pipistrellus:

pipistrellus:

The thing that went down today in Gainesville probs won’t get as much press bc (thank god) nothing bad happened!!! But I think that’s also why it would be good to look at what happened bc I think… ppl at UF handled Spencer’s shit really well and smartly. Beforehand everyone kept acting like either you thought he should get punched offstage or you thought he should just ~be ignored~, but actually… what people did was neither of those things and what people did WORKED REALLY WELL

Ppl just used the entire Q&A to ask him why he was here. “Why are you here” “I’m trying to give a speech” “K but like… why are u even here tho” “ugh next question. yes, you over there, what’s your question?” “My question is… … … why are u here”

It was a really smart combo of tactics (the local merchants doing a swap-tickets-for-free-beer etc thing beforehand, which really cut down on attendees) (about 450 of the 700 available tickets were used) and just… shutting him down firmly and CONDESCENDINGLY. it was the “annoyed and condescending” part that was so great. Everyone just treated him like a giant misbehaving toddler and refused to engage him in the fight he wanted to have but also refused to let him have his ugly platform 

The crowd outside responded to both men with swastika shirts and ppl trying to egg them on to punch said men by just. Yelling at them and then, in the case of the swastika t-shirt guy, sort of forcibly moving him out of the area. 

The whole thing had such a strong like “politely but firmly escorting an unwanted vacuum cleaner salesman from your home” vibe that was fucking PERFECT

I dont say this like that vibe or these tactics are universal AT ALL, I don’t think that is the case, I think that u have to think about all of these events individually bc the contexts are never the same, but like just… 

having a ton of irate college students & faculty members alternately going “fuck you spencer” “black lives matter” & then the… fucking… UF football team chant... was incredible. it was like “you aren’t welcome here, here’s the things we believe in, and also, we would really rather be at a sports game right now, you horrid, slimy little man”

this also worked I think bc of the high volume of (a lot of older) white ppl utilizing their ~Respectability~ to make him look ridiculous. A super underrated way of fucking these guys up at their Events, imo. like just a ton of 50+ white dudes who were kind of sternly and firmly (and often condescendingly!!!!! WHICH WAS GREAT) rejecting his shit while wearing button-up shirts tucked into their khakis yk. really effective.