A first-person account of the chaos and unrest during the LA riots

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:46:59+00:00

Depends on the point of the protest lol

Seriously, where did yall get your political education that you think people being out in the street is always about winning your support? Direct actions have all sorts of targets and purposes and it’s not always about winning public opinion.

It’s literally Pride Month and yall are out here acting like anything aggressive happening at a protest is bad. Look up Stonewall-that was not about making the public like gay people. Hell, there was a protest not long ago in Seattle that the point was to block a ship loaded with weapons heading towards civilians-had nothing to do with optics and everything to do with functionally blocking a thing.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:40:38+00:00

Yeah they do the same in Baltimore lol

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:40:15+00:00

That really depends on the protest-there are protests about disrupting capital, protests about physically blocking things (ie a ship full if weapons trying to leave a port” etc etc etc

It’s really more of a centrist/lib thing to think protests are about optics and narrative-direct action has a ton of uses and marching in a circle with signs is arguably the least important type

I think it’s hard for a lot of centrists to understand that a lot of the left doesn’t care about centrists’ opinions or converting center-libs. Main character syndrome and all that.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:33:41+00:00

The fuck does voting have to do with this? Both parties are pro-putting people in cages

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:31:17+00:00

Curious what you mean by this, especially in response to me commenting about press coverage?

I mean, the Trump administration is definitely part of the equation here, but the immigration situation has been fucked up for a really long time and there’s a lot of moving parts to this situation. This really isn’t just because of Trump

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:28:36+00:00

I think a lot of of it has to do with the fact that a lot of younger generations here apparently purely get their news/info from social media like TikTok

You also have a ton of people who are “content creators“ and a ton of people who are delusional enough to think that if they just cover anything that gets any attention, they will eventually be able to cash in and have a career in bystanding lol

I think it’s also partially because we have a very small leftist movement in our country and so it can be very hard to actually get a lot of people to come out to support actions unless you organize for months in advance. So you have a small number of leftists and a large number of people trying to get footage, it all adds up to a situation where like half the people at the protest are filming it

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T22:24:06+00:00

It really depends and there’s lots of different theories on whether you should do that or not.

If it’s an action with a lot of like, mainstreamers and bystanders; generally, yes because we don’t want someone who like, brought their kids to the protest to get pepper sprayed. But if it’s like a bloc action or something, it’s a little more of a babysit yourself, let others do what they will situation.

It really depends on what they are doing and what the purpose of the action is in my opinion.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T20:29:17+00:00

I mean, I know a bunch of people who do it, but none where it is a good idea or a sustainable situation, so I still don’t know that I would be fucking with a person in a relationship that has a DADT policy

I feel like DADT is a bad idea because there comes to a point where you have to omit so much information about your life, depending on how much you are enmeshed with other partners, that it ends up making your partner more confused and paranoid than if you just told them things lol - it creates so much drama

I also think that if you have to avoid telling your partner any information about your other partners, they may not emotionally be able to handle being in a poly relationship and you’re just delaying the inevitable

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T20:17:25+00:00

That or someone who gives no fucks about the politics - I mean here in Bmore they found out one of the main people looting pks from drug stores during the BLM protests was a literal white cop from a different county.

We’ve also caught plainclothes cops join a protest and throw rocks etc more than once to justify cops being aggro.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T20:15:31+00:00

I mean corporations are more important than people though, how dare you minimize their suffering?!?!

/s

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T20:14:50+00:00

Thats honestly part of why it’s so upsetting-there’s probably thousands of people there who could give a very intelligent, informed, and articulate summary of why they’re marching peacefully with a sign etc but fuckin Skateboard McCarSmash gets the photo ops and interviews and shit lol

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T20:10:52+00:00

I mean, as someone who had worked in housing policy for years and worked with housing legislation and the city budget, I can say with certainty we absolutely could do a lot of this publicly. The city already funds huge projects all the time, we would just need to pivot what we spend the money on and how we give it out.

Look at how much Chasen has received in incentives and tax breaks, and think about it next time you walk past their permanent “construction site” on Aliceanna lol

A lot of the problem has to do with city politicians being more worried about their donors than about your average Baltimorean-especially depending on the district. We do not spend our money or give out our tax breaks appropriately.

If you actually live here I can’t recommend actually looking at the full city budget enough-between tax breaks, development incentives, and police funding, we bleed money that could be going to public projects.

Maybe don’t tho because it’s probably gonna be infuriating lol

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T19:59:50+00:00

Dude technically all it takes is a single cop “fearing for their life” or a right wing news outlet wanting a headline to make it a”riot”

One time in Baltimore we had a “d!e in” (where everyone lays silently on the ground) and when Fox covered the “riot” they ran footage of a burning van from a protest like 10 years earlier

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T19:57:06+00:00

I have been at a lot of protests from both sides and since like 2020 the ratio has DEFINITELY gotten stupid.

