4chan's trumpist trolls are exploiting the Ghost Ship fire to narc out other DIY venues

Fascists, as always, are about crushing resistance to the power of big business. All that talk of a “populist revolt” or the “white working class” is such horseshit.

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The Brownshirts were not SS, they were common street thugs organized into a paramilitary known as the SA to support the Nazi party and attack its domestic enemies. They were disempowered during the Night of the Long Knives, after Hitler took power, and later superseded by the SS. Today’s Trumpistas may not be officially sanctioned and organized, but they do echo the sentiments of the SA. I think the comparison, while hyperbolic, is apt.

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All developed nations have this problem but it seems especially bad in America: The well-off make up the laws for the poor. It makes me think of that woman who was arrested for letting her kid play in the park alone while she went to work at McDonalds. Middle class people set a standard for child minding that they can live up to, and then used it to oppress the poor.

People who are hanging out in fire traps because that’s the only space they can access are paying with a fraction of their lives what they can’t pay for in cash. How can a society that doesn’t even fund health care insist that it’s members value their own lives more than that?

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Yeah, they’ve got more than a few problems going.

Zoning for work and living-spaces, rent (of course), and legitimately expensive safety features.

Up to date sprinkler systems can easily cost 80k or more.

Let alone the shantytown “upgrades” to the space.

There’s some useful pondering of how local (to me) unofficial “venues” can avoid a similar fate here- http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/12/06/24728820/how-seattle-diy-event-organizers-can-avoid-a-tragedy-like-oaklands-ghost-ship-warehouse-fire

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Fortunately, us evil libruls have infected the nation’s sacred educational institutions, so we can hold our satanic civil rights meetings in public buildings paid for by hardworking conservative taxpayers…or something.

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You read that correctly. I assume hyperbole acts as a snark tag, but I am sometimes wrong.

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I suppose an optimist might look at this and compare the potential safety hazards uncovered by these gentlemen to the use of botulism injections in medicine. A dangerous and lethal agent used, with expertise and discretion, in the pursuit of a positive outcome.

I must not be an optimist.

"open hotbeds of liberal radicalism and degeneracy...These places hold Black Lives Matter meetings. These places plan protests that disrupt our cities. These places illegally house our enemies."
Other than the "degeneracy", they're spot on. Squats, illegal warehouses and DIY spaces are key to counter-cultural resistance movements. If you're against those movements, it's a really good idea to target those spaces.

But 4chan trollies, as always, grossly overestimate their own power and influence on the world. Radical spaces have always been and will continue to be targeted by the authorities, gentrifiers, and developers with more power than the miserable denizens of /pol/ can ever aspire to. These spaces are getting shut down for the same reasons and by the same forces that always shut them down, it’s just that now some alt-right trollies are taking credit for it.

A savvy move, but not something we should get overly worried about. Support your local radical space - legal or otherwise!

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At least this keeps them from doing something productive to their cause.

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Don’t worry, Trump’s going to MAGA by destroying public Unis and resurrecting for-profit diploma mills.

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Here is the Counter Culture Organization I was looking for

  1. Someone has too much god damn time on their hands.

  2. At the same time, if these places were in as bad shape as The Ghost Ship, aren’t they another accident waiting to happen? Is there the option if reported to get time to bring things up to code?

It already says 4chan in the title :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

The intention here is not to make spaces safer but to shut them down.

Encouraging them to go further underground and illegitimate is how Ghost Ship happens, not how to stop future tragedies.

I linked to an article that offers some productive options…

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They’re being IRONIC, they aren’t really nazis! /s

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Actually, if these guys are actually fascists, they don’t mind government programs - as long as they don’t go to any “non-Americans” by which they mean anyone who isn’t white. The Nazis during the 30s had a very well developed set of government programs for people classified as German/Aryan. Now whether these asshats actually agree with that, there is no telling.

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JFC, do not read the comments on the linked article, unless you’re trying to buff your Disqus blocklist.

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I understand, but the people enforcing codes aren’t zealous trollies or they would have shut them down a long time ago. Laying out what needs to happen and giving them time to do it might allow them to keep the space and have it safe.

See on one hand I like people being able to do what they want, but when you have a group of people you are obligated to make sure that what ever you are doing isn’t harming them as well. So while the concept of the Ghost Ship was fine, the execution with the poorly wired tinder box was not.

I will have to find and read your link later.

Unless I missed something, it’s because inspectors weren’t aware of its existence? The design was a complete firetrap.

Complete agreement, but solutions aren’t always simple. There’s not a lot of money, and there’s not a lot of venues with the proper modern safety features to handle parties that these artists can afford.

It’s important to have integrative solutions that can work towards that safety without forcing the artists into non-solutions where the inspectors don’t know where these spaces are.

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Ghost ship fire has freaked all the cities out ( I live near it ) there is no need for 4 chan, the cities are seeking them out. They are not safe, they do not make fire code, and in almost all cases the buildings cannot be retrofitted to comply with fire code. 36 people died in that fire, and the people who survived who just want the government to leave them be, have gotten lawyers and are actively suing the government for not protecting them. So These places are going to disappear fast at least in California, and its not 4chan or a bunch of nazzi wanna bees fault.

Personally I think that shutting down unlicensed living arrangements sounds like a pretty good idea. The poor souls who perished in the Ghost Ship blaze would have benefited from this sort of enforcement.

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