Tp'ed on Campus

On February 7th, the UO chapter of Turning Point USA hosted an event called ‘Born in the USA.’ A highly anticipated event, with 37 likes on the flyer. The two speakers — Stephen Davis, spelled David on the flyer, and Anthony Watson — are Black republicans. They both have an alpha male persona, with lots of big American flags, guns, and trucks; it’s a classic M.O that glorifies hateful ideology.

Last year, the TPUSA chapter was not an active organization on campus. The infamous Charlie Kirk talk was supposed to be held at the Graduate Hotel downtown, but due to local backlash, moved to a golf club in Creswell. However, since TPUSA is now having regular meetings and has a leadership team, they are entitled to hold events on campus. The can of worms has been opened unfortunately, and TPUSA has already been tabling at the EMU and in front of Lillis since fall term. They want to appear as friendly — the perfect gateway to their twerpy brand of fascism.

Anthony Watson is a former olympian who was “cancelled” for his “conservative values.” I found no record of this besides TPUSA itself, so it was most likely a petty Twitter drama that he used to further his victim complex.

Stephen Davis is described as “once left-leadning (that’s how they spell it on the website), he is now a staunch conservative who fights the liberalized agenda.” He also calls himself “MAGA Hulk’’ online, as he is a body builder and enjoys being an alpha male.

Every desk had a TPUSA poster, and Dorian’s poster read “CAPITALISM CONSERVES.” I was a bit confused when I saw that, because conserving is generally the opposite of what capitalism does.

About 25 people were present, though this ebbed and flowed over the course of the event. TPUSA’s VP said that they hoped to “engage in civil discourse” as she introduced Davis and Watson. And discourse they did get. Davis and Watson wanted to make it clear that they weren’t there to change peoples’ minds. They emphasized how much they love different opinions, while everyone knew that was an obvious performance and lie. Then, they began going through their rehearsed points, mostly revolving around how important it is to love America and that modern American men are weak soyboys.

They also had thoughts on racism and critical race theory, believing that their individual success stories means that systemic oppression doesn’t actually exist and everyone should stop complaining about it. We’re white leftists; we can’t speak on the experiences of Black conservatives, but it was obvious that they were co-opting left-wing language to further their conservative agenda. They would say things like, “you’re silencing Black voices,” or “it’s Black History Month,” to people who openly disagreed with them, while making fun of that kind of rhetoric in the same turn.

To prove this point, Davis had an entire quirky “everybody clapped” story in which a Black man at a gym he went to supposedly admitted that he was right and so true for being red pilled. I’m pretty sure I saw the same story on Tumblr ten years ago. Or maybe that story was about a bus. Who knows?

A lot of the audience was random outside weirdos, including a guy wearing camo who, unprompted, brought up pedophilia and beating up homeless people.

“People are dying to get into America.” That’s a good thing? America ruined almost every democratically elected government in Latin and South America because they were so terrified by the communist and socialist governments that were forming in the region.

About 40 minutes into the event, someone interrupted the speakers to give their own opinion on the topic at hand, and was met with immediate hostility. What ensued was, to put it mildly, an absolute shitstorm. There was a group of leftists in the back of the room dressed in bloc who interrupted the speakers, yelling at them and calling them fascists, and in turn, the speakers yelled at the disrupters and called them fascists. About 44 minutes into the event, the cops got involved. The protestors were told that they were welcome to stay, but if they were not willing to be “respectful and [willing to] have valid conversations,” they needed to leave, or they would be escorted out and charged with unlawful trespassing.

While we at the Insurgent support protest against fascist gatherings, the way the protest went at this event ultimately seemed unconstructive. The disruptors successfully disrupted, but their arguments against the speakers were poorly-formed and fueled the victim complex of every conservative in the room.

A UO events staff person walked in and asked Davis to stop interacting with the disruptors for a few minutes so that the situation could be sorted out. He began yelling at her, one of the people who was critical for the event even happening.

