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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

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Have we considered it might be a right wing extremist? It doesn’t seem like their usual MO but it’s definitely possible.

Devices With ‘Free Gaza’ Messages Found at Ballot Box Fires. Ah yes, the infamous "Free Gaza" right-wing extremists!

Yes, I will admit this was almost certainly some kind of lefty activist, probably antifa. Still think ‘right wing extremists’ should have been on the list of possibilities, albeit not as the #1, before we knew this.

A right wing extremist would have obviously just shot the boxes 5000 times with the ammo he had laying around in his truck, not used a Molotov. It's all about which tool you reach for.

Right. Because setting two mailboxes on fire is going to turn Portland red. Nope, there's nothing to "consider" here, it's not even good as a Disney movie plot. And that's a very low bar.

Something tells me that whoever did this(and I’m not sold of the right wing extremist hypothesis but its categorical exclusion is strange) will not turn out to be a careful planner who gamed out the impacts for maximum political effect.

That's why I'm going with homeless drug addicts or anarchist dipshits, this is definitely not part of some greater plot.

/r/Portland being absolutely 100% convinced it was the proud boys just makes me more sure.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but there's an article that police are looking for the owners of a Volvo S-60 spotted near the box via CCTV.

Yeah, and it looks like both were incendiary devices placed on the exterior of the boxes. That disqualifies criddlers, so now my money is on anarchists.

What's strange? When people consider violent acts done, in the city known by the multitude of violent acts performed by left wing extremists that has been tolerated and encouraged for years, and when there are no base nor numbers nor hope in the area for right wing extremists and they do not gain absolutely anything from it, then people go with most plausible explanation and exclude the least plausible? I think it's the least strange way of doing it.

But by the same token, Portland is already blue, so why bother?

Some people just want to watch the world burn. Portland is where their safe space is.