All The Masks Are Off

"All the masks are off and they don't even try / They know that you know that they know and they don't even mind" -- Jesse Welles

Sunday was Flag Day, and to mark the occasion the Bridge Brigade was out over the interstate with a message for motorists. 'Make Corruption Illegal Again' would have felt a bit hyperbolic not too long ago, but we now live in an age where insider trading is a pardonable offense and a prime endeavor of the ones launching wars.

That's not to mention the more traditional flavors of malfeasance that in past times politicians actually attempted to conceal. The night before the Bridge Brigade action I stumbled upon the Jesse Welles song the title of this is drawn from and it just hit hard, a theme song for this moment we're in.

The brigade had barely gotten their letters zip-tied to the bridge when a counter-protester showed up. Wearing a 'White Lives Matter' shirt and waving a Trump 2028 flag, the young man proceeded to alternate between shouting slurs and yelling "Heil Hitler!" Masks are off indeed.

Had been encountering the dude at protests for a while now, since at least No Kings 2.0 last October, but the explicit racism and fascism was a new development. He would eventually claim to be a member of the neo-fascist and white supremacist group Patriot Front.

He could probably try out for Westboro Baptist Church, much like them, the offensiveness of his ranting was matched only by the ineffectiveness of his trolling. They probably wouldn't let him bring his bear spray though.

Despite prior experience with shitheads like him, it was still jarring to hear the hate coming out of his mouth. Still have trouble wrapping my head around how people take that nonsense seriously. The masks may be off but at the end of the day the little shit was still outnumbered fifty to one.

Suspect that the masks have come off because there is currently little in the way of consequences for corruption and hate, but as the saying goes, all things come to an end. And we the people have got receipts.