by Travis Mateer
When I attended the MMIP fundraiser last month at the Butterfly House in Missoula, I was attempting to do the same thing as this organization claims to be doing, and that’s RAISING AWARENESS about the problematic dynamics in this community that prevent supporters of indigenous peoples from making headway with the factors destroying their communities, like drugs and fake saviors named Lowell Hochhalter.
One of my “raising awareness” methods has been to attend public meetings and make public comments, like I’ve been doing regarding my ECLIPSE THEIR BULLSHIT urban camp trash removal event, which I’m still planning on doing this Monday, April 8th, staring around noon in the parking lot of Imagination Brewery.
Promoting this event is why I showed up to the County Commissioner meeting on Thursday, but when I heard Commissioner Vero read the proclamation for April being sexual assault awareness month, I decided to approach the microphone to say this:
Did I compare “urban camping” trash to victims of sexual assault? Yes, I did, and it’s not the first time I have been explicit about how enabling urban camping enables all kinds of violence, including sexual violence. That link goes to a post from April of 2021, when the volunteer-led cleanups in the Reserve Street Bridge area were being fiercely criticized by homeless-industrial complex narrative controllers, like Susan Hay Patrick of United Way.
Susan has an important skillset when it comes to raising money, but her ability to control narratives has been significantly impacted, I’d like to think, by my dedication to expose corrupting bullshit wherever I find it, which seems to be nearly everywhere these days.
The billboard image that I used to start this post has a website, and that website is promoting a project being done by a photographer. Is this just another media campaign, like the Montana Meth Project, that will produce NOTHING but money-raising opportunities for people who have monetized their victim status?
These billboards are a symptom of a bigger problem, a problem I described when I wrote about the grief industry. Why is this a problem? Well, as I’ve seen up-close and personal, when certain grief-narratives get established, the actual truth about what’s happening takes a backseat to other priorities, like raising money.
As an out-spoken white man with MANY unpopular opinions, I’m happy to continue showing what it takes to bring something I like to call REALITY to the forefront of our highly manipulated local media landscape. If you’d like to assist my meager and not-very-successful attempts to raise funds for my work, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is the place to do it.
Ok, time for the Trash Alchemist to do some preparing for tomorrow’s fun, hopefully the end-times feel of the eclipse insanity doesn’t derail positive vibe I’ve been trying to cultivate.
Thanks for reading!