibre machine gun or a flame thrower might become so enraged that they try to kill as many of the mob as they can.
That would be awful..

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Andy Martin

I’m a little surprised that something like that has not happened. Not on a 50-cal scale, but something like the Koreans who guarded their neighborhood during the Rodney King riots.

dturtleman150
dturtleman150
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

We need a return of the spirit of “Roof Koreans”.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Very similar BLM/Antifa mobs killed numerous people last summer. Not that you’d know if if you follow the MSM.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

It already has.

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
3 years ago

“Of course, all reasonable people understand that black people have faced oppression in North America since their ancestors were brutally imported as slaves.”

hahaha, “has come to call a “don’t-hurt-me wall””

Because no reasonable people believe what you said, which is – ‘All Black People in USA Are Oppressed, and always have been – that is not true’

Anyway, what fun seeing the Liberals being eaten by ‘Super-Liberals’.

“”An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.”. Sir Winston Churchill, Reader’s Digest, December 1954.”

haha You Liberals “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reapthewhirlwind.” hahaha. So, you must read the link to his Evergreen College story – (hint he got run off, but given a half million dollar handshake on the way out). But it all is going exactly as planned. This is Liberal/Lefty ‘Frankfurt School’ 101. The goal is to destroy the Middle Class as they are the only force which could stand up to the Global Elites. No other group has the ethical, education, and financial base in enough numbers to count. And so the Frankfurt School 11 points. A bunch of Intellectuals, secular Humanists, Marxists, Nihilists, based on Existentialism and Freud, Liberals, set this plan to destroy Capitalism way back in the 1930s in the Wiemar Republic, and it is working well. The plan was to destroy the family, very successfully, then – well, google the Frankfurt School 11 points, I bet you can spot the pattern.

Part two of this plan is creating lawlessness, crime, intentionally. As Soros has paid for the campaigns of the Lefty DAs, and their ilk in ‘Justice’, and for politicos in all things, this preventing of punishment for crime is exponentially leading to more crime. This is what they want, and for a reason which did not exist in the 1930s, to make all on the data base. This China like surveillance will be sold as the only way to prevent the collapse from the massive rise in crime THEY ENGINEERED, wait and see. Like covid response was not to save lives but to create a mega depression/recession/hyper inflation/deflation (I do not think even they know which, but it will cripple society, and thus lead to the streets being a war zone)(coming soon) and police state, the engineered raise in crime is really working.

Read this guy’s link – his story here – you can see this breaking of society is ENGINEERED, he says it was at Evergreen. The writer still is a believer though, even though he was one of its collateral damage, but once a true believer in the beauty of cliff leaping, the lemming will always believe it.

Andrew Crisp
Andrew Crisp
3 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

I agree, this is not an “out of control” situation, it is planned to effect change. They are hoping people will willingly be “chipped” to make this carnage/virus/poverty, go away. The Left are being used to bring this about.

Last edited 3 years ago by Andrew Crisp
barbara neil
barbara neil
3 years ago

I have lived through decades of build up of a similar crisis. This time in the name of the fantasies of nationalism rather than the fantasies of the left. While they are at pains to claim a progressive face, it is still a profoundly reactionary movement. What stands out are the tactical similarities. The cultural and material destruction, the collusion of authority, the desperate need of otherwise responsible citizens to take their fantasy claims seriously, which leads to well-meaning, temperate and useless appeals to reason. A waste of time, an avoidance that only makes them dare to be more monstrous. I see it as an attempt to seize power and status by people who suspect they wouldn’t get there on their own merit, plus those who stand to make a buck from it. (hence the movement against “meritocracy”). The end will always justify the means for these people. They must be stood up to, as soon as possible, you have to fight back! Start with publishing, as often as poss., propaganda FOR the culture that has given us such prosperity, do not lag or tire of explaining history – and look for a leader who’s not afraid of the mob.

Dorothy Slater
Dorothy Slater
3 years ago

Portland is a city of neighborhoods and there are many folks in my 8 years of living here, who stick to their neighborhood and rarely go downtown to see first hand what is going on. Many of my friends live in the suburbs and are even less involved in the Any news they get of Portland city is through our media which refuses to call a riot anything other than a peaceful protest. We do know, of course, every detail of the latest shooting buy the police – who, by the way, have had 15 million dollars removed by their budget in order to fund an alternative agency who unfortunately so far have done nothing.
There is one thing that Seattle and SF have in common with Portland . All three are extremely “progressive” cities who think that doing nothing about homelessness, riots, etc, is compassionate . Of course everything is racialized even in the churches and not to fall in line with the progressive mantra is to risk losing friends since and , there seem to be a sizeable number who agree with them. I am one of those who sneak a peak at Ben Shapiro and other right wing conservatives but who follows the don’t ask, don’t tell philosophy rather than lose my friends.
If I had seen the future 8 years ago when I moved here, I would have chosen another city which is a sad sad thing since I fell in love at first sight with it and for the first two or three years was happy to be here. Today, not so much.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  Dorothy Slater

The city of Portland plans to spend $150 million on the problem of homelessness next year. That’s not doing nothing about homelessness. Portland and Multnomah County expend vast amounts of time and money on homelessness. The problem is the efforts are not working.
To my knowledge, there has been no peer-reviewed analysis of the reasons such efforts are ineffective.
Portland, like other municipalities in the federal ninth judicial district, is hampered by a ruling that towns and cities cannot criminalize homeless camping unless it is providing sufficient shelter beds for its entire homeless population.

Tom Knott
Tom Knott
3 years ago

These people aren’t anarchists, even if they claim to be. Anarchism doesn’t mean disorder and thuggery, it just means not having government. The latter is a situation that politicians fear more than anything: they would rather see their rivals in office than have the people realise that they don’t need a political elite to tell them how to live.

The concept of a left wing anarchist is ridiculous: left wingers depend on a left wing government to impose their ideology on dissenters.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Knott

I also got stuck on the word anarchy as strange.

Antoine Doinel
Antoine Doinel
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Knott

These people definitely ARE anarchists. Bret’s not an idiot—and certainly not when it comes to left-wing taxonomy, given his time at Evergreen.

The protestors want to dissolve government and end its services, and create “autonomous zones” within which people rely on “community policing” and some sort of sharing economy. They are anarchists, and many of them are surprisingly well-versed in anarchist theory.

Of course, there’s a reason why there are no examples of successful anarchies in human history. (Supposed examples—e.g., some tribe in the Amazon—always turn out to be tiny, rigidly socially hierarchical, and ethnically homogeneous.)

Anyway: this entire comment thread reveals a deep misunderstanding of American left-wing politics, particularly as it’s practiced in cities like Portland, Seattle, and Austin.

Please try to understand at least this one simple, central fact: Leftists (including myself; I’m a social democrat, who’d like to see America adopt something like the NHS, and guarantee housing and a living wage to people who work all week) LOATHE the Democratic Party.

I’ll say it again since there’s so much confusion here: leftists LOATHE—despise, hate, do not identify with, are not represented by—the Democratic Party.

The Democrats are in the pocket of billionaire donors, never met a war they didn’t like, and spent the last 30 years supporting right-wing policies and then adding NAFTA, mass incarceration, “don’t-ask-don’t-tell,” and the student loan crisis. The Democratic machine crushed a popular, positive populist movement in consecutive elections: first to prop up a dynastic candidate, the wife of a former leader, who can barely conceal her hatred for the voters, and next to prop up a former shill for the credit card and prison industries who has since become a drooling sex pest, a guy who is practically decomposing in front of us. When his ears fall into his soup, the Democrats will get to install the hated Kamala Harris, a classist prosecutor who routinely laughs when she talks about imprisoning pot-smokers and mothers who can’t afford child care. She finished dead last in a crowded primary, but she will be president for 2-10 years.

Democratic voters are weak. Democratic politicians are crooks. The left hates Democrats as much as the right does.

Leftists also do not consider themselves “liberals.” On the hard left, “liberal” is an insult, as is “reformer.” Please understand the basics before you start pretending to be experts!

Portland is not an ironic case of confused protestors “getting everything they wanted” and “having the mayor they want.” They want to burn Portland and its institutions to the ground, and replace it with a new social arrangement. If you don’t understand this, but you’re explaining the Portland crisis to others, you’re disseminating misinformation.

The Democrats and their constituents, meanwhile, value their institutions—or at least would prefer to keep their wealth, schools, and personal security—but are too weak-minded and cowardly to effectively resist an opponent who uses slogans like “black lives matter” and “whiteness is violence.” They’re so afraid of seeming racist that they will defend years’ worth of property destruction, denounce due process, agree that “white women’s tears” are “weapons of white supremacy,” and turn a blind eye to the victimization of the weak.

Bret isn’t saying, stupidly, that no possible solution to the disintegration of Portland can be imagined. He’s saying that no solution can feasibly work when the majority, their elected government (Portland’s DA is a disgrace), and their press (Portland papers and TV are basically BLM/Antifa propaganda outlets) have surrendered abjectly to a bat- and molotov-cocktail-wielding mob.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  Antoine Doinel

Thank you! This is the first truly convincing explanation of the motives and objectives of Portland’s anarchists I have come across. Portland’s mayor and the other members of the city council are as afraid of incurring the wrath of the woke voters as Republicans are of riling the MAGA constituency.
Your assessment of Multnomah County DA Mike “Vassar Boy” Schmidt is spot-on.

Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz
3 years ago

I don’t live in Portland so can’t comment on how bad it is – or not, but I do take issue with the “where’s the police” whining – because that’s what it is – whining. The police serve at the pleasure of the city and are all too aware that they can and will be thrown under the bus by self-serving politicians that swing according to the prevailing wind. If the mayor thought for a minute that his political future depended on slapping down the anarchists the police would be busy doing it.
The police “aren’t doing anything” because the people and the city, meaning those that support the anarchists outright and those that hope that maybe they’ll just go away if they aren’t provoked, don’t want them to.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  Walter Lantz

But the mayor was only elected because his opponent was worse. And people do not want to stand because of the nightmare and violence they face. See Bret and Heather’s latest podcast and it does make sense. A young, bold, brave, intelligent, unemotional person is called for.

Tony Warren
Tony Warren
3 years ago

Bret and Heather are anything but innocent bystanders in all of this. What they have failed to recognize is that the descent into anarchy is fueled by the leftist ideas that they hold so closely.
They claim to be Liberals, but are nothing more or less than socialists of the postmodern academic left type.
Liberalism is a means of minimizing government intrusion into the lives of citizens. Socialism wants governments to intrude into the lives of others at ever rising rates.
The idea of ‘fairness’ never occurred to liberals, such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson and others. Their big idea was spontaneous order. Complex social structures did not require some overarching directing intelligence; they just happened on their own if certain rules were applied. Dugald Stewart put it well “little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and the tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought by the natural course of things.” 
After the attack of Andy Ngo by Antifa thugs in Portland I watched an interview of Andy by Bret Weinstein. 
In that interview Bret, compared the attack on Andy with the attacks he suffered at Evergreen University, where he and his wife were faculty members for many years. Evergreen is a progressive state university in Olympia Washington. It is the home of many and various studies programs. Perusing the course catalogue is an interesting exercise in abundant attempts to bring intersectionality into all imaginable fields; from aesthetics to zoology they all get the postmodern academic left treatment. Essentially Bret complained that he was attacked and viciously so, by his own kind, students and colleagues; did they not know that he was one of the good guys, a liberal just like them? 
Heather and Bret are slowly coming to realize that their leftist ideas are bad ideas, but they want to continue to seem virtuous by clinging to some aspect of them. It is worth noting that while Bret, Heather and Bret’s brother are intelligent, they are at best lower rung academics with few academic accomplishments or publications.
Freddy Sayers is of the same bent. The whole group of them would do well to study up on what Sir Roger Scruton has to say about the benefits of conservatism.

Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz
3 years ago
Reply to  Tony Warren

I tend to agree with Jordan Peterson’s take on this. Society evolves and progresses through the traction created when the center Left and center Right rub up against each other. The extreme fringe on either side throw that process into chaos.
Peterson’s claim is that the Right does a better job at isolating and marginalizing the fringe – that too far Right is a political non-starter, whereas the Left can’t seem to the do that. If Left is Good, then farther Left is Better.
If your center Left view is “I want to see progress on racial issues but I can’t abide anarchist looting” I’ll bet you’ll always be able to sit down and have a productive conversation with a center Right conservative that values law and order but cringes at police brutality.
On the other hand, Far Left revolutionaries don’t want to talk to anyone, and no one wants to talk to them so how do you get anywhere like that?

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Tony Warren

Liberalism is a means of minimizing government intrusion into the lives of citizens.
Ironically, the left’s perversion of the language results in an opposite interpretation of what ‘liberal’ means today.

Paul Ansell
Paul Ansell
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

Antifa is supposedly an abbreviation for Anti-fascist…..
One of the key tenets of Fascism is forcible suppression of opposing views…..irony upon irony……

Don Gaughan
Don Gaughan
3 years ago

The culturural annhilation of the free democracies of western civilisation by a truthless deluded fanatical neo marxist intolerant hypocritical malicious left woke progressive cult is reported and opposed by millions of citizens across the world.We have fought and prevailed over tyrannies before and we can defeat this one.
The self hating culturally suicidal progressive left cult is a seriously harmful unhinged vicious mob but a small minority compared to the peoples of the west they are now inflicting their racist hate and damages on.
People are organising to stand up speak out and oppose them, (ie FAIR, a group of parents ,lawyers, elected reps opposing woke political indocrination of children in secular publuc schools and the racist Critical Race Theory imposed on students), organisations in Britain protecting free speech and cancel cult targets, non left govts requiring free speech protection at left dominated universities, etc.
Restoring law and order and re funding the police , getting the police and authorities to enforce existing law is one simple route to take.
The left have unwittingly given given the criteria for racist hate, and whrn brought to justice and proven guilty by their own criteria, we should also see them face the same consequences they demand for those they falsely accuse..fired, deplatformed ,etc.
It will not be easy to liberate the west from the demented totalitarian neo marxist progressive tyranny , but it can and will be done.

Angus J
Angus J
3 years ago

The notice in the window of the bakery shop reminds me of the agreement between the frog and the scorpion in the fable.
But scorpions gonna sting, and rioters gonna destroy.

James Pelton
James Pelton
3 years ago

I visited Portland two years ago, in the summer. The streets and parks were full of homeless people. It was noticeably worse than San Fran’s Tenderloin district or Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. In fact it worse than anything I have seen in Asia or South America. Good bagels and fresh sushi don’t make up for that. Evidently it is even worse now. I’ll never go back.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  James Pelton

Douglas Murray visited Portland a few months ago and said it was worse than anything he’d seen in any third world country, particularly with regard to the painted slogans openly calling for the death of Andy Ngo.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  James Pelton

I grew up in the Caracas of the 50s and 60s and I have traveled in India. A stretch of sidewalk occupied by homeless people within walking distance of my condo is worse than anything I ever saw there.

Tim Gardener
Tim Gardener
3 years ago

Liberalism is eating itself. How very unsurprising. This is the outworking of consequences once God is rejected and people do whatever seems right to them without acknowleding their Creator.

Gary Anderson
Gary Anderson
3 years ago
Reply to  Tim Gardener

T.S. Eliot said it best: ““The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide.”

Pete the Other
Pete the Other
3 years ago

What’s baffling is that Brett seems taken aback by all this, especially having gone through the Evergreen State College business mentioned. I suggest looking at the history of Germany (and perhaps, for depth, some other places) between the wars.

Onthe OtherHand
Onthe OtherHand
3 years ago

Sorry Brett, Even back in the eighties, Portland was a funky city known for its crowd of migratory street creatures left over from the dying ‘hippie’ culture in California. To figure the city might slide downward, not upward from there, would not have taken a great deal of foresight. Yes, I still miss McCormicks and Powell’s Book Store (at least the way it was), but I would never have chosen to live in or around that city.
Instead of playing your violin, let’s look at the factors you avoid. I’ll help.
Did you happen to ask the proprietor of Petunia’s Bakery who he or she voted for? How about all of the other coffee shop and quaint little cafe owners? Since you neglected that point, I’ll tell you: They all voted for the uber liberal mayor who has not a single electron swirling in the void between his ears. Would they have voted for Trump or another strong law-and-order pro business conservative? Of course not. They–and possibly yourself–do not realize that civic stability is not something ‘blowing in the wind’. It takes effort and structure, and local politicians who are unwilling to promise everything to everyone, and who are willing to enforce orderly conduct, and I’m not talking about wearing a mask.
So, I don’t feel too much sympathy for the Portland business owners. With few exceptions, they brought it on themselves–and get this–If given the chance to relocate in Austin or Memphis, or Denver, practically anywhere else, these same Portland shop owners pleading for mercy would vote for the same liberal politicians. Coming from Evergreen, you might understand it, but I can’t.

herbwoodbury1949
herbwoodbury1949
3 years ago

If you want to see the Portland police do something quickly use a gun to protect yourself or your property. There will be a dozen police cars there in a blink of an eye and the legal system will work with amazing speed and massive force against you.

Payne Sandler
Payne Sandler
3 years ago

That is very sad.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago

As Leonard Cohen (my favourite genius of a man) puts it:
“I know you’ve heard it’s over now, And War must surely come
The cities they all broke in half, And the middlemen are gone
But let me ask you one more time, O children of the dusk
All these hunters who are shrieking now, Oh, do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go, Now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still, That were coming home to me?”

Last edited 3 years ago by Lesley van Reenen
John Pade
John Pade
3 years ago

And this has put those of us who consider ourselves “of the Left” in a dangerous predicament.’ If Mr. Weinstein looked in his mirror he would see he has become a rightist. Having espoused the Portland principles, he now appeals to the Florida ones for his own, not others, protection.

Joey Lemur
Joey Lemur
3 years ago

Oh Bret, you’re totally missing the forest for the trees. The leftist abandonment of law and order is a feature to them, not a bug. You think it’s just the anarchists, but it’s the entire root of leftist and Marxist ideology.

Jeff Mason
Jeff Mason
3 years ago

Why are we, as a society, tolerating this nonsense? These riots need to be quashed. If they get violent, the police need to respond in kind with greater force. I few cracked skulls will stop this from being fun.

barbara neil
barbara neil
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeff Mason

Better to hit their pockets. Fine them so heavily – a % of the damage perhaps – that it will damage their and their family’s future prosperity. Jail and counter violence only gives them victim status.

Last edited 3 years ago by barbara neil
Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
3 years ago
Reply to  barbara neil

Notice the FBI will leave no stone unturned to locate the Jan 6 rioters. But Portland, Minneapolis, elsewhere, meh, no attempt to identify the people responsible for $3B in damages and many lives lost. The dual system of justice is working well.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  Hardee Hodges

In the past month, Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, he of the colossaly misguided decision not to charge certain categories of crimes frequently committed by rioters, has finally begun charging anarchists for crimes they have committed during direct actions. They include pulling down statues of past presidents, breaking the windows of the historical society and setting fires.

Dominic S
Dominic S
3 years ago

Bristol next.

Philip May
Philip May
3 years ago

The article mentions that the bakery is run by women a number of times. Why is this? Would the situation be any different if it was run by men? Blacks? Gays? Jews? Asking for a friend.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Philip May

Well, it’s a Portland bakery, that’s why:

epitomises everything progressive about the city.

