Unicorns and frogs
We had our assortment of inflatables at Asheville’s (pop 95k) No Kings rally on Saturday, attendance estimated at 8,000. Ana Marie Cox saw a bevy(?) of unicorns in New Braunfels, Texas (pop. 90k). There was no protest there back in June, but on Saturday “there were over a hundred people (as well as amphibians, reptiles, and cryptids) lining a long city block.”
She found regretful Republicans among the mix of normies she found:
Others have pointed out the long tradition of silly costumes and street theater in radical movements; there is a direct line between the Dada stunts of the situationists, pranks by the Yes Men and “zaps” by the Lavender Menace, culture hacking in the No Logo movement, and that original punk frog in Portland. There are forests of Ph.D. papers about how surrealism undermines the very structures of capitalism itself.
But around the country, we’re seeing a parallel evolution: whimsy as the logical response to MAGA’s nonsense. What “trans ideology”? Eating the dogs, eating the cats? You’re talking about vicious immigrants, but you curb-stomped the ice cream man. “I don’t even know what antifa is.”
For many of the new protesters, the cleanest response to such wild paranoia (even if those in power use it to justify horrible violence) isn’t a manifesto—it’s a snort-laugh and a unicorn horn. It’s “I don’t know what that means, but I do know you’re full of shit.” This is purposeful illogic in the exurban wild, no less revolutionary for lack of intellectual pedigree. True, the semi-pro situationists will likely never become card-carrying Communists. No room in the wallet, what with the Kohl’s card and the Costco membership.
The event had the feeling of a band fundraiser or church picnic. Passing drivers honked, flashed thumbs-up and pumped fists. And an occasional middle finger. (I got flipped off by a Ferrari while propoting our event from an overpass on Friday. NEXT LEVEL ACHIEVED.)
What Cox found I found. I spent much of our event marveling that I saw so few of the usual suspects at the protest. In part because of the size (about 8,000). But in part because, as Cox found, “it’s the folks in cargo shorts and polos who make the unicorns stand out.”
I didn’t have an inflatable. But this rig (photo recycled from Oct. 2) had one woman doubled over with laughter and others howling and asking for photos. Laughter is good medicine and cathartic. Mock the MFers.
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Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement
50501
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense