by Travis Mateer

I can’t handle watching all these Twitter detectives patrolling the internets to catch insurrectionist whitey and ALL his white supremacist pals. Whatever degree of sympathies are exhumed by these useful idiots–be it a confederate sticker on a car, or maybe that well-known racist twinkle in the eye–it’s enough to DOX the person in order to trigger whatever exciting real life consequences might await their target from cowering HR departments.

One of these characters is jhwygirl, the anonymous blogger of the long-defunct blog 4&20 Blackbirds blog, where I got my start writing for an invisible audience. While I know her real name, I am NOT interested in doing what was ALREADY done to her. Why do you think she stopped writing? It was made clear to her that what she was writing about could cost her her government job, so she stopped.

I respect that decision, considering I have ALSO been the target of political retaliation for a fucking poem I published about a dead homeless man and the city obsession over new sidewalks. The main obsessor of that 2018 effort, City Councilperson Gwen Jones, used her position as a board member of my employer to intimidate me, on the clock. If it wasn’t for the skills of that HR person, it would have been much more than a signed apology I received in compensation.

I would hope someone who has experienced how unpopular opinions get you heat from those above you on the power ladder would be less enthusiastic about THE PURGE, but this is a different world we now inhabit.

If self-deputized online sleuths like jhwygirl want to FULLY explore the dynamics of 1/6/21, an interesting portal into one substrate of this event is “Activist Johnny” from Utah. I just watched a pre-1/6/21 interview with John Sullivan on Rokfin (might be exclusive to this new platform, I dunno) and it has me more interested than ever to keep looking at our local network and things like housing and homelessness.

And taxes.

Tuesday’s upcoming episode of Zoom Town is a 70 minute conversation with Missoula Councilperson, Jesse Ramos. If you can handle the math breakdown of what a “mill” is at the beginning, and the linguistic intimidation inherent in terms like Tax Increment Financing, you will discover (hopefully) how Ramos has inspired others to get more engaged in understanding LOCAL dynamics affecting their lives.

So stay tuned…