We had two murals on the corner by my house

[conuly]

Not at the same time, and across the street from each other. One was there when I was a kid, the other was painted - by my brother-in-law, as it happens - sometime in my early adulthood.

And at two different points various cops went and threatened the building owners over those murals, which were, let me be clear, not remotely offensive unless you're absolutely trying to be offended, and the owners removed them in order to avoid the trouble. One had sci-fi towers. The other had a jellyfish. You really have to squint to find some sort of bad or anti-authority message in either of them.

And this is why I don't much like cops. I sometimes tell people it's because I was there right after Eric Garner was murdered, but no, that fact is why I don't trust cops. The murals are why I don't like them. Even criminal gangs would treat their local businesses with more respect than that. Or if they didn't, oh well, you don't expect them to.

Right now, a few blocks away, there's a mural up with two women and a rose and a dove. The women are supposed to be Israeli and Palestinian, judging from the color scheme. Every time I go to CVS I'm pleasantly surprised that it's still up, but then, even if anybody wants to start something I suppose it's not the sort of thing you paint because you're scared of a little intimidation. But the other reason I'm surprised is because I remember after 9/11, walking in the other direction, somebody had hung a bedsheet banner out their windows, "Nuke Them". And I had to go past that ugly thing just to get to school. It was like the bottom fell out of my stomach that day, and it didn't stop falling for months and months.

You know, between the 2000 election and 9/11 it feels like I've spent my entire adult life watching the world slip further right every single year, and watching authoritarianism gaining more ground, faster and faster. It feels like that because it is like that, and almost my entire adult life I've spent watching people my (current) age and older proclaiming how "shocked!" they are that things have "suddenly" gotten bad, and I just want to shake them. What have they been doing the past quarter century? Maybe they were too busy enthusiastically supporting the war in Afghanistan that now everybody pretends they knew was a bad idea all along to realize exactly what all else was going on around them. Probably it'd be more productive to shake Elon Musk, see if he drops any pocket change.

This has been rambly, but... I don't know. I had one of those non-dreams last night, woke up convinced that because I'd done something or forgotten to do something very important now my arms were about to fall off. Very weird thing to not-dream about and I haven't gone back to sleep yet.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

All made perfect sense to me, especially: 'almost my entire adult life I've spent watching people my (current) age and older proclaiming how "shocked!" they are that things have "suddenly" gotten bad, and I just want to shake them.' Yep. And I do 'shake people up' (or in kidslang shake them 'awake'). 'Normal' in the liberal west* leads ever further to the right and authoritarianism then fascism so we need better than 'normal' for all our sakes.

Also, when I lived in very suburban middle-class Germany everyone painted BRIGHT murals on their street-facing garage doors and people who didn't were looked down on. /keeping up with the Müllers :-)

* I note that 'normal' in supposedly communist countries also seemed to lead ever further to the right and authoritarianism then often fascism, at least in my lifetime.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[conuly]

I just don’t get how they can have been so very uninformed - meanwhile, they claim they weren’t!

[spiralsheep]

I remember sooo many people refusing to listen to me warning them that going back to "normal" political "business as usual" wouldn't prevent a second term for Trump, or another worse than him, because it was merely backing a few steps up the same road that led to Trump the first time. But some people won't acknowledge their cherished "normal" has problems until those problems overwhelm them. /frustration

[kengr]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/HMIyDf3gBoY?si=fu4X_LCF07KFNzFB

As for the murals, good ol' "broken window" policing.

[gwydion]

Back in the '80's I had friends and family in Germantown. At the time this was sort of the Philly equivalent of Harlem in the 60's-'80's.

There was this corner store in a neighborhood were a friend lived with these absolutely stunning murals painted all over it. Apparently, the store got tagged a lot and they kept having to paint over it as the cops would fine them, so they hired the most talented taggers to do murals.

It was a beautiful and clever solution. Suddenly everyone was on the same side. Everyone loved the murals and were proud of them and there wasn't any tagging any more.

And then the cops came and made them paint it all over solid colours because even though it was art and beautiful and on purpose and everyone loved it, the cops threatened to fine the shop owner every day it was up as it was encouraging "gang activity" even though it was out right doing the opposite.

Fucking police!

[conuly]

Ugh, assholes.

[minoanmiss]

But the other reason I'm surprised is because I remember after 9/11, walking in the other direction, somebody had hung a bedsheet banner out their windows, "Nuke Them". And I had to go past that ugly thing just to get to school. It was like the bottom fell out of my stomach that day, and it didn't stop falling for months and months.

I so hear you. SO So much.

[sabotabby]

I'm old enough to remember Reagan, old enough to have been an adult when I marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's always been bad. I'm old enough to remember the cost at which the relative peace in the 90s came. This is just mask-off bad.

[conuly]

Oh, I know it's always been shit. I can forgive myself - and others - for not grasping that during our own literal childhoods and even, to a limited extent, in early adulthood. What I don't understand is how people can be in their 40s, or 50s, or 60s, and still claim to be surprised! Were they living under a rock? A rock on Mars?

[adafrog]

Oh dang.

[low_delta]

it feels like I've spent my entire adult life watching the world slip further right every single year,

Absolutely. And conservatives don't believe it because due to how biases work, people don't see their own biases. So they see "the gays" getting married, and think things are shifting leftward.

[silveradept]

Makes sense to me - we've both been paying attention to the ways that everywhere is becoming more cop-controlled, and the difference between whether you're woke or not is whether or not you believe the cops actually help a situation they're summoned to. It's very much a "well, I didn't think the leopard would eat MY face" situation.

[conuly]

Sure, but how do you explain people who claim to be reasonably well-informed progressives being so excessively surprised by what is very much not surprising?

[silveradept]

My usual go-tos on that are "they're white, and therefore didn't have to pay attention to the cops getting worse" and "they're relatively well-off, and therefore didn't have to party attention to the cops getting worse."

[scripsi]

it feels like I've spent my entire adult life watching the world slip further right every single year, and watching authoritarianism gaining more ground, faster and faster. It feels like that because it is like that, and almost my entire adult life I've spent watching people my (current) age and older proclaiming how "shocked!" they are that things have "suddenly" gotten bad, and I just want to shake them. What have they been doing the past quarter century?

I feel like that too. :(