go to alt-right rally, find parking lot<p>see huge gadsen flag on a pickup truck next to a giant thin blue line flag<p>sir, who exactly do you think will be doing the treading?<p>see texas cannon design "come and take it" bumper sticker next to a big thin blue line sticker.<p>sir, who do you think will be coming and taking it?
I think this is a click-bait headline for what is essentially a commentary piece on recent politics.<p>The rally actually had very little to do with the article other than some framing.<p>I think he did a reasonable job raising his issues without hyperbole. In essence, we just need more conversations and attitudes like this out in the social media jungles so we can move forward. It's a sad indictment that someone like this (reasoned and honest opinions) is losing friends still.<p>I portion a decent part of the blame on the media (inc. social media); they do nothing whatsoever to encourage honest and earnest discourse yet have massive influence over the attitudes of their viewers. They let politicians get away with posturing and dodging and go more for opinions and editorials than searching for data and 'truth.' Social media platforms are focusing all their resources on blocking <i>content</i> rather than behaviour, completely the wrong way around.
"Unfortunately, these days, it puts me at odds with both parties when they try to take away even more gun rights."<p>Huh? What gun rights are Republicans trying to take away?
As for many political groups in heated times, there are plain old alt-right gatherings and there are dangerous alt-right rallies. The author is asserting that there is some unnamed non-trivial force identifying this particular gathering as a dangerous rally, but he is merely invoking the specter of hatred as a strawman for clickbait purposes.
While I do vehemently disagree with the authors position on guns, he raises some exceptional points I think most people don't get and are fundamental to breaking down the divisions we're seeing today.<p>"This kind of oversimplification of things encourages an “us vs. them” mindset"<p>"or is this actually an insane amount of posturing, it’s impossible for me to tell"<p>"I’m a walking bias. We all are"
Lots of "I" statements. I write the same way but don't really care for it. Reads as a little self-absorbed. My favorite journalism has the writer disappearing from sight, maybe peeking around a corner once in a while to remind readers that they exist.<p>I wonder how the piece would read with all sentences starting with "I" removed.
This is a great personal-experience write-up of an independent photojournalist attending a rally for something akin to "the other side" (the author carefully <i>doesn't</i> articulate which side they belong to, other than that Trump-rally-attendee is far from their comfortable midpoint).<p>The piece describes the experience and the in-the-moment feelings of the author's experience simply. A good read, though I definitely <i>also</i> want to read the piece written a few weeks later with the benefit of time to work through the emotions and thoughts raised here. (Assuming that such a piece is going to exist!)
Showed up to one of the Trump boat rallies.
Nicest bunch of people around. Thousands of boats in a parade formation.<p>Local news said it was a couple dozen boats.
Why the hell was this flagged? What? God forbid someone posts a great blog article with good photos about a person visiting a rally for a group often discussed disdainfully on this very website and demonstrates that they're not all monsters or redneck idiots.