Mastodawn

I’m sickened.

Just drove by someone’s property going south near Vancouver, #Washington on the way to Portland & passed 3 huge flags on tall flagpoles. One was the Confederate flag, (couldn’t make out one, and 1 🇺🇸). I’m just livid.

Livid & sick to my stomach.

Yes, I know it’s a red area, we drive through every time we take our Canada trips, but the flags were new. Lots of Trumpy & religious signs, but this… is a 1st.

Steve's Place Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff And from there ride the interstate fascists into Portland to stir up trouble because they can't get global press by doing the same thing in Vancouver.

@GottaLaff
Was it Jefferson Davis Park? People have been protesting it and trying to get the flags removed for a while now.

https://www.koin.com/news/civic-affairs/naacp-vancouver-disgusted-by-confederate-monument-in-sw-wash/

Earthling Jul 20, 2023

White Republicans are panicking towards the extreme right in view of the increasing power of BLM, feminist and LGBQTA+ movements, and the perspective that in about 20 years from now white citizens will the a minority. The fight against fascism seems to become a door-to-door confrontation in many communities. Given all the firearms in the hands of especially Republicans, a pretty scaring scenario.

@GottaLaff was that on the west side of I5 north of Vancouver? If so I've seen it, but not a confederate flag

Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊)Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff Oof. I drove through an area farther east from Vancouver, WA a while back that was riddled with thin blue line flags everywhere, made me feel extremely uncomfortable. 😒

Jer Warren Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff Up here in Kalama, Washington, there's a lot of really nice houses on rivers and hills with gigantic blue 'Fuck Joe Biden' flags, and one house I drive by frequently has a US flag flying upside-down. Lots of thin blue lines and punisher skulls on cars

Rob Vincent (OLD ACCOUNT)Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff This is the one sort of thing to make me want one of those hideously dangerous portable lasers which can light things on fire from a distance.

marko Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff I don’t know of another instance of a loser of a war being allowed to continue to fly their flag in the country who defeated them. Further, what that flag definitely represents to many out weighs what it might mean to a few. These things need to come down once and for all time.

Susanna the Artist 🌻Jul 20, 2023

@GottaLaff Sometimes I think I see fewer traitor flags in the actual former Confederate state I live in than some of y’all do in the far-flung red spots.

sewstars Jul 21, 2023

I'm down here in Cottage Grove and regularly have people passing by in pickups with one side a huge American flag, and the other a F*ck Biden Flag, or other nastiness. Have started seeing confederate stickers on their windows, but no flags yet. I cant help but think the worst when seeing an American flag flying now.

Dave Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff I live in Ohio and sadly have to put up with these "Don't Tread on Me" SOB's all over the place. A group of so call American's following a despot whose ultimate goal would be to take all their rights away, Ugh.

Ryan Welsh Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff It's been my experience that anywhere in the greater Seattle metro area, things are pretty chill and safe feeling. The second you get some distance, the absolutely ginormous Frump signs & flags, Confederate BS, etc comes up. Especially west over in the islands.

Even around me in Lake Stevens, quite a bit of it. Huge pickups coal rolling and intimidating other drivers with giant US, Dump, and Snek flags.

I'm not surprised anymore, just disappointed.

Philip Mallegol-Hansen Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff FWIW Clark County is actually voting blue most of the time.

Not to say the behavior is acceptable, it isn’t. But please don’t let it color your perception of the whole area. There is plenty of good among the bad.

Laffy Jul 21, 2023

@philip My perception of the area is neutral. I’ve seen so many disgusting Trumpy/religious signage all through Oregon and Washington, in many areas. I hate driving through now.

Aris Merquoni Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff The giant crosses around Portland that you can see from all the highways are from people making the area a sundown town. We haven't necessarily noticed the anti-Black sentiment in the area but it's been here a long time.