What cracked me up was:

Its pies and pastries are wheat-free

So parody-Portland.
Many of these glutenfree earfmudderly peacenik goddess types will have a rude awakening of their own making, hence the emergence of “don’t hurt meee!!1!” walls mentioned in the article.
Ho humm.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago
Reply to  Philip May

To put this in context, there’s an assumption that anarchists will target only property that’s associated with their enemies. Hence the long history of attacks on courthouses, the ICE facility, branches of big banks and the HQ of the police union.

However, Portlanders were shocked (or more shocked than usual) when an an anarchist rampage caused seemingly random damage to property not associated with anarchists’ historic enemies. Some women- and minority-owned businesses were attacked. This week anarchists damaged the Boys and Girls Club in a historically Black neighborhood. That, too, caused outrage, because the Boys and Girls Club has a good reputation in the Black community.

To answer your question, the situation would be no different if the bakery were owned by Blacks, gays or Jews, all of whom are perceived (rightly or wrongly) to sympathize with leftist causes. It would be different if the bakery were run by an auxiliary arm of the Portland Police Bureau, because by now all its windows would be boarded over and the facade would be covered with anarchists’ favorite slogans.

Last edited 3 years ago by Bruno Suares
John Smith
John Smith
3 years ago

Yeah sorry the naivete is a bit much. Maybe you and your wife can move again…I hear Minneapolis is an up & comer.

Lydia R
Lydia R
3 years ago

Meanwhile the BLM founder lives in a 1.4 million mansion in a quiet, largely white suburb.

Louis Starks
Louis Starks
3 years ago

Let me just say for starters that “REAL, hard-working Black people, do not subscribe to the entirety of Woke principles. Someone please do the polling. There is a false equivalency with BLM and the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve never equated them, I’m no genius, but I’m a history major and a voracious reader. And after reading the text of BLM’s Mission Statement (which appears to have been changed since my first reading back in March of 2020), I began to share how its principles were antithetical to significant Black perspectives with some of my friends.
The irony of the information age is that people abhor information, they are loathed to take the time to read and compare ‘notes.” Pretty sad when you think about it but true. Consequently, you have mainstream Black Christian churches (or I venture to say anti-LBGTQ conservative Black churches) promoting an organization that loathes many of the traditional customs, concepts, and principles of traditional Black households. 
I’m not saying most Blacks are anti-LBGTQ, though some conservative Black churches are. Overwhelming majority of Black folks trying to pay bills, they do not give a damn about who’s “zooming who.”  I’m simply saying 95% of BLM Black supporters are clueless about BLM’s hostility to Black men’s role in the nuclear family and community because of our perceived dominant role in Black society. All men are misogynistic under this rubric. The founding principles of BLM are hostile to Black (or any male-lead) household, despite statistics proving convincingly two parent households produce children who have a better chance at succeeding in society.
I promise you 95% of BLM supporters do not even know what BLM really stands for, poll how many of them have visited BLM website. Consequently, there’s a wide-spread collective involvement in and ignorance about Wokestan’s clownish performative justice, sloganeering, social engineering, and astute propaganda. How do you (BLM) receive millions of dollars and you don’t even have an organizational structure or a legislative platform, or a mechanism for sub grants?   
 I’ve Tweeted my position about Wokeism on several occasions. It’s a WHITE authoritarian trope wrapped in thought and speech censorship parading as efforts addressing Structural Racism. Note to revolutionary wannabes: No person irrespective of skin color is going to give you $90 Million dollars to tear down the system they support unless, as Prof. Weinstein states “..the needless, coming collapse will fall disproportionately on the most precariously positioned.”  Meaning “you.”  That is not a political stance as much as it is an economic eventuality.  None of those Woke dopes discuss the NY Federal Reserve report of March 2021 that highlights how Stimulus money, be it 2008, or 2020 exacerbates the racial wealth gap. 
My baby brother said it best the other day, “We don’t care that much about White people.” I said to our older Brother that I interpret his words to mean: “There are enough decent White people that we will spend no energy on converting racist or bigoted or mean-spirited White people. That is the job of good White folks. How Woke people spend every fricking minute thinking of race demonstrates conclusively how people go insane by dwelling on race as their sole and daily pre-occupation. Only mad men can countenance this. On balance, Black people from the Boomer generation think only strategically about race, we are not consumed by it. No amount of posturing or jury verdicts will change structural racism, the solutions are based in economics.
My siblings and I are children of the 60’s and 70’s. The so-called movement of today is more superficial (despite the reality of the property destruction and violence) and performative than substantive. They have no plan for analysis, corrective action, nor implementation, they prefer bitching and moaning to constructive solutions. Further, there are ample signs that BLM is the Black equivalency of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a mechanism to corral the discontent in the Black populace just like Bernie corrals it in a multi-cultural, albeit predominantly younger White populace.  Perhaps Antifa does the same of young Whites, I do not know? 
What I do know is that Antifa’s efforts are the works of individuals intent on tearing down not building up communities, otherwise they would not destroy innocent people’s property for their self-centered, gratuitous pleasures. Destroying people’s property turns the stomach of any decent, Black person I know. The riots in the 60’s 70’s were more spontaneous combustions and real insurrections than today’s senseless “Let’s go see who’s stuff we can destroy tonight.” Anarchism cruelly mocks  the efforts of those who worked their tails off to build a middle-class life- style, community solidarity, and mutual respect for person and property. They tear down the same people who are the best potential allies. 
People of my era were taught to deal with racism and bigotry by being twice as good, not twice as evil. Please stop conflating ALL Black folks with BLM/Antifa activities. 

Rod Smith
Rod Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Louis Starks

Wow. Food for thought. Thanks.

Andrew Eccles
Andrew Eccles
3 years ago

There’s a strong tradition of anarchism in the US from running from the formidable Emma Goldman to Murray Bookchin, neither of whom I’m pretty sure would argue that what is happening in Portland sits within the tradition of anarchism (which is really about collective self-government). So – genuine question from a non-US citizen – why is what would appear to be sheer nihilism being classed as ‘anarchism’? Is it self-proclaimed by the proponents (and therefore deluded) or a term appointed by others (incorrectly, or with a political purpose in mind)?

Last edited 3 years ago by Andrew Eccles
Judy Posner
Judy Posner
3 years ago

THE thing that doesnt make sense here is if you didn’t like the politics of Evergreen, why the hell would you go to Portland? Common knowledge is that it is a similar socio-political environment. So what would be the point—unless of course you fancied yourself some sort of libertarian provocateur

Benjamin D'Oveire
Benjamin D'Oveire
3 years ago

Interesting article, however, the pathetic appeasing prose of author shows how he clearly is a part of the problem.

Last edited 3 years ago by Benjamin D'Oveire
Sean MacSweeney
Sean MacSweeney
3 years ago

Only a moron would readily move to a place under “Democrats” control. What have New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, and Portland got in common
They are like every other failed “Democrat” held city a ****hole

Last edited 3 years ago by Sean MacSweeney
Michael Coleman
Michael Coleman
3 years ago

Can anything be done? And once again, I fear that the answer is no.”
There is a bit of cognitive dissonance in this conclusion given the author earlier acknowledged the lack of political will by the single-party government is a fundamental source of the problem. Maybe implicit is his desire to stay in a liberal urban center – if so the conclusion makes more sense.
Of course there are solutions. Florida will soon have a new anti-riot law. Among the law’s many new measures: localities can be sued for failure to protect citizens and their property. It’s absurd that US cities pay 100s of millions of dollars per year for frequently questionable personal injury /wrongful death awards and yet a law must be be passed to make clear local governments inherent covenant to protect citizens and their property.

Payne Sandler
Payne Sandler
3 years ago

He clearly does not want to admit the truth. That it is up to him and his fellow democrats to clean their own house.

imackenzie56
imackenzie56
3 years ago

I love the weasel words in this article–“hapless mayor”, the “city responds helpfully by removing the [offending] statues”. You deserve what you get, author because you still can’t even accept that progressives are Leninist thugs who hate free societies. Eventually you will flee to another reasonably run city and vote the exact same way and cry when the exact same things happen.

google
google
3 years ago

Time to stop feeding the crocodile.

SJ
SJ
3 years ago

I think the author has lived a very self satisfied liberal life her entire life until she got ran out of Evergreen. And now she’s surprised at what is happening in Portland? This was all predictable. She spent her life(I assume) voting for the people and the policies that she now feels betrayed by. I noticed in her words a tinge of awakening conservatism. I hope so.
In all of the states suffering right now I ask one thing of the complaining citizens. Didn’t you vote for these people? Didn’t you demonize every conservative, small government, individual freedom minded, candidate as a “right wing racist” over the last ten years? I’ll bet she bought into all of that. And she needs to look in the mirror as do all “progressives” who are seeing this come home to roost in their own backyard.

Dawn McD
Dawn McD
2 years ago
Reply to  SJ

He, not she. Not to nitpick. I’m surprised that anyone who’s outside of the mainstream bubble doesn’t already know who Brett Weinstein is, but I suppose it depends on where you live.

Tom Santos
Tom Santos
3 years ago

Now leftists know how Dr. Frankenstein felt when his own creation turned on him. Shakespeare said it best: “Hoist with his own petard!”

Last edited 3 years ago by Tom Santos
ericraymond837
ericraymond837
3 years ago

The author describes himself as being on the left. That means that – at best – he failed to oppose the subversion of our institutions by Communists. At worst, he was actively complicit.

Accordingly, my sympathy for him is nil. And will remain so until he realizes the extent to which he was part of the problem.

Last edited 3 years ago by ericraymond837
Victor Newman
Victor Newman
3 years ago

Get out of Portland, now.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago

Rather like Cambodia in the early 70’s.