It can be fun to clown on right-wing thought leaders, but watching them in action is depressing. Every argument they made was circular and contained at least a couple logical fallacies, and all their evidence was either anecdotal, wilfully misinterpreted, or completely false. Every argument against them was used to fuel their victim complex, and anyone who disagreed loudly was yelled at, and called a “child” and a “snowflake.” It seems like there’s some irony somewhere in there. Maybe that’s just me.

During the Q&A, I, Barbara Berkely, asked the speakers what they thought the role of women in society is. They said the role of women is to be nurturing, and supportive. We’re meant to be homemakers, to support the men around us, and to be the glue that holds society together. Of course, they didn’t talk about the role of women during their speech because they’re men and they don’t want to speak over me or my experiences. Thanks for that, guys. I told them that what they were describing is gender essentialism. The conservatives in the room all gave me blank stares, so I had to give a brief definition of gender essentialism, which was absolutely delightful.

At the end of the event, a non-student involved with TPUSA in the Northwest approached us and thanked us for disagreeing respectfully and not causing disruption. It was one of the most patronizing interactions I’ve ever had in my life. I love when fascists tell me I’m one of the good ones! Especially when the fascist in question is a man and obviously thinks less of me because I’m a woman! Mr. Rando, if you’re reading this, I don’t want your gratitude. You can fuck off with your fascist politics.

(Brigham)

This was my first time attending a Turning Point USA event, but the rhetoric and propaganda discussed did not at all catch me by surprise. The police presence at right-wing led events seems to be a staple of their meetings. The organizers voiced their anticipation of disruptors and members of ANTIFA being in attendance, beginning the event by asking everyone in attendance to remain civil. The typical talking points of reclaiming one’s manhood, name-calling of the left, and the sentiment that it is impossible for non-white people to uphold the pillars of white supremacy were all covered uninterrupted for the first third of the event.

When more disruptors arrived wearing bloc, the speakers took notice, but did not address them until they were called out for an insensitive joke about STDs. What preceded was unorganized disruption and emotionally fueled biases erupting in the form of senseless back-and-forth yelling, which continued until the police made their presence felt, upholding the right for the presenters to maintain control of their event. Unsurprisingly, the two men at the front of the room could barely keep themselves under control, as they ‘asserted their manhood’ by getting in the face of two young people simply voicing their own opinions, which I perceived as an intimidation tactic, but I cannot speak for them.

Most of their reasoning for their views were held within the context of unverifiable anecdotes and baseless arguments which provided no true solutions to the problems they claim have arisen from “men taking a backseat role” in society. The toxic masculinity seemingly consumed the room when he discussed the five values men should strive to live by, and the purpose that every man possesses as simply being a man. The religious rhetoric that transpired was questionable to say the least, and sexist in its sentiment. After another disruption from the same two individuals mentioned before, the police escorted them out of the building, and the event continued without any disruption.

In the latter third of the event, a left-leaning member of the crowd, which had shrunk to about half the size after many disruptors were removed, started to engage in a direct conversation with the two speakers, who were receptive only because he had remained silent throughout the entire event. What transpired was the usual push and pull of opinions, and the nitpicking of vernacular from the speakers who had no true rebuttal to the points made by the attendee. The individual in the crowd had to leave early, and took a picture with the guests after shaking their hand. After his departure, an informal Q/A session transpired in which I was able to converse with the men for about five to ten minutes before I too left the event before its conclusion.

I attempted to question their ‘grindset’ of individualizing one’s life and the American ideal that “anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps to achieve success.” I approached their monetary-based perspective by questioning the value of a life revolving around money. What I got in return was a tightrope act in which they tiptoed around my points by claiming I had misappropriated their argument through my very easily formed assumptions of the points they were alluding to. I voiced my belief that sacrificing your community or things that have no tangible worth but fulfill an individual in the path to generating wealth is a bad thing, but the speaker’s rebuttal was simply a regurgitation of the previous points I had already mentioned. Before I could truly get into the points of my argument, I was cut off by someone asking for advice on how to break into the world of conservative media as an influencer, which the speakers and crowd were seemingly equally unreceptive of. I left thirty minutes before the end of the event, shaking the hands of the two speakers for respecting my point of view, knowing that both me and the men I just talked to had not been shaken from their positions in the slightest.