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mahatmakanejeeves

(61,661 posts)
5. People's Convoy Battles Imaginary Antifa Drivers, Traffic And A Lack Of Downtown Parking
Fri Mar 18, 2022, 11:28 AM
Mar 2022
People's Convoy Battles Imaginary Antifa Drivers, Traffic And A Lack Of Downtown Parking

Because average people could never get angry at idiots tying up traffic, blaring their horns and wasting gas

By Erin Marquis
An hour ago

In a completely predictable turn of events, the People’s Convoy have groups splintering off from the main protest to try and find ways into D.C. proper, though they are finding conditions less than favorable. While some managed to get an unexplained escort through town by D.C. Metro police, protesters are mostly claiming they’re being harassed by Antifa as residents go about their daily lives now made more difficult by the presence of huge trucks purposefully slowing down already bad traffic.



Two days ago, our favorite reporter on the ground, Daily Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo, reported this exchange:

{snip}

It’s almost as if they can’t even imagine a scenario where they aren’t viewed as heroes by regular people. This isn’t the first time truckers have blamed that shadowy Antifa “organization” for their woes. Vice also spoke to a grad student who is researching far-right movements and keeps an ear to the ground on trucker’s Telegram channels:

The truckers who’ve been snarling traffic on the Beltway that surrounds Washington for several weeks are a bit of a jumpy bunch. Antifa could be anyone and anything. A car cutting off a trucker a bit aggressively, a commuter flipping the bird at them, or just people in vehicles they don’t like? Must be antifa.

“Sometimes they just don’t like the look of the car and they assume it’s antifa,” said Sara Aniano, a graduate student studying far-right rhetoric who has been watching the convoy for weeks. “It does seem like any car that is driving some sort of way that does not align with their ideal of driving is labeled as a possible instigator.” ... Aniano said it’s possible some of the truckers just don’t understand how rough driving can be on the Beltway, so “regular commuter traffic and possibly a bit of road rage comes off as a deliberate antagonist aggravation.”

Regardless, barely a livestream goes by without a protester peering out the window and muttering about “antifa.”

{snip}

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