Alex Delszsen
Alex Delszsen
3 years ago

Weinstein showed a photograph on his website of black, Hispanic (That was J-Lo, Bret and Heather!) and white models at the torched Tiffany store, with only the white models having X’s drawn across their faces.
This open degradation makes me think that we have a Game of Thrones type uprising, finally putting white people in chains. Cue derisive laughter here about white fear aka white fragility. I wonder if we are not just beginning a new time of slavery. Heck, slavery was taken as read in the Bible, because that was the barbarian state of people at the time.
We have our venal, greedy and stupid leaders who can create a new Rome again. And then there are those countries from the East, who can take advantage of this, who can repeat history in their ways once more.
Oh, happy days on a loop!

Arnold Grutt
Arnold Grutt
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Delszsen

Yes, but the ancient Israelites are said to have limited it to 7 years, the first people known to have done anything like that. The festival of ‘Jubilees’ celebrates the fact.The justification (probably dreamed up much later) given is that they had themselves once been held captive in Egypt. Ironically this is a prominent trope in black Protestant forms of religion, frequently expressed in musical form (e.g. ‘Let my people go’).

Chris Oliver
Chris Oliver
3 years ago

Portland must have been a really bad place, riddled with injustice and prejudice, to deserve such comprehensive retribution.

By the way, who appointed antifa to be the judges and guardians of our moral rectitude?

Last edited 3 years ago by Chris Oliver
Payne Sandler
Payne Sandler
3 years ago
Reply to  Chris Oliver

Well it is a democrat controlled city so yes, all those things are occurring there. That is what you get when you become a slave on the democrat plantation. It has been that way for hundreds of years.

The End
The End
3 years ago

Portland is an experiment, a testing ground. If the left decides that violence benefits them, then other cities will become like this as well. Don’t forget they are playing a long-term game! The terror may seem counterproductive, but it proved effective at getting rid of all the opposition. The lessons of Red Terror and the Night of the Long Knives have been learned and understood correctly.

Last edited 3 years ago by The End
superbennychode69
superbennychode69
3 years ago

Complaining that Anarchists, mostly white liberal children of rich parents, are spray painting buildings, smashing windows, setting dumpsters on fire, and holding up traffic……is just a waste of time. If this really bothered the voters of Portland they would have voted for a mayor and city council that would crack down on this. They have not. All I can say is If you live there and are not happy with it then you should leave. Because right now the majority of voters are currently okay with the way things are now.

stewartfrankel1
stewartfrankel1
3 years ago

of course the root of this lies with the mayor, and the governor. they have an armed police force, the opportunity to ask for reinforcement, the full weight of the federal govt, potentially. but because paramount to both is to not “look bad”, in the eyes of the woke mob, they pander; slimy little rats that they are. in the wake, innocent liberal/progressive citizens are overtaken by an orwellian mob. they are most certainly the fascists/totalitarians they claim to be “fighting against.”
there is literally only one way out of this. start voting for people that you would have never considered voting for. irrespective of your potential differences, those people are the only thing standing between you and what you see in portland. wheeler et al will continue to allow all of this.

Last edited 3 years ago by stewartfrankel1
nordchristensen
nordchristensen
3 years ago

Of course there’s something to be done! Residents need only elect civic officers who refuse to kowtow to anarchy. Yet as more folks flee the woke bedlam, the fewer voters there are to effect these changes.

Jethro D’plore
Jethro D’plore
3 years ago

Mr. Weinstein thank you for your unapologetic assertion that you have the right to defend yourself and your family against violent threats that are around you.
Please do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already, and invest in a two-day defensive handgun course at a local gun range or gun training facility. You’ll feel much more confident and competent as you exercise your right to self defense with a gun.

Last edited 3 years ago by Jethro D’plore
Rod Smith
Rod Smith
3 years ago

Bret, I do sympathize with you and Heather due to your mindless persecution at Evergreen, but you just went on your own foray into irrationality. To start with, Portland has been trending lawless for quite some time; living at nearby Evergreen this you surely should have known. More importantly, you need the moral courage to reject the dearly held leftism that reason must tell you is wrong. Your irrationality has you prisoner; you can’t see that? Are you truly a victim of leftism when you hold such a paradoxical relationship with it?
…True liberalism is Western Liberalism, of the type that, as another commentator noted, was advocated by Adam Smith, among others. True liberalism is freedom (liberty) for OTHERS, and generosity with one’s OWN resources (1 Corinthians 16:3). Both tests modern so called “liberalism,” really illiberal, miserably fails. In this age, the real liberals are those usually called conservatives (just check personal giving records).
…To stop mob rule we must stand up to the mob. In the end, they are cowards.

Last edited 3 years ago by Rod Smith
Rob Alka
Rob Alka
3 years ago

Sadly it’s a familiar fault of the upper echelon of society and therefore also its government to analyse to death or distraction the Why’s rather than just deal effectively with the What’s.
I am certain that the strategic anarchists who light the fuse and fan the flames of disorder and destruction are a small proportion of the total out there protesting about …… well, whatever it is that day.
The police in this Democrat state are held back by the local governor and Biden isn’t going to contest that and lose his voter franchise, even if he was allowed to do so, which he isn’t, such is the Dis-United states of America.
The remedy is simple. Round up these protesting boneheaded delinquents by mowing them down with firehoses and rubber bullets and tear gas (and, if necessary, something less gentle). State prisons are probably over-full so build some large detention tents. Once captured they can be chained together. Their trial by judges can take place in those detention tents. Eventually they will be released but with a metal tag.
This will all be very undignified and legally questionable and lives will be ruined or handicapped by gaining a criminal record.
In future they’ll certainly think twice about how they spend their leisure time venting social grievances, because after being treated this way for their first offence it beggars belief how they wil be treated next time around.
Black Lives Matter. But stupid destructive protesters lives matter a lot less, regardless of their skin colour. All living creatures need stimulation. Homosapiens with an IQ in reasonable double figures are usually able to choose how to get stimulated without ending up dead or in prison.

Bruno Suares
Bruno Suares
3 years ago

I’ve been a resident of Portland for over 40 years. In the past year, I have watched the city I know change almost beyond recognition as a result of the twin problems of homelessness and unchecked anarchist violence.
If there are any thoughtful discussions among Portlanders about Portland’s plight in general and the scourge of anarchist direct actions in particular, I have yet to find them. That’s why it was so refreshing to come across Weinstein’s piece.
When it comes to anarchist violence, Twitter is a polarized snake pit where slogans have replaced ideas. In the Twitterverse, critics of direct actions are cop-loving fascists and proponents of anarchism are taking their orders from the Chinese Communist Party.
The Portland subreddit can be more nuanced and less savage than Twitter, but as a platform it lacks the authority and reach to shape public opinion. (To my dismay, as of this writing Weinstein’s piece is largely being panned on Reddit and he is being criticized.)
The Oregonian has or should have the facts and perspective to editorialize about Portland’s anarchists much the way Weinstein has, but it has yet to do so. Its reporters continue to refer to the anarchists as “demonstrators” or “protesters” despite the obvious fact that anarchists use violence and property damage as their only form of argument and persuasion.
A recent open letter from members of Portland’s Black activist community criticized anarchist violence only for striking the wrong targets. https://www.weouthere.net/2021/04/open-letter-a-call-in-to-the-portland-protest-community/
The New York Times‘ story about the photojournalist Jeremy Lee Quinn’s undercover investigation of insurrectionary anarchists in various cities, including Portland, appears to have had no effect on Portlanders’ understanding of what they’re up against.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/opinion/anarchists-protests-black-lives-matter.html?searchResultPosition=1
A group of Portland’s business leaders have issued a multi-part plan to restore the health of the city’s once-vibrant downtown, but the section about violent protests shows a profound ignorance of the causes. Their action plan states “there are no bad protests, but opportunistic individuals who may incite violence, vandalism and criminal destruction . . .”
https://www.rosecitydowntowncollective.com/downtown-action-plan
This suggests that, for example, isolated individuals acting on their own initiative may infiltrate a BLM demonstration only to break windows in the county courthouse, whereas anyone who has read about or witnessed anarchist direct actions knows that the entire group gathers with the express purpose of engaging in “violence, vandalism and criminal destruction.” How can an action plan to revive downtown be successful if its premises are flawed?
Finally, I haven’t heard any explanations for the passivity of Portland’s elected leaders in the face of what can only be described as a crisis of law and order. In January mayor Wheeler proposed several measures to combat anarchist violence only to walk them back before the end of the month, citing the improbable excuse that the city’s legislative agenda was already full.
Jo Ann Hardesty, a Black member of city council, is an implacable foe of the Portland Police Bureau and a fierce advocate for all matters affecting the city’s BIPOC community. However, Hardesty has yet to condemn anarchist violence despite the fact so many members of the public and right-wing propagandists attribute the damage and disruption caused by anarchists to the Black Lives Matter movement.
For these reasons, I share Weinstein’s pessimism about the prospects that Portland, given its current leadership, will find the moral courage and political will to halt anarchist violence.

Last edited 3 years ago by Bruno Suares
mike otter
mike otter
3 years ago

I known its sad for the locals but violent lefties are inadvertantly helping the US. Now “liberal” ideology has lost all intellectual and moral standing they are reduced to race or class based violence. Hopefully this will spark a backlash and drive US voters toward traditional (ie not Trump) republicans. Though there is little danger of white racists and their BLM violence breaking out in say Lubbock, media images and pieces like this help paint the picture it could happen anywhere.

dturtleman150
dturtleman150
3 years ago
Reply to  mike otter

Why would anyone vote for the establishment Republicans? Ever since George Bush I, they’ve been more concerned about being viewed as “compassionate,” than they’ve been concerned about standing for Constitutional freedoms. Either they have been powerless to stop America’s decline, or they’ve been actively working to CAUSE it.