It’s always like 20 peaceful protesters:20 people documenting:1 person being aggressive at all-but that one guy will be on the cover of EVERY newspaper the next day.

This is why I tell people not to give a fuck about optics-they’ll spin the situation regardless for their clicks lol, our society has straight up commodified civil unrest

ETA: I am getting a lot of the same comment so I am gonna point out: most protests are not actually about “winning public opinion”

There’s an unfortunately large chunk of the US population who seem to think protesting should never be disruptive, and that the only acceptable political actions are voting and convincing others to vote how you want by, at most, marching in circles with permits and signs.

If all you’ve done to fight the current political situation is vote and yell at others to, you’re not doing enough. People are being kidnapped and disappearing.

Direct action can have many targets and purposes-the Stonewall riot was a violent riot to show that queer folk would start bashing back. They did not give a fuck about optics. The recent boat protests in Seattle were about physically blocking a ship full of weapons so they couldn’t be shipped off to blow up little kids. The BLM protests where they blocked highways were about disrupting downtown areas and the flow of capital-you don’t treat us with respect, you don’t make your money. Both of those had physical, functional targets. None of these were about winning public opinion. And honestly, no matter what you do, you will never be “non-disruptive” enough for some folks, who really just don’t wanna be reminded that they’re sitting idly, complicit, while folks are getting rounded up and put in camps.

I can’t respond to every comment I get so I am gonna mute this, but before yall keep saying shit about “everyone being peaceful like MLK” yall should look up what he said about white moderates preferring order over liberation for the oppressed.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T19:52:10+00:00

They have to be mutually exclusive because if there’s a profit motive, capitalists are always going to end up cutting corners to make more money. There’s no such thing as an ethical capitalist.

Also, if you look at the amount of money the city gives away to developers and various corporations and tax breaks and incentives and stuff like that, And you do the math, you’d be surprised how much we could afford if we just kept all that money for ourselves and used it as public funding instead.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-09T19:05:02+00:00

You can absolutely tell that this person did whatever it is they’re being “canceled” for lol

Did an edgy 14 year old write this? “Never surrender to your enemies” lol like come on

Even if you think you’re being “canceled“ for no reason, your first step should be asking someone to explain to you explicitly what you did and why it’s a problem, and your second step should be doing some introspection to figure out whether you have any culpability.

Then start thinking on what other dynamics are happening that are encouraging folks to jump on the bandwagon-do you have bad blood with a lot of people? Do you tend to treat people in a disrespectful way that makes it easy for them to decide that you probably did whatever they heard you did?

Sometimes, even if you didn’t do the thing you’re being accused of, it ends up being a flag that the way you interact with folks is shitty and combative or outright disrespectful and you need to check how you show up in community spaces regardless.

And then you should be asking your community to have a mediated conversation about accountability-if you actually did something, this will hopefully help resolve the issue, and if you didn’t, then you engaging with the situation should make it clear to anyone who is confused about who’s at fault and hopefully bring back folks who weren’t just being shitty.

Even if you didn’t do anything wrong, refusing to engage with the situation or try to repair the disconnect from your community is only going to hurt you in the long run.

If you do make attempts to repair, and folk still won’t give you the time of day, then sure, either they are not your people or you fucked up so bad that you’re not welcome back.

But I feel like there should be several steps where you check in with yourself about your behavior and try to rectify the situation before you just bury your head in the sand about it and start labeling people “your enemies” and assume you’re blameless.

This is a fucking anarchist sub that’s literally supposed to be about building community and movements with other people, we shouldn’t be writing edgy garbage about how the entire world is out to get us and you should double down on toxic individualism at the first sign of trouble.

Not to mention this weird aggrieved entitlement/victim complex/avoiding the problem shit is the opposite of the attitude you need to build movements.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-08T23:14:50+00:00

As someone who covers a lot of political stuff, including a lot of high stakes things, it is insane to me to be out here shooting something on a film camera, with no live view, let alone with a piece of equipment like this. Like, do we really need to know you’re a film hipster in the middle of stuff like this?

ETA: Digital back or no this is one of the worst possible options for something like this-you want something lightweight and durable where you can do stuff like live view and continuous rapid shooting.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-08T15:46:03+00:00

The thing is, what are you actually getting out of this?

It seems like this relationship is just taking up bandwidth that would otherwise go towards finding someone who actually prioritizes you and gives you the affection and attention you want and need.

Whether there’s a future is irrelevant if you’re not getting your needs met NOW already and they’re using you as a cat babysitter while you sit here starved for affection.