(ETA: by we I mean white ppl in urban Oregon)

thomas Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff #vanwa is actually a blue area, but just north of there is Battle Ground, home of multiple Jan 6 defendants and the domestic terrorist group Patriot Prayer. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where you saw that house.

amd Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff @lisamelton There are two Washington states. Once you leave the Sound it’s a totally different place.

Jes Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff I am pretty sure you saw this park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis_Park

Disgusting display

*edit I deleted the first link and went with Wikipedia as the first link has some gross apologia

Jefferson Davis Park - Wikipedia

Laffy Jul 21, 2023

@Jesticulated I don’t think so. It was 3 poles in a row, closer together.

Brian Grinter Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff @lisamelton and a white surrender flag next to the confederate flag?

Garrett Fleenor Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff was it the extremely badly painted uncle sam billboard? I dont often drive I-5, in WA, but every time I do that billboard always has some hateful racist shit on it.

Holly A. Gultiano Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff It's mostly in the rural PNW towns but Portland has a very racist history that's still around today. Vancouver WA is one of the sketchiest towns in the western side of the state.

CW racism and slurs in the article
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/racist-history-portland/492035/

The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America

It’s known as a modern-day hub of progressivism, but its past is one of exclusion.

The Atlantic

DRSpalding Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff There's a reason folks call it "Van-tucky". I can assure you that it is not out of character for a lot of people in SW WA to bend that direction. My cousin included, sadly.

Laffy Jul 21, 2023

@DRSpalding Well that’s what I was saying. I’m used to seeing the Trumpy stuff, just not the flag.

I’d never heard VanTucky! Oy.

J.elgato Jul 21, 2023

Finding symbols espousing racisism, authoritarian, and violence around the Portland Oregon area is not difficult.

- Rare to see the Confederate Battle Flag though.

Not that the Battle Flag has fallen out of favor, it's just for so many years it's all they had.

Seen som rapidly evolving iconography attached to the white-power fringe groups and those in support of a fascist Christian ethnostate now they these people have access to Etsy.

cremevax👩🏻‍💻🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🇺🇦Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff Ugh, really gross.

But … I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to despair about the not-Seattle-area part of the state. And I just want to point out that we flipped WA03 (which includes Vancouver) D in the last election. You know, the one that the Seattle Times told us was going to be the “red wave” election?

I’ve done doorknocking in various parts of Kittitas County for Kim Schrier — her district, WA08, is a 2018 D flip — and I talked to plenty of progressive voters there too.

Progressives can win outside urban metro areas, if we don’t tell ourselves that huge swaths of the state are out of our reach. They aren’t.

Laffy Jul 21, 2023

@cremevax Thank you!!!

Chelleville Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff In my teensy town in Eastern Oregon, we got a couple giant ‘Fuck You Biden’ flags and a ‘Trump 2024’ banner. Utter idiocracy awash in flavor-aid and electrolytes.

Pete Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff @Chelleville I am in one of the “semi-blue” areas of deep-red Idaho. This place is toxic. Thanks to many folks but, Limbaugh and the Murdochs get most of the credit. But of course Reagan, Gingrich, Atwater, et al. The potential for utopia sacrificed on the altar of power, greed and bigotry. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Laffy Jul 21, 2023

@Chelleville Yes, I’ve noticed Oregon has a bunch of that stuff. And the secessionists! Oy.

Anne Deschaine Jul 21, 2023

@GottaLaff @Chelleville We drive PDX to Bend periodically for visiting, and it is always the most bizarre and destabilizing trip. Portland is far from perfect, but rainbow flags at least outfly the other. The stretch between the two cities is genuinely scary and horrifying. Wild to realize there are places we don't want to stop for gas in case they find out we're from PDX.

(Maybe relatedly, also the first area I saw flagrant mask-law flouting in early COVID era.)

@GottaLaff @lisamelton We see a few Confederate + American flag households driving through southern Missouri. They are deeply confused and should read a book. SMH.