Harry O'Neill
Harry O'Neill
3 years ago
Reply to  mike otter

Trump was deeply flawed but he at least had the guts to call out the hypocrisy of the mainstream media. Traditional Republicans are embarrassingly inept at what requires rhetorical hand to hand combat at this point. I’m pessimistic any current “traditional” Republican has the appeal to pull out the “low propensity” voters needed to beat back the feckless Dems and their media/university/traitorous elite allies.

LCarey Rowland
LCarey Rowland
3 years ago

Thank you, Bret, for posting this dismal portrait of a progressive city gone haywire. What you describe certainly indicates a present tragedy.
Should you decide to leave, consider moving to the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. We could use a few progressives who have their heads properly centered.

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 years ago
Reply to  LCarey Rowland

No no one needs a progressive. Have you learned nothing

LCarey Rowland
LCarey Rowland
3 years ago

Its called governance from the reasonable Center. Over here on this side of the pond it is known as Moderate.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  LCarey Rowland

you cannot have progressive AND a reasonable center. Asheville is Portland-lite.

Last edited 3 years ago by Alex Lekas
Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  LCarey Rowland

People need classic liberals or conservatives, NOT progressives.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
3 years ago

synopsis of article: ‘eating your politics’

Chris Weideman
Chris Weideman
3 years ago

This kind of thing is a daily occurrence in a place like South Africa which has been completely taken over by leftist thugs…

jamesgreen.jwg
jamesgreen.jwg
3 years ago

Once again we are left with the question: Can anything be done? And once again, I fear that the answer is no.

The answer is “no” because you don’t have the courage to side with conservatives and their “outdated” values of slow, deliberate societal change.

Sometimes, their threat is purely symbolic, as when they topple public monuments. In these situations, the city responds by helpfully removing the offending statue.

Do you not realize that in applauding the toppling of “offending” statues you are actually applauding an obstacle standing between the mob and you? Because, when the vocal political minority manages to “cleanse” their community of the inanimate offenders, where do you think they will turn their attention? That’s right, they start looking at you. And, based on this article, you aren’t left enough! But, by all means, keep referring to the removal of the statues as “helpful”. It means you’re simply fighting to be the last victim the mob.

Last edited 3 years ago by jamesgreen.jwg
greg reaume
greg reaume
3 years ago
Reply to  jamesgreen.jwg

Uh, I think Mr. Weinstein’s remark about the “helpful” removal of toppled statues was sarcasm. I found it funny.

Dawn McD
Dawn McD
2 years ago
Reply to  jamesgreen.jwg

I’m dismayed that we are increasingly unable to identify a sarcastic comment unless the writer actually includes /s at the end of it. But inability to convey tone is one of the major disadvantages of written communication, so there’s that.

Mynameis Luca
Mynameis Luca
3 years ago

How long until Brett takes the red pill and just becomes a God loving, patriotic, gun owning American.

Jim Kennedy
Jim Kennedy
3 years ago

Neville Chamberlin made a mistake in trying to appease Hitler and it led to WWII. Bending the knee to these rioters – I am fine with protests, but damage and assault are not protest – just leads them to go for bigger and bigger asks.
My Neighbor was a Portland Police officer. Recently he left with his family and moved to Idaho. The Portland Police started 2020 with a below strength force and it has gone down another 13% since then. This is not going to end well.
I personally know at least 7 small businesses that have been looted and burned at least once since last March. They are all moving out of Portland. These are businesses that served the community for a long time some over 20 years. This is not going to end well.

I know one small business where the owners slept in the shop armed for months on end. They got wiffs of the tear gas for months on end. Fortunately, no one tried to break into their store. This will not end well.

I know someone who’s company has spent 8 to 16 hours a day for months boarding up stores. One large retail establishment bought over $18,000 just in plywood before the election. This will not end well.

steve horsley
steve horsley
3 years ago

people are arrested and imprisoned for joining supposedly right wing organisations yet this is what happens when left wingers get their own way and overthrow the police.why has this been allowed to happen?weakness and wokeness by those in charge and their inability to stand up and protect the law abiding citizens who pay their wages.

Lydia R
Lydia R
3 years ago

I saw some pictures of stores who had posted armed guards outside with signs saying Looters would be shot in another city. Those stores weren’t looted.

cameronidk
cameronidk
3 years ago

`Excellent piece Bret. Some time’s outside of biology I can be quite critical of you and Heather. Unity 2020,amongst other things. But I have never Doubted your’s nor Heathers integrity, or character. Your true believer’s..

Matt B
Matt B
3 years ago

There are too many places in the world with more intractable problems to solve. Portland by contrast appears to be a city consumed by a logic of its own.

Last edited 3 years ago by Matt B
S.Kirk Pierzchala
S.Kirk Pierzchala
3 years ago

Owning guns doesn’t do much good if you can’t carry where they’re needed. And the Oregon legislature is doing what it can to make sure that’s impossible. I presume this will result in outright vigilantism…

Richard Turpin
Richard Turpin
3 years ago

One only has to reference humanities history to cut straight to the chase. Appeasement doesn’t work and never has, unfortunately, human nature punches holes the size of the Nimitz through any political ideal, pretty much on any part of the political continuum, but historically, much more than any other, at the polar opposites. These thugs, who disrespect and destroy the business’s that provide their welfare checks and the public services they use, need to be jailed. The upper echelons of power are woke beyond the core and have allowed the city to become what it is. The Police are hamstrung, reduced in number and systematically abused day in and day out. The decent, law abiding communities within the City need to lobby and rid the city of the parasites that are destroying it. Destroy the squats, and rather than have the perpetrators of the violence and anarchy arrested and bailed within hours ( they have woke lawyers paid for by their wealthy white liberal donors), ensure they do five years in jail minimum. Zero tolerance.

Dave Smith
Dave Smith
3 years ago

What an odd article. Just leave. There is no future in that city and the US is a vast country. Go somewhere in flyover country where I spent time. Fine people.
Like the song says.
‘Blow up the TV. Throw away the papers. Move to the country . Build yourself a home’
Life is too short to bother with Portland any more.

David Menashy
David Menashy
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Smith

Thanks for this comment. I stopped reading all this depressing stuff and sought out JP on YouTube. Aah, that brought a smile back!
Just popped back to say thanks!

Devin Watson
Devin Watson
3 years ago

Do my eyes decieve me? It’s the Dark Horse here on UnHerd!

Rob Alka
Rob Alka
3 years ago

I think the all-too-familiar problem in America (and in Europe) is spending too much time analysing rather than a solving the problem. Sometimes it’s necessary to examine and address the “What?” rather than its “Why?”
The required recipe is formidable but do-able and clear: impose law & order, not as a temporary quick fix but as modus operandi.
If a town or state won’t or can’t bring themselves to impose law & order , and its police force won’t or can’t implement it, then central government in Washington has to implement it, which means overriding and taking command of what is happening in that state or town and, if necessary, replacing those non-functioning parts of the town, be it field employees or management or the organisational structure.
If there are citizens (ie voters) who protest at such a remedy, then they are part of the problem rather than its solution and their choice must be either be to behave themselves or appropriately punished for being on the wrong side of law & order.
If Central Government in Washington can’t or won’t bring themselves to take such action as outlined above, then there is something fundamentally wrong with either the USA system of government or the calibre of its politicians who are voted into office. Personally I think it’s chiefly the system itself rather than its politicians.
There will be a huge percentage of people who will object to the above as abandoning or being incompatible with democracy. That’s because they don’t understand that the definition of democracy is fluid and must co-exist with what society wants today and tomorrow. If the objectors (democracy as a tablet of stone) form the majority of America’s voting citizens, then the USA loses its U.
There surely has be something between what China is and America is becoming.

Last edited 3 years ago by Rob Alka
Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
3 years ago

Of course, we all remember William T. Sherman and the 1856 Committee of Vigilance in San Francisco. Just a mostly peaceful protest on the night of May 14.

Last edited 3 years ago by Christopher Chantrill
Armand L
Armand L
3 years ago

>Even the Scandinavians are increasingly aware that they have progressively allowed millions of the barbarians through the gates.
Why are you saying families like mine are barbarians?

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Probably not. I refer to the 650,000 adults in Sweden -out of a population of 11 million – who are totally dependent on the state and/or who have turned large parts of Swedish cities into no-go zones. And that’s just the adults. Wait until all their kids get a bit bigger.
Meanwhile, the Danes are desperately and belatedly trying to integrate something like half a million of those (out of a population of five million) who have arrived over recent decades to live off the state and sequester themselves in ghettos. Good luck with that!

Last edited 3 years ago by Fraser Bailey
kt8q4v6n5f
kt8q4v6n5f
3 years ago

It would be interesting to know how many of those commenting, as well as those protesting, are either long time Portland residents or native Oregonians. If you don’t like the situation you can definitely leave, particularly Bret and Heather.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago

This amply shows the Law of unintended consequences.
This is the law of foreseeable consequences, which are never accidental. Maybe the mayor and others did not think would get that far, but you always get more of what you allow.

Olly Cooper
Olly Cooper
3 years ago

Anarchist and left wing seem from a European perspective a little contradictory. Though it doesn’t mean that the anguish felt by small business people in Portland is any less genuine. From this side of the Atlantic the US emphasis on individualism, the right to bear arms and the fact that its history is steeped in racism, do make it appear inherently unstable if not completely anarchic. That said Europe clearly cannot be complacent, for it is the continent where socialism and the far right have merged seamlessly under both Hitler and Stalin. The common thread in all this is when the wealthy and powerful fail to recognise that they have gone too far. As rebellion builds the petite bourgeoisie will find themselves in the line of fire. Moving further to the right will only pour more petrol onto the flames.

