Comment by thu2111 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thu2111 | Hacker News Reader

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saying they burned and looted cities for months is clear right-wing hyperbole

Wait, is it? I'm not American and even I know that Portland has been the site of continuous nightly riots for months now. It stopped being reported a long time ago but it's still happening. https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo posts pictures and videos of it every single day all summer and winter. They smash up and burn buildings all the time, and that includes repeated attacks on federal courthouses.

Ngo claims the group are called antifa and the rioters all seem to be white, but they claim to be BLM and to be fighting against racism so I guess it's reasonable to call them BLM riots.

I mean, which kind of rioting is worse is absolutely a reasonable discussion to have, but writing off the last six months of nightly rioting in Portland as "right wing hyperbole" when there are endless pictures, videos, mugshots, etc ... well that just seems like the kind of bubble isolation that is being decried up thread.

Andy Ngo is completely and utterly full of shit. He spent much of 2019 working with Far Right groups like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys crafting narratives to demonize left-wing groups. He is on video discussing an upcoming brawl with Patriot Prayer. He lied about being hit by a cement milkshake. He has a long history of acting as a provocateur with no interest in objective report in any sense of the word. Helping to incite violence and feigning victim-hood is his MO. Any sentence starting with "Ngo claims" should be immediately disregarded.

The protests here in Portland have been limited to a few square blocks. The constant claims that the city is burning down are obvious hyperbole. And the completely disingenuous comparisons of these actions - however you view them - to terrorists storming the US Capitol to undermine an election is just astounding.

The thing is I don't really care about your ad hominem attacks on the messenger. Ngo posts video evidence and snapshots of arrest records. His Twitter feed is a more or less constant stream of primary evidence, often presented without comment. It speaks for itself. As for limited to a few square blocks, how is that relevant to what I said? The Capitol protests/riots are limited to a few square blocks as well.

Pointing out bias and lying are ad hominmem attacks now? Almost every one of the videos posted to Ngo's twitter are accompanied by his own commentary so I'm not sure how you could claim otherwise. And even if they weren't, I know of at least one specific incident where his sharing of a carefully edited video with missing information created a completely false narrative. His "reporting" has been deeply intertwined with the violence in this city, directly collaborating with violent far right groups, helping to doxx political activists and leading to multiple instances of death threats.

I understand that you're not in Oregon or even the US - and even though Ngo clearly speaks to your politics, he's not an accurate source of information. There's an abundance of information showing that to be the case.

Are you specifically denying that there have been nightly riots in Portland for months? (the original claim in question)

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