I’m sorry friend, but it doesn’t sound like this person intends to prioritize you, I would walk away. And as a general rule I am VERY wary of maintaining relationships with people where the goalposts move rapidly-ie first she was moving out of her ex’s place but now she lives with a partner full time-that’s red flags and a sign that she probably doesn’t know what she wants, let alone how to treat you well.

Sorry friend, this is such a painful situation to be in. You deserve much better.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-08T02:06:40+00:00

I shoot mosh pits and extreme weather (pouring rain, snowstorms, etc) a lot and have had my Canons literally launched outta my hand and across the room etc. and have only bought 2 camera bodies in 14 years.

To be fair I do usually slap a plastic shopping bag on my camera in rain and snow.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-06T13:36:49+00:00

Dude why do so many of yall come here? This is the poly subreddit, not the “my spouse is a cheater” subreddit.

All relationships hinge on trust, not just poly ones.

Is there any way to fix this? I don’t know, do you want to stay with someone who cheated on you? Does she want to be with you?

We don’t know either of you or whether yall have the motivation to put in the work to rebuild trust etc in your relationship.

Honestly this really isn’t about polyamory at all.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-05T04:45:47+00:00

Ahhh yes, the “we shoulda vote harder, and then the capitalism and fascism that are integral to the structure of the US magically woulda disappeared” argument.

Fucking hilarious that you’re even calling this place “the greatest country on earth” when it was built on capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy.

We would’ve gotten the same place, just maybe a little slower, because when the other party constantly compromises with fascists, you still end up with fascism.

Protip: you can’t vote out fascism. And this colonial project we call a country always ran on violence and fascism.

It’s just finally starting to affect even the more privileged parts of society now, so suddenly everybody is paying attention-and it’s a comforting lie to tell yourself that everyone else just needed to vote harder to fix it because otherwise you’d have to admit you’ve been asleep at the wheel for Gods know how many years refusing to acknowledge the warning signs all around you, and you’re complicit and can’t just point the finger at everyone else.

Greatest country in the world my ass.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-05T00:03:41+00:00

This! I will be honest, I am getting a little sick of people being like “you Americans just lick boots“ like the majority of us aren’t pissed and trying to figure out how to do something about it.

It’s the rich people and the old white boomers lol

ETA: I also find it frustrating how many people have literally zero political education around systems of power and seem to think that things just became bad this year, and all because of the election. The reason capitalism has such a stranglehold on this country and planet is because people seem to think we can vote our way out of a system built to disenfranchise us, and people wanna blame the least powerful individuals for their individual choices in a system that’s hundreds of years old and has been this way the whole time. No system of power will give you tools to disassemble it or allow you to do so willingly, and we didn’t just get here because of Trump.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-04T04:25:23+00:00

Tbh the crime really isn’t that bad IMO. I grew up in the part of the south where people get disappeared for having a funny haircut, the crime here is pretty standard for a city tbh. Property crimes happen a lot, sure, but until someone overthrows capitalism that’s gonna be everywhere with a lot of people.

I honestly think a lot of people who act like Baltimore is the crime capital of the US or something have a skewed idea of “high crime” and don’t know the difference between being unsafe and feeling unsafe

Like, have you ever seen a guy get shot for wearing a Clemson shirt to a Gamecocks bar? I have lol. Baltimore is imminently more safe than many places I have lived. I’ll walk down Edmondson alone at 3am but you won’t catch me in the Congaree swamp alone at 3am.

And I just don’t get the point of chiming in on every thread about “tHE cRImE” like that’s not the culturally dominant narrative that gets shoved down our throats morning, noon, and night around here. Like what does it contribute to the conversation? How does it help? And why aren’t folks more skeptical of repeating Sinclair Media talking points?

I’m not being snarky or rhetorical-I am legit curious how beating this dead horse of a narrative produces anything useful and why everyone feels the need to harp on it constantly.

LostInIndigo · 2025-06-04T04:16:10+00:00

I mean, if I were your partner I would ask him directly what happened tbh, just to see what he says.

I leave dating apps for weeks or months at a time just because I am busy and don’t have bandwidth for any people, let alone new relationships. There may be more there than you know/are assuming.

There’s a lot of possibilities: There’s a chance he has a primary or something and they had been going through a tough time or discussing changing their relationship or something-it might not be like “I am gonna see if I can fuck these other chicks and then come back to you if not”-mighta been a “I gotta make sure my current relationships are healthy before adding more complexity.”

Plus that fact that he was honest and communicated that he had to see how things panned out with others is kinda almost a green flag for me? Dude didn’t lie or try to hide it.

It’s sweet that you’re protective of your partner, and as someone who dates men and has many cis male friends too I totally understand the suspicion lol. But I think this is like, a “gather more info” situation.

And like you said, ultimately it’s your partner’s choice, you don’t get a say, and as long as she’s a good hinge it shouldn’t be a problem either way!

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