Dumbth

 Via Paul Campos, an intrepid reporter for The Economist visits Youngstown, Ohio on the traditional anthropological expedition to find the mysterious Trump Voter. I'll leave it to the Big Professor to comment specifically on this but sheesh.

“He’s done a great job, he’s got everyone back to work. I’m pretty much 100% for him,” said Kyle, a 30-year-old electrician. “He shoots his mouth off but at least that shows he’s honest,” said Jason, a pipe-fitter, who said he especially liked Mr Trump’s commitment to reducing the national debt. “He’s done more for our country than the past ten presidents put together,” said an older builder, Jeff, skimming wet concrete on a new road. “He’s made—who is it, China or Japan?—pay our farmers billions of dollars. He got health care done, which the Democrats could never do. He built the wall.”

What I will add to this is that the good people of Wingnutistan now believe that the country is in the midst of a vast insurrection by commies and anarchists, who are coming to burn down their houses and carry off their womenfolk. Please do get a grip.

Following the murder by police of unarmed people in a few specific cities -- e.g. New York, Minneapolis, Kenosha, and Portland -- largely peaceful protests occurred, except that in the first few days, after dark, some vandalism and in some cases looting occurred. It has been shown that some of this was perpetrated by right wing provocateurs, and some by common criminals, but had nothing to do with the vast majority of protesters, who were and are unarmed and peaceful. The lawbreaking petered out after a few days. I believe I have already described the BLM demonstration that took place in my small town on June 19th, which was an entirely peaceful and inspiring event. Nevertheless several people in the town called my friend the First Selectman in a panic, asking how he was going to protect them from the Antifa maniacs who were coming to kill them all. Similar rumors of busloads of armed and rampaging Antifa thugs turned out so-called militias in Idaho and elsewhere. All of it 100% fabricated. The only substantial threat of violence in the country right now comes from armed, right wing extremists. This is the finding of a DHS report which the administration has attempted to suppress.

The one city where protests have continued every day is Portland, Oregon. Despite the apocalyptic and largely fabricated images you may see nightly on Faux News, the vast majority of the city is completely peaceful and unaffected. And the vast majority of the violence is perpetrated by the police. You can read a balanced account of what's going on from Oregon Public Broadcasting. Yes, some people sometimes throw things at the cops, who are wearing body armor and will not be harmed. I wish nonetheless they would stop doing that, but you do not need to arm yourself and you have nothing to fear unless you're planning to stand between the demonstrators and the police. Just don't do that and you'll be fine.

Antifa, by the way, does not exist. There is no such organization. It's just a label some people have applied to themselves, who like to take part in counterdemonstrations against right wing extremists. In some of these cases there have been confrontations between the groups, although of course accounts tend to vary as to who started it. Unless you are planning to march with a swastika or a Confederate battle flag, you have nothing to fear from them. And no, neither China nor Japan has paid one cent to American farmers.