Dispatch from Black Rock City: "The pigs are here" at Burning Man

[Permalink]

2 Likes

Oh no, I hope nobody brought any drugs to Burning Man.

26 Likes

Time to deescalate everything. I call for big cuts and big layoff. I also call for big decriminalization. Time to shutdown the monster.

2 Likes

Really, officer, I was just waiting for the electrician or someone like him.

3 Likes

or maybe donā€™t p*** in public and act like an adult human?

5 Likes

I always forget when BM is going on, and why my social netwerks get a bit quieter.

4 Likes

Since one of the Law Enforcement vehicles pictured is an El Camino with the doors removedā€¦I imagine our pals on the playa will be ok.

2 Likes

Thatā€™s not LE - thatā€™s one of the DPW vehicles. Goddamn what a year this is gonna be, if this is how LEOs are gonna play. I hope this is just some new-to-patrolling-the-playa mistakes that old hands at working Burning Man will nip in the bud.

Iā€™ve NEVER heard of DPW vehicles get dinged pre-eventā€¦

5 Likes

I have been finding burning man and its culture more and more annoying as of late. ā€œWeā€™re changing the world and bringing people together!ā€ No, youā€™re not. Youā€™re getting fucked up on drugs and dancing to shitty music in the middle of the desert. If you find that sort of thing fun, awesome, have fun, but itā€™s certainly nothing of importance.

SO many of my friends place SO much importance and spend SO much money on a party in the desert. It just astounds me.

10 Likes

Also, the brown acid being circulated around is not good.

4 Likes

Honestly, Iā€™m kind of glad. Though my heart goes out to those victimized by the cops, itā€™s about time that Burning Man culture came face-to-face with the political repression that exists everywhere else.

Iā€™m glad because this is the last, best hope for saving Burning Man from becoming our generationā€™s Disney. BM is not a party, itā€™s not a vacation, itā€™s not even ā€œa way of lifeā€. It is an act of anti-establishment resistance. It is insurgency.

Or at least it should be. It must be, if it is to survive. When the cops move in, they offer an unmistakable lesson, one that should have been learned long ago: You cannot escape from oppression by pretending it doesnā€™t exist. Sooner or later, you will have to fight. The cops have made their move, now itā€™s time to see if burners have the warrior spirit that will be necessary to protect their community. Are they willing to fully embrace the reality of being outlaws?

12 Likes

Ummmmā€¦people are peeing and pooping on BLM land all the time as they camp and enjoy the outdoors, are the rules different since they are a permitted event of some kind?

Oh well, standard muscle flexing reaction for contempt of authority.

3 Likes

Everyone should drop burning man, and instead attend my new partyā€¦ Smoldering Man. Instead of inhaling a bunch of drugs out in the desert, weā€™ll all get together to inhale lots of drugs on a prairie somewhere. Should take about 10 years before the cops figure out whatā€™s going on and shut it down.

Donā€™t worry Iā€™ve already got the name of the next one planned out: Flint and Steel Man.

3 Likes

Has Burning Man been anything but a joke for years? Iā€™ve never heard of anything interesting or cool coming out of it. Prior to the rise of large scale bandwidth, it was kind of a cool thing, but itā€™s not like Burning Man had some lock on cool art projects or festivals. I consider Maker Faires to be much more relevant.

Plus, by automatically referring to the police as ā€˜pigsā€™, youā€™re kind of showing your bias, there. Giving someone a ticket for pissing out in the open, even in the desert? Not feeling bad about that one. Itā€™s public property, isnā€™t it?

2 Likes

No, itā€™s just a big party in the desert. Nothing more.

What are the demographics of BM, anyway? That shit is EXPENSIVE AS HELL. Iā€™m sure the main demographic know a lot about oppressionā€¦of not being able to freely do some expensive hallucinates.

And yeah, your attitude is what burns me (heh). Can you name anything tangible and good that has come out of burning man? Anything at all?

2 Likes

There are actually burns and similar things that are not Burning Man. I think the local forest-based-party is called Fireflyā€¦

3 Likes

I have friends who go to Firefly. It seems like a fun time and something I might enjoy (because itā€™s not so huge and dirty). Itā€™s still just a desert in the party.

1 Like

And as someone who grew up on a party in the desert (Lake Havasu/Parker area), getting shit-faced in the desert is not being an outlaw. Oh, man oh man oh man.

Anyone who says ā€œBurnig Man is Xā€ is missing more than they are seeing. Maybe YOU " are getting fucked up on drugs and dancing to shitty music in the middle of the desert.", but Iā€™m not.

BM is what YOU make of it. If you make something shitty or boring of it, then there it is. But for a helluva lot of us, itā€™s something different and special ā€“ and a connecting.

Mind you, my city is suffering socially because weā€™ve more people who want to come than BLM thinks can be handled ā€“ so itā€™s ok with me if you want to be somewhere else that week.

Love,

Tophat

7 Likes

Black Rock Solar. Burners Without Borders. The innumerable number of artists that receive grants . . . just off the top of my head.

Oh, and to the fellow that said Maker Faire is more relevant: youā€™re really not talking about a different community. A very high percentage of the people that founded the Maker community are Burners and half the stuff at the Bay Area Maker Faire in any given year still has playa dust on it.

7 Likes