Healey - Fanatical Intolerance

A more agreeable city is difficult to imagine. The cultural district, with its well-kept paths winding along the banks of the Willamette River, is especially appealing. The open green spaces, neatly trimmed lawns, tree-lined boulevards and public squares are redolent of Ivy League campuses. The laid-back atmosphere is pervasive and pleasant. Strolling is preferable to walking, hurrying frowned upon. See an alligator-skin briefcase swinging by and you are more likely to conclude it belongs to a professor of philosophy than a banker. Unlike in hurried New York folk are happy to stop and chat.

In June 2019 a vicious and unprovoked assault took place here. It left the victim, a freelance reporter by the name of Andy Ngo, bloodied, bruised and brain damaged. Mention what happened in any of the downtown bistros and bars and the reaction is a shake of the head followed by a mumble of disapproval. They went too far. Antifa that is. Or Antifascist Action.

As is usual these days, the incident was captured on smartphones. The video clips uploaded to social media have seen millions of hits, hundreds of thousands of likes and dislikes. The majority of comments are in support of Ngo. A minority, however, make you wonder about the absence of basic decency and humanity.

Ngo had it coming to him.

Ngo is a fascist!

A brain clot resulting in memory loss and difficulties in recalling basic words. Few in Portland are unfamiliar with the medical reports. Still, some choose to question their validity. Once disgust has been expressed, it is likely that Andy Ngos politics will be criticised. These Portland hipsters nursing their caffe lungos and straight ristrettos will inform you his beliefs are reactionary, bigoted, out of sink in this modern, progressive city.

If you then suggest liberal economic thinking is but a fraction adrift of the centre ground, the reaction will be outright rebuttal. The accusations will fly: neo-con, alt-right, pro-Trump!

Some point to Andy Ngos ethnic background, his sexual orientation, which entails playing an execrable game of identity politics in which the quality of arguments has no traction. Instead you attack the man. You break the primary rule of debate....you go on the offensive, ad hominem style.

Residents are several years younger than the national average. Yet you will encounter plenty of weather-worn bohemians in their colourful tie-dyed tee-shirts and huarache sandals. Buy a bagel from one of the many food carts dotted around and the vendor may throw back his long, grey scraggly hair revealing a string of beads hes been wearing since the very first Woodstock. On a summers day it is easy to think you are grooving along in Haight-Ashbury. You dont have to find a dingy backstreet to inhale a whiff of hemp. Organic food is on every menu, preferably vegan and locovore. As for McDonalds its golden arches seem strangely out of place. Its like stumbling upon an Irish pub in Riyadh and almost always near empty. And anyway, why go for a Big Mac when theres a huge farmers market? Why stay in watching Netflix when there are a multitude of theatres, museums and galleries?

Since the 1960s Portland has embraced the counterculture. The people here wear it as a badge of honour in the guise of their goatee beards (men only), skinny jeans and signature glasses always black framed, squared off. To be forward-thinking means caring deeply for the environment, closely monitoring your ecological footprint. Public transport is valorised, as is cycling. Restaurants, catering to an impressive array of tastes, have signs in the windows boasting carbon neutrality. The specialist coffees are always made from fair-trade beans. Craft beers are preferable to anything fizzy and mass produced, and while there is a glut of microbreweries, this has yet to bring down prices. Better to walk than drive. Portland is considered to be the greenest city in America.

Every year since June 2004, it has hosted the World Naked Bike Ride in which clothes are optional but usually absent. Part social gathering and part protest, the purpose is to raise awareness about environmental damage and the evils of using fossil fuels. The cynic might point to how the asphalt roads on which participants ride their graphite cycles, buttocks bared, wouldnt be there but for the exploitation of natural resources. The event isnt only about saving the planet though. Organisers propose to encourage a positive outlook. Simply being naked with others is meant to generate a communal vibe, one which helps to facilitate equality. Human bodies come in all shapes and sizes, after all, and such diversity must be celebrated. There ought to be no comparison, so we are led to believe: irrespective of dimensions, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

On June 23 rd , 2019, the ride went ahead as usual. Five days later a very different protest was taking place. On this occasion the demonstrators were fully clothed. Organised by the rightwing Patriot Prayer, it was being supported by the Proud Boys, a group which has gained notoriety for its allegiance to Donald Trump and the promotion of Western cultural values or Western chauvinism as its members like to put it. Opposing sides were about to come to blows....woke versus anti-woke....authoritarianism versus libertarianism....Andy Ngo would find himself caught in the middle.