The View comprises many advanced ideas — things that should seem sensible and practical and a social given, but for some reason are terribly threatening. For instance, A Walkable Earth. Or, the idea that mankind’s only future is free, voluntary, and co-operative. How about free Wi-Fi across the country? Or a free, guaranteed, no-ad, no-commerce, webspace for every American? It would be like having a secure postal address, or a secure bank account, and come with automatic voter registration and Social Security access. How about socialized medicine…?

But no, in America today, it’s only the craziest violent ravings that strike fire:

“In response to the use of tear gas being utilized by federal officers against demonstrators, including a group of moms, in an uprising in Portland, Oregon, this week, a like-minded dads’ group encouraged others to show up to the event with leaf blowers in order to dissipate the chemical agents.
Uprisings in Portland have happened nightly since the end of May, in response to police violence against Black Americans, including renewed attention to Jason Washington, a Black resident of the city who was shot and killed by police in 2018.
Tensions have escalated in recent weeks as federal officers began appearing at the events. Last week, there were reports of agents in unmarked vans stopping next to protesters, whisking them away in the vehicles without stated justification and without identifying who they were. Those actions prompted outcry from Portland residents, and action from a group of mothers who appeared over the weekend to protect demonstrators by standing between them and officers.
Those individuals, known as the Wall of Moms for their way of interlocking arms as a means to protect protesters, were themselves attacked by officers with tear gas during their peaceful demonstrations. On Monday, several social media posts from the group known as “PDX Dad Pod” encouraged its members and others to appear with leaf blowers, even telling users who followed them on social media that it would be a great purchase to support local businesses. Video from confrontations between demonstrators and officers on Monday night into Tuesday morning highlighted how protesters used hockey sticks to scoot tear gas canisters back toward those who fired them, and the leaf blowers as a means to dissipate clouds of chemicals away from protesters. Smaller leaf blowers were also used to help get chemicals off people’s bodies, video also showed…

— Chris Walker, writing for Truthout, July 21, 2020

Here’s what the View wrote back in June:

“In the most ironic twist imaginable, that horrible, ineradicable urban scourge, the leaf blower, has emerged as a go-to device for Anti-Fascists to clear away the noxious tear gas hurled into peaceful protests by the police. If used correctly, they might just save our citizens’ democratic right to assembly.
The genius of these ghastly poisonous weapons, is that, for police officers, leaf blowers are completely invisible. Nobody really knows why, but despite years and years of citizen outrage and protest, after the decades-long civic organizing it takes to fight City Hall, after even passing that law banning the damn things ten or fifteen years ago, we citizens have learned to our dismay, that since the cops apparently can’t see them, can’t smell the fumes, and can’t even hear the window-rattling roars up and and down every block in the city 14 times a week, the police are totally, totally powerless against the devices. This “invisibility to cop” has left the citizens with no defenders against the machines.“