by Travis Mateer
The cultural splash of just one meme from a notorious figurative feline had a tremendous impact as the weekend ended, described in a Zerohedge article like this:
Roaring Kitty, also known as Keith Gill, led an army of ‘meme-traders’ against hedge funds shorting GameStop (Melvin Capital) in 2021. He returned to X last night, posting a meme that suggested he’s back after going silent on X since June 2021.
The X post has gone viral. It has been viewed more than 8.5 million times, with 14k retweets and 51k likes.
I discussed this monumental showing of people-power back in 2021 with my podcast collaborator, Tim Adams, but now, three years later, I’m in a much different position, and it’s not a good one.
The kitty activism I engaged in with the scam known as Tax Increment Financing (documentary link here) has led me to a very interesting place, which has included jail time and, I’m just finding out, a notice posted notice at a local non-profit to call 911 if I’m seen. Really?
Having this image texted to me yesterday while I was dealing with my flat tire was more than a little frustrating. It was bad enough to learn that local media can slander me, and my legal defense is virtually nil because I’m too famous for litigation, but this loss of personal narrative control is absolutely disgusting, especially considering how limited I am in explaining what’s happening to me behind the scenes.
The positive counter to all this are the people I’m meeting and interacting with, even when I’m throwing a little tantrum at the tire shop over the sudden shift from “easy free fix” to “two hundred bucks”. I opted for the free, slightly larger sized tire instead of the two hundred dollar one because funds are tight.
I’ll still solicit funds online through Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), but making over $50 dollar in cash in a relatively short amount time over the weekend has shown me there are other ways. I’m also about to make another move, professionally, to extend the reach of my writing, so stay tuned.
Now that my flat tire is back to being able to support the weight of my street spectacle, I’ll be popping up around town to continue my work in the new/weird form it’s taken on, like singing the origin song about my psychotic hand-puppet, Rain-Bowie.
Thanks for reading!