So We're Doing This Nonsense Again

Anti-fascist protests have erupted, so it's time for pundits to trot out every last stupid trope we've come to know and hate.

Benjamin Hanson/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Almost exactly five years since American cities erupted in protest against the murder of George Floyd and the endurance of a white supremacist police state, people are taking to the streets again—this time, to push back against the rising tide of fascist, anti-immigrant repression sweeping across the country.

Right now, all eyes are on Los Angeles, where people trying to stop a series of horrendous ICE kidnappings have been facing off against police, federal agents, and even National Guard troops all weekend.

These protests are good, just like the George Floyd protests were, and the pro-Palestine protests were and still are, and the brave people staring the cops down are on the right side of history, just as everyone in 2020 was. I hope everyone comes through this safe and free.

I would have also hoped that we’d get through even a single news cycle of this sort without wading into the string of noxious and stupid tropes that big media outlets, conservative and not-so-conservative pundits, and assorted fascists always throw around when protests happen.

Sigh. Perhaps the stupid person is me for thinking anything might change, ever. Over the last couple of days we’ve seen just about every single one of the most familiar smears lobbed our way—so much so that the easiest way to catalog them is just to run through them one by one.

So here are some of the worst, tiredest pieces of nonsense I’ve seen in response to these—again, good—protests.

Le gasp, something is on fire!

This just in from the New York Times: a shopping cart is on fire. I repeat: A SOLITARY, IMMOBILE SHOPPING CART IS SITTING THERE, AND IT IS ON FIRE.

Journalists at places like the Times absolutely lose their minds at the sight of something on fire. What’s the thing on fire? Is anyone even remotely injured? Or in danger of injury? Doesn’t matter. Fire equals SCARY. Even when it is one shopping cart. In broad daylight. And everyone is very clearly fine. Note also the line “the police are firing back.” Again, the shopping cart cannot shoot them. Because it is a shopping cart. Do you think cops get to add “shot at a shopping cart” to their daily quota?

Rubber bullets don’t fire themselves, pt. infinity

Even when it is THEIR OWN REPORTERS getting shot by police, news organizations can’t resist the kind of passive voice that Caitlin iconically discussed five years ago.