William Hickey
William Hickey
3 years ago

A Nation of Immigrants can’t stop the downward spiral, but a nation of pioneers and settlers could; they know how to deal with the uncivilized and anarchic and the proof is that they did, creating America.

To bad for poor, pitiful Mr. Weinstein that he is descended from the former.

Payne Sandler
Payne Sandler
3 years ago

Wow, just wow. These idiots would not dare come into my neighborhood. They would be driven out in the back of hearse.

anderson98542
anderson98542
3 years ago

Odd this was written by one someone who came from probably the most Liberal College on the West Coast. This is the college that brainwashed Rachel Corrie.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie

Amanda Marks
Amanda Marks
3 years ago

Thanks for writing this. I’m saddened that I haven’t read or heard about this in the more traditional (and liberal) media that I follow. The left must be talking about–and reigning in–our own failures and excesses. To ignore them is irresponsible.
This is also my first time hearing of this publication. I’ll be back.

Last edited 3 years ago by Amanda Marks
Brigitte Lechner
Brigitte Lechner
3 years ago

They are not anarchist, nor misanthropes, they are thugs and mostly male. Anarchists these days are (mainly) males signalling the virtue of force. In this, they will weaponize any cause that suits. This is not anarchy but lawlessness. True anarchy is surprisingly lawful, albeit self-motivated. Welcome to the postmodern condition.

Last edited 3 years ago by Brigitte Lechner
Frank Finch
Frank Finch
3 years ago

It seems that some people are inclined to “over intellectualise” when confronted with something that puzzles or troubles them. There is not much evidence to support the idea that anyone has either a political agenda or any kind of identifiable objective in what they’re doing in Portland or any of the other towns or cities around the world where this kind of thing is happening.
Futhermore, “anarchist” is not really a suitable label insofar as the “blow it up” mob have no claim to any part of political theories which ultimately concern themselves with making external manifestations of authority obsolete. You don’t make fire services obsolete by starting fires… and you don’t make police authorities obsolete by shooting people and looting. It might be possible to use the label “nihilist”… but I suspect this assumes a depth of thought which is simply not there.
A more useful evaluation would take us back to the sixties and the work of the ethologist, John Calhoun. He coined the phrase “behavioral sink” to describe the emergent behaviour of his subjects in circumstances of “over-population”. What we need to understand is that the trigger is not merely physical. The impact on people’s psychology of feeling themselves hemmed in and trapped in a situation where there is no longer a “big open” in which they can breathe is difficult to over-state. In such circumstances, the virtues and achievements of the modern world work against themselves. Non-stop media, effortless travel to any part of the planet and so on… all contribute to the sense that not only is the ship sinking… but it is reducing in size. For a rat who cannot swim… the only other options are mutiny and riot.

Elizabeth Cronin
Elizabeth Cronin
3 years ago

I recently spoke with a Canadian – so obviously polite – who has been living in Santa Monica near Venice for the past few years. He relayed how stressful it is living there now. It was a bewildering sentiment as it’s such a beautiful eclectic area. He said since the BLM protests, which divided between a peaceful demonstration on one boulevard and anarchists that smashed businesses in other areas, it’s been a depressed area with boarded up buildings. (Ironically a friend in the area noted that cops patrolled the peaceful demonstrators while allowing the anarchists to run amok.) I mentioned this strange conversation to a friend who lives in a swanky area of SM. She confirmed that what he said was true. But she said her area was little better. I was baffled as there were joggers and walkers everywhere. She clarified that day is okay but the night is frightening. A man walking was hit in the head by a mentally ill homeless man. He is now in a coma. She said the police know who he is but he hasn’t been arrested. She said there have been other attacks. I then relayed this to another friend saying how bizarre it all seemed and she said a well known figure in Venice was just killed by a homeless man. Of course, the poor dog that was killed in a house fire in Venice made the news but I don’t recall anything about the other victim. Meanwhile in Hollywood, our council person sends out missives about the need for money to build housing for the homeless. I have responded twice asking why she isn’t addressing the mental health and drug addiction? The drugs addicts I know would sell their soul for drugs. That isn’t a condemnation. It is just a reality of drug addiction. I would do the same if addicted. And as Prof. Weinstein says, our officials are gutless. When the BLM first showed up in downtown LA, I wrote the mayor’s office suggesting that he send porta potties, pizzas and water. Give them space and let them exercise their constitutional rights. Our mayor did nothing until things erupted and then took a knee at the request of the demonstrators. At a later event, he essentially called the cops ‘murderers,’ while claiming they were words taken out of context. Meanwhile he continues to have armed sentry at his home.

Henry Bowman
Henry Bowman
3 years ago

“Welcome to Portland; the progressive dream that has turned into a nightmare.”
Your progressive dream has always been a nightmare in sheep’s clothing. We tried to tell you that for decades, but you blithely dismissed us with trendy non-arguments consisting of throwaway accusations like “debunked,” “baseless,” “supremacy,” and “racism,” and then you confidently plowed forward without ever really listening. 
You rebranded your own brand of fascism as anti-fascism, and your neo-racism as anti-racism.
Now your retail zones are war zones, and the innocent need to debase themselves by pleading with your roving terror mobs not to hit them, but to move on and hit their neighbors instead. All the most progressive cities in the country are now obvious hellholes of crime, violence, and government impotence and incompetence.
In the real world, results are what matters, not intentions. You paved your own road to this very hell, then eagerly set forth upon it. Meanwhile, people who have discovered that their lives depend on results instead of intentions, and have the means to do so, are defecting from these areas like literal waves of refugees.
If you voted for this “dream,” you own it… and now you’re welcome to burn with it. There’s no more daddy to bail you out anymore.

Last edited 3 years ago by Henry Bowman
Steve Gwynne
Steve Gwynne
3 years ago

Portland seems to be in the grip of Leftist Satanism ……

Radical left-wing political ideas had been spread by the American Revolution of 1765–83 and the French Revolution of 1789–99, and the figure of Satan, who was interpreted as having rebelled against the tyranny imposed by God, was an appealing one for many of the radical leftists of the period.[97] For them, Satan was “a symbol for the struggle against tyranny, injustice, and oppression… a mythical figure of rebellion for an age of revolutions, a larger-than-life individual for an age of individualism, a free thinker in an age struggling for free thought”.[92] The French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who was a staunch critic of Christianity, embraced Satan as a symbol of liberty in several of his writings.[98] Another prominent 19th century anarchist, the Russian Mikhail Bakunin, similarly described the figure of Satan as “the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds” in his book God and the State.[99] These ideas likely inspired the American feminist activist Moses Harman to name his anarchist periodical Lucifer the Lightbearer.[100] The idea of this “Leftist Satan” declined during the twentieth century,[100] although it was used on occasion by authorities within the Soviet Union, who portrayed Satan as a symbol of freedom and equality.[101]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism

Simon Cooper
Simon Cooper
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve Gwynne

And Iraq who refer to the US as the great satan. iirc

Linda Ethell
Linda Ethell
3 years ago

I do wish Unherd, and many of its correspondents, would stop using the term “Left” as a synonym for idiotic examples of “wokeness” and/or identity politics. It’s as stupid as using “white” or “old” as terms of abuse since no one who falls into these categories has the ability to be other than white or old.
If to be politically inclined leftwards means caring about the wellbeing of working class people, supporting a functioning welfare state with free health care, quality education and sufficient housing for all and preservation of the environment, then I and many others are supporters of Leftwing politics.
Presumably the subeditor whoever writes the headlines is sympathetic to the “Right”. As far as I can see that means uninhibited indulgence in individualism, with the accompanying right to exploit the poor and vulnerable and destroy our world in the name of profit, along the lines advocated by Rupert Murdoch et al.
Unless, of course, Unherd has decided to change the standard meaning of the terms “Left” and “Right” in hopes of turning “Left” into a term of abuse, just as “wokeness” has turned whiteness and age into character flaws to be deplored by all sensible people. Then one has to accuse them of the same sort of meaningless abuse as their opponents.

Emre Emre
Emre Emre
3 years ago
Reply to  Linda Ethell

It should really be called “cultural left” correctly. Its lineage is with (culture oriented) Western Marxism as opposed to class oriented (traditional) Marxism. I agree using left indiscriminately causes unnecessary confusion.

Payne Sandler
Payne Sandler
3 years ago
Reply to  Linda Ethell

Ummm, just because you are embarrassed by the fact that this is The Left that is doing this that does not give you any right to demand we stop calling them what they are. Clean your own house.

Emre Emre
Emre Emre
3 years ago

The big irony here is how the destruction of the liberal city was caused by the election of Trump in a completely different kind of environment. Who would’ve thought…

Uta Pau
Uta Pau
3 years ago

A few points, as not a resident but semi-frequent visitor to Portland, in no particular order.

  1. This analysis ignores the effects of covid19, which turned much of the inner city core into a ghost town. Foot traffic downtown declined 80% compared to 2019. Public spaces now empty have undergone a kind of adverse possession by homeless and protestors, and occasionally “Antifa” which has degenerated into a vandalism gang.
  2. You call Mayor Wheeler “cartoonishly liberal” when his platform in both his elections was as a pro-business figure. His overarching argument for himself in 2020 was that the city had 3 one-term mayors in a row and this time needed to stick with a person with experience. A fundamentally “conservative” argument. The guy is a scion of one the state’s oldest and richest timber empires and supported by the city’s business community. He did not rise from the ranks of community organizing or whatever, which his opponent did. He was the most conservative of the field in both 2016 and 2020, and he won in 2020 by carrying the richest tony neighborhoods of the city west of the Willamette that are populated by all the tech millionaires working from home and no longer work downtown. Sarah Iannarone, his strongest opponent, was more of a protest sympathizer and ran to Wheeler’s left on pretty much everything, but made a general argument that Wheeler was weak and poor leader. She won the northern part of the city where most of the people of color are, and the east side of the Willamette where most of the Portlandia crunchy granola liberals are, but not by very good margins. Bret, if you run for council you will need to learn these distinctions.
  3. If the city is in terminal decline, why are property values skyrocketing, even in the districts at ground zero for protests? I thought we had capitalism in America and that rising values means something good, not something bad. Last I checked Detroit’s Zillow, I can get a house for less than 10k. In the protest-hell of inner Portland? About 650k minimum to well over a million. In case you were wondering, Wheeler destroyed Iannarone in those downtown districts where protests have been happening, and it costs 800k for 1br condo. Notably the Pearl district, which is where Powell’s is.

