A case study in the phenomenon of “fake news” (or in any case, our inability to arrive at anything like an objective set of facts):
Last Saturday in Portland, Oregon activists marched through the streets in protest of the police killing of a black man named Patrick Kimmons. At one point, a silver Lexus drove through part of the crowd, members of which began running beside the car and hitting it.
Here’s a video of the incident from local KATU News:
Here’s a video of the same incident from the other side, behind the car as it drives into the crowd, shared by right-wing Facebook group Populist Wire:
And here is video of an elderly man who didn’t heed Antifa street orders — so they chased him down. #Portland
Each video presents the event completely differently. In one, a car drives into a crowd of people, who knock on the side of the car in a panic, urging him to stop. In the other, an innocent driver is surrounded and attacked by an unruly mob as he drives past. Yet each video is an objective document. One’s
NOTE: I STARTED WRITING THIS BLOG POST LATE LAST NIGHT AFTER A LONG, CONTENTIOUS FACEBOOK THREAD. I STOPPED, FIGURING I’D FINISH IT WITH A FRESHER HEAD TODAY. WELL, I DON’T WANT TO FINISH IT TODAY. AND I THINK YOU ALL PROBABLY GET THE POINT I WAS TRYING TO MAKE. TRUTH, SUBJECTIVITY, THE CORROSIVE NATURE OF OUR UNIQUELY PARTISAN TIME. YOU GET IT. ANYWAY, HAVE A GOOD ONE. THANKS.