I live in a smaller town in Oregon some distance from Portland. We had a few protests in our parks and there were some fights. We also have smaller versions of the same problems – more homeless, more trash because of the homeless, more crime although much smaller scale. For example, my street corner was grafittied for the first time ever, at least that I or my neighbors ever experienced. We also have the same Portland problems of covid restrictions shutting down jobs, and we were heavily dependent on tourism. At the same time rents and housing prices close to doubled in a year.

Last edited 3 years ago by Uta Pau
Otto Christensen
Otto Christensen
3 years ago

What an arrogant bunch you Unheard. A comment that reflects negatively on jolly old england and out it goes but feel free to piss on others. What started out as journalism has turned into an old boys club as reflected in the nearly all male comments.

Horizon 77
Horizon 77
3 years ago

So there’s some important points that this article is making, absolutely, but I’m having a hard time stomaching a certain sensationalism. I live in Portland and my experience is not the author’s.
No neighbourhood is secure from the current wave of terror; the breaking of shop fronts, arson and harassment of sleeping citizens in their homes are all commonplace.” Commonplace??? Hasn’t happened to anyone I know. Not mentioned in my facebook neighborhood groups. Yes, I see some businesses have been vandalized, but 6 miles from downtown (still considered “inner Portland) it’s very quiet. So is where I work and travel – I haven’t personally seen signs of protests in many months. Yes, BLM signs are everywhere. But I don’t know anyone who feels unsafe in their home or neighborhood because of the protests. Yes, substance users, homeless people, my car was stolen and I’ve broken up a fight on my front yard. And there is a crime wave in the city but it’s links to the protests which the author is mostly focused on..? https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/they-cant-keep-up-portland-police-overwhelmed-by-nightly-gun-violence/283-f5fad0e6-b02d-48b2-9c8b-607bc2d8306e
“I rarely see any evidence of even basic law enforcement here in Portland. The police are extremely slow to respond to emergency calls.” Really? Do you have evidence for this? That’s not my experience. They’ve come promptly to my neighborhood for several emergencies.
Yes, there are clearly problems with the protests and the way they are handled. I’m sure the author has documented many instances of law enforcement not functioning and citizens feeling unsafe. But we’re a long way from anarchy, and I would question the author’s insinuation that a large amount of Portlanders (660,000 of us) are personally impacted by these issues. Yes, there’s a culture of fear, but I don’t buy into cultures of fear. I am hard pressed to ever imagine that I or anyone I know would wish to buy a gun. Yes there are neighborhoods where this may be different. But Portland real estate is skyrocketing as population growth continues. I’m far more concerned about the crime rate than the protests.

Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

Good god! Talk about frogs not realizing the waters’ boiling….

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Bernard Hill

As somebody who moved out of Portland six years ago (my home since birth), hearing people say now-common things like “c’mon, it’s fine as long as you don’t go out after dark”, or “it’s fine as long as you stay away from certain neighborhoods (downtown for example…) Just makes me slap my forehead and go “do you not hear what you are saying?!”

This has to be some kind of expression of the banality of evil. Yes, this stuff is that bad. Yes, it can get much worse. Please dig your heads out of the sand!

I’ll allow that some of these people may hail originally from rougher, more hard-scrabble cities. But I don’t. Or at least I didn’t til now.

Tom Lewis
Tom Lewis
3 years ago
Reply to  Bernard Hill

I can well believe that Horizon 77’s view is perfectly accurate, and I have no reason to doubt his/her “lived experience” (good God, I can hardly believe I just used that phrase, I hang my head in shame). I’m also quite happy to think that Brett’s view point is also just as valid. I’m minded to think of Belfast, or N Ireland, during the troubles. It was perfectly possible to see all sorts of violence take place, especially if you watched the news, but at the same time, unless you lived in certain areas, or were caught up in particular incidents, it really had little conscious impact for the residents, even if people from elsewhere might think life, in Belfast, was very un-normal. This was exacerbated by the “New normal” that meant that the media only reported, or made a fuss about the worst incidents, usually one’s were people died. Things happened, that anywhere else would have been distinctly un-Normal, but it just became “background“ noise, certainly you heard about it, but it was “over there” even if only around the corner, accepted as part of normality. The news however could make it appear as if the whole city, from time to time, was in flames. I hardly need to say, or tell you, I imagine, that Belfast is a lot smaller than Portland.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Lewis

I live in South Africa and if you shut yourself off from the news and live in a more affluent area behind electric fences, you can pretend it is all not too bad.

Simon Baggley
Simon Baggley
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Lewis

You could have deleted it and saved us all the ensuing rage

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Lewis

Half the size

Barry Coombes
Barry Coombes
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

I’m glad house prices are still rising: Bret and Heather can still sell up and afford to move somewhere saner.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Barry Coombes

.

Last edited 3 years ago by Johannes Kreisler
Linda Brown
Linda Brown
3 years ago
Reply to  Barry Coombes

And vote democrat again.

Andrew Harvey
Andrew Harvey
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

Beaverton or Gresham are 6 miles from downtown. That’s not inner Portland.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

Yes, I see some businesses have been vandalized

Yes, BLM signs are everywhere. 

Yes, substance users, homeless people, my car was stolen and I’ve broken up a fight on my front yard.

And there is a crime wave in the city

Yes, there are clearly problems with the protests and the way they are handled.

Yes, there’s a culture of fear

Yeabutnobutyeabut.

I’m far more concerned about the crime rate than the protests.

That’s like saying “i’m far more concerned about my shirts’ collars not fitting anymore than about the great big tumour growing on my neck”, thoroughly ignoring the underlying cause of both: cancer. Keep ignoring till it’s grown beyond repair. If you can’t see the blindingly obvious connection between BLM signs, crime wave and culture of fear, then i’m afraid you’re already beyond repair.

But Portland real estate is skyrocketing as population growth continues.

Well, the woke has to live somewhere, and they do like to congregate and cluster. And they are the affluent class at the moment. Even i in Europe have been aware of Portland’s hubris since like decades. Better keep them contained in Portland and such, rather than metastasizing all over the place. Shame for the original normal inhabitants though (like C. Rense below), nobody should be forced out of their hometown by encroaching patterns of mass-derangement like that in a civilised society.

Norman Powers
Norman Powers
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

I see some businesses have been vandalized … BLM signs are everywhere … substance users, homeless people, my car was stolen and I’ve broken up a fight on my front yard … there is a crime wave … there are clearly problems with the protests … there’s a culture of fear, but I don’t buy into cultures of fear … I’m far more concerned about the crime rate than the protests.

This is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Portland. Where I live I never see vandalized businesses, there is no crime wave, and there is no culture of fear which means people don’t universally feel a need to publicly proclaim allegiance to a violent political movement. I also rarely see homeless people or drug abusers out in the open, car theft is also rare and I’ve never heard of anyone having to break up a fight on literally their own front yard.
You seem to have enormous trouble understanding the authors point that the reason for the crimewave is that the police have been totally undermined by the mayor. Of course you’re concerned about a crimewave and of course everyone seems to support BLM when violent “protestors” are constantly being arrested and immediately released without trial by your ultra-leftist DA. One follows naturally from the other.

Last edited 3 years ago by Norman Powers
G Harris
G Harris
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

Thanks for that fair, reasoned and honest appraisal of how you see life in Portland at the moment.

Even if it’s not a view shared by others, I’m glad that you took the time to express it in the interests of balance and sad to see that a few saw fit to downvote it.

Not that it’s the only benchmark of course, but I was curious immediately after reading this article to see how far property prices had dropped there off the back of this ongoing turmoil and the short answer is they haven’t which was further confirmed at the end of your own comment.

Last edited 3 years ago by G Harris
Dorothy Slater
Dorothy Slater
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

i get tired with staying in my neighborhood where it is safe. I liked going downtown to the symphony, museums, movies, shopping etc. It is why I moved here. I never see police any where these days except riding in their cars. It is now legal to sleep on the streets so I supposed there is nothing that they can do anyway. So far nothing is being done about the car rumbles which gather frequently to roar and speed in North Portland. . I am a pedestrian and fear for my life when crossing certain streets even those in my neighborhood.
And of course, you know about the Red House debacle in the “historic” Mississippi neighborhood.
If one if lucky enough to work at Nike or Intel and earn huge salaries which enable you to buy in a “safe” neighborhood, good for you But for the small coffee shop owner, etc, nothing these days is safe.

Pierre Pendre
Pierre Pendre
3 years ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

This sounds plausible and is probably true of other west coast cities which persist in electing progressive mayors to the incredulity of outsiders. I lived in the Latin Quarter of Paris which was the epicentre of the 1968 riots. My parents-in-law who lived in the peaceful suburbs did not believe what they were seeing and reading in the news. People who choose to live in Portland probably do so because they know it’s a liberal city and are willing to put up with leftists excesses which do not affect them personally because they occur within limited areas that can be avoided. It would be different in Antifa extended their range of operations and people like Horizon77 were directly harmed.

False Progress
False Progress
4 days ago
Reply to  Horizon 77

Your comment ignored the psychological damage done to downtown Portland, which was still very strong in 2021 and hasn’t truly recovered as of late 2024.
It’s not just about where the active riots happened. The fringe Left inspired a culture of homeless and gang lawlessness, still not back to pre-Floyd-frenzy levels. Speaking of Floyd, he wasn’t “murdered” except in the minds of the anti-police mob, and a too-late documentary (TFoM) did an excellent job with the full context of his arrest. Portland became a grim sister city to Minneapolis.
You also ignored that roughly 12,000 people moved out of Multnomah County between 2020 and 2023 specifically because of crime and local costs not being worth the hassle. All it will take is another black thug being arrested, fighting police and dying, to start the riot cycle again (if the new mayor can’t control them again). Trump 2.0 alone could drive more riots.

Last edited 4 days ago by False Progress
Patrick Chevallereau
Patrick Chevallereau
3 years ago

A ridiculous title and an article far, far from the reality about what the daily life is today in the great city of Portland, in Pearl, Dowtown, Hawthorne and elsewhere. An article ideologically oriented to scare people. Shame on this attempt to mislead the readers. “Tout ce qui est excessif est insignifiant”.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
3 years ago

There must be a movie set called Portland where we can view those activists in videos. They have decreased to couple a week rather than nightly. The real time streaming sites show how well those sets are constructed. The fire even seem real. Amazing stuff, had no idea that CGI graphics could be done in real time.

Brack Carmony
Brack Carmony
3 years ago

So, did the mayor’s apartment not get set on fire? Someone better tell his staff to stop holding misleading press conferences.

Armand L
Armand L
3 years ago

Until Bret and his buddies acknowledge that young people have no capital, rising debts, and no prospect of social or economic mobility they will not understand the tension present in the air.
Portland has a police misconduct problem, which begets an anarchist problem, which begets tensions. These problems are exacerbated by young people who feel like they have nothing to lose and no stakes in their own city.
I’m not excusing the violence and damage, I’m simply saying they don’t care about it and until you understand that, you won’t get it.

Dave Tagge
Dave Tagge
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Even if we accept your first paragraph as completely correct, I don’t see this argument as a defining explanation for Portland.
Similarly situated young people are present throughout the U.S. Yet other cities don’t have the day after day, night after night problems that Portland does.
For example: pretty much every major city across the U.S. had some sort of riots or at least violence – as well as non-violent protests – last May after George Floyd’s death. In the vast majority of places, the riots then stopped.
In Portland, by contrast, it keeps going on night after night.
Edited to add: it’s also my understanding from different articles that the core Antifa group in Portland is small: no more than a few hundred people. That also argues against a general explanation based on the status of “young people”.

Last edited 3 years ago by Dave Tagge
Uta Pau
Uta Pau
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Tagge

Portland has always had a protest culture. I’ve seen people start an impromptu protest in Portland over pretty much nothing – once it was a group of quasi-homeless guys who looked like modern day beatniks protesting a coffee shop barista who told them they couldn’t smoke in the doorway area.
What has happened is that covid19 ripped the bandaid off what problems were already there. The police not very well managed. The good jobs all going to outiders parachuting in with their Stanford educations while the city’s schools struggle to graduate local kids from high school. No jobs for locals but the restaurants. Then covid19 closed all the restaurants. Extremely rapid housing price appreciation that created equity millionaires in literally 5 years, and put a lot of people who used to be able to rent a marginal place with their gig money, on the street.
And yes, the Antifa vandalism gangs number somewhere in the 3 figures total.

Last edited 3 years ago by Uta Pau
Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

The rioters are, for the most part, obnoxious, white, middle class twerps, plus a few of the misfits that we will always have with us. Most of them are in debt because they went to college to ‘study’ subjects that are of no use to anyone. Meanwhile, American companies continue to ship in software engineers and the like from India.
It is certainly true to say that the rioters have ‘nothing to lose’ given that they are never prosecuted. As for having ‘no capital’, the purpose of being young is not to have capital but to acquire a useful skill or trade while having some fun. They will certainly have ‘no capital’ later in life if their parents’ properties become worthless as happened in, for instance, Detroit.

Johannes Kreisler
Johannes Kreisler
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

The rioters are, for the most part, obnoxious, white, middle class twerps, plus a few of the misfits that we will always have with us.

That’s the “rioters”. The looters, however, are 99% black. There are hundreds of PD-issued CCTV recordings of lootings on youtube*, you won’t see an unblack looter there. It’s an established policy that they send the white “allies” upfront for the cameras / riot police to face.
(* i went to look when i heard that the Chicago Hermès store got looted for the second time (this time completely cleared out) – footage was like something out of an Attenborough documentary on insect life, quite mesmerising. I ended up watching a good few more, until i got bored.)

Bertie B
Bertie B
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Young people always have capital – the capital of youth, those that squander it end up as middleaged and old people with no capital, those that spend it wisely own the property and wealth of tomorrow.
If you decide that the system is wrong and the cause for your problems and lack of prospects then you will auto-matically disenfrancise yourself. As for them having nothing to lose, it would also seem that they have nothing to gain.
Even if the rising up and violence is good to enhance social mobility – it wont be those on the streets that see it – it’ll be those sensible enough to be at home educating themselves.

Jake C
Jake C
3 years ago
Reply to  Bertie B

This is not true,older generations benefited from cheaper housing relstive to wages and then benefited from asset price growth.

D Ward
D Ward
3 years ago
Reply to  Jake C

Supply v demand. The world’s population has doubled in 50 years, but no one will say anything about that.

Dave Tagge
Dave Tagge
3 years ago
Reply to  Jake C

At least in the US, that depends a lot on where you’re talking about. If people are willing to look past a handful of coastal cities and consider metro areas like Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Tampa, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc., it’s possible to find much less expensive housing.
Another aspect is interest rates. FRED (at the St. Louis Federal Reserve) has a host of historical data, including average 30-year fixed mortgage rate. That’s now ~3%, and has been under 5% for the last decade. Looking at the early 1970’s until 2000, that rate was never below 6.5%, and peaked at 17% in the early ’80’s.
Houses in the U.S. are, in practice, generally purchased on the basis of monthly mortgage payment affordability, not really “price”. Monthly mortgage payment relative to wages – accounting for lower interest rates – is a far more relevant comparison than looking at housing prices.

Last edited 3 years ago by Dave Tagge
Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Until Bret and his buddies acknowledge that young people have no capital, rising debts, and no prospect of social or economic mobility they will not understand the tension present in the air.
How much straw was needed to build that? No one told young people to major in useless subjects at expensive private universities. And in a world of remote work, economic mobility has been redefined.
Portland has a police misconduct problem, which begets an anarchist problem, which begets tensions. 
No, it doesn’t. Portland is a mostly white city whose main issues were tolerating young homeless people and drug use before George Floyd. These are not poor young white people. They are among the most pampered cohort in American history, the participation trophy class that has never learned that the real world doesn’t work that way.

Jake C
Jake C
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

What are you talking about ,everyone told young people to go to these universities.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Jake C

I said no one told them to major in things that do not lead to jobs.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

No one also told them that if you can’t break into your dream career, it’s okay to be a janitor or dishwasher, or some other unglamorous occupation that is nevertheless necessary.

And you know what? You can advance rapidly in some of those mundane jobs. If you can’t make prep cook from dishwasher inside of four months, youre probably best qualified to wash dishes.

Armand L
Armand L
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

> No one told young people to major in useless subjects at expensive private universities. And in a world of remote work, economic mobility has been redefined.
Even the “best degree” won’t get a job that can satisfy school debts, medical debts, and housing debt.

Linda Brown
Linda Brown
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

You are more likely to get a job with a STEM degree than a degree in Gender Studies or French Literature

Uta Pau
Uta Pau
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

You talk about colleges but Portland is not even a college town. It has a couple very liberal but pricey tiny private liberal arts colleges with 2-3 thousand students each. Only rich kids go to those unless they’re on scholarship. There is Portland State, a mediocre commuter college with about 20k students, which is pretty small for a metro that size. E.g.: Sacramento is similar population as Portland and it has both a UC and Cal-State branch with 40k students each.
That’s it. Oregon’s biggest colleges are about 2 hours away from Portland in small-medium sized towns. Oregon is not even a very education-friendly blue state the way Michigan or Massachusetts are, etc… It has a quite low high school graduation rate due to high absenteeism.

Last edited 3 years ago by Uta Pau
Vóreios Paratiritís
Vóreios Paratiritís
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

What a delusion. Young people have all the wealth the will ever need to be successful: TIME. What the young people of Portland lack is WISDOM and CHARACTER.

Chris Mochan
Chris Mochan
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Excusing it is exactly what you’ve done. And these are feeble excuses. Portland is one of the most affluent places in the history of the world, if you can’t make a decent life for yourself there then you have to start looking a little closer to home to find out what’s wrong. If your reaction to not liking your prospects is to torch the city centre then it’s pretty clear ‘a lack of opportunity’ isn’t your problem.

Jake C
Jake C
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

As a young-ish person who would sympathise with the idea of being cut off from capital and being over indebted;what you are saying is such bs.

First of all antifa are not calling for social housing but setting things alight because…..”white supremacy” and “nazis” and “white privledge ”

You are completely projecting a cause on antifa which they are not interested in.

Also if people are really hard up they are welcome to section 8 housing assistance .

A lot of these white antifa member would say they benefit from “white privledge ” and so have no income or wealth challenges

Dorothy Slater
Dorothy Slater
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

no – you are excusing violence and damage just like the rest of compassionate Portland. . And believe me, I do “get it”.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
3 years ago
Reply to  Armand L

Bret and his wife Heather were level-headed (read:not woke) college professors for many years and know all about these trends for American youth and seem to have quite a clear understanding of the underlying tensions…