WEBVTT - Protesting Matt Walsh in Iowa 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, everybody, this is Robert Evans. Welcome to It Could 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.720 Happen here, a podcast about things falling apart, and occasionally 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.040 about how to stop things from falling apart. Today we're 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.000 doing one of those latter episodes. I'm happy to say 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.520 we've we've actually got kind of something that's that's overall 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.639 uplifting to talk about. If you are someone who pays 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.479 much attention to the right wing, and particularly to the 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.880 current right wing campaign against LGBT and most particularly the 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.000 transgender people, you are aware of a guy named Matt Walsh. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.440 He is a you might call him a pundit at 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.360 the Daily Wire who has taken it upon himself to 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.280 become kind of the one of the central figures in 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.800 the present campaign against trans people to limit their rights 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.440 to transition, to you know, push laws that criminalize their 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.960 existing in public spaces. He's a real piece of shit, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:57.480 one of the one of the worst people in the 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.800 country presently, and like all terrible peace people, he has 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.440 been going around in a series of speeches invited generally 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.399 by local student body republican organizations at universities. It's not 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.360 the only people who invite them to speak, but that's 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.440 what we're talking about today. Oliver Wyline is a local 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.680 community activist who showed up at one of these events 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.759 and who recorded what was happening the reaction to Matt 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.680 Walsh being invited to speak at a college in Iowa City. 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.960 And yeah, Oliver, welcome to the program. 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.600 First off, Yeah, thank you so much for having me on. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:32.960 And yeah, I just kind of wanted you to start 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.120 with how did you become aware of what was happening 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.160 and decide, you know, to show up and do what 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:39.800 you did because I became aware of you just reading 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.280 your thread, which was a mix of you know, Twitter 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:45.840 posts on what was happening in some videos of what 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:47.000 had been happening on the ground. 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:48.040 Yeah. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.240 So I am a towney here in Iowa City. I'm 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.920 not a student, but I have you know, I'm very 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.440 close both physically and you know, just personally with lots 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:06.000 of activists on campus at Iowa City, lots of young activists, 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.639 particularly organizations like the y DSA. They have a couple 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:16.280 immigrants rights associations, some lgbt q i A associations and everything. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.760 So when this was made public that the YAF the 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.079 Young Americans Foundation, that's what it stands for, right, I think. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:35.000 But they announced that Matt Walsh was indeed going to 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:39.800 be speaking in April, and of course, you know, lots 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.200 of people just started sending me things like, wow, I 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.679 can't believe these motherfuckers are bringing Matt Walsh out of everybody, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.520 even though it wasn't very surprising because they love to 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.080 have the yaf here, loves to bring people to speak 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:58.320 that are objectively terrible people. They just recently had al 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.840 Alan West. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.639 Oh yeah, I'm sure you know all about. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.960 Oh no, yeah he's yeah, yeah, playing the hits with 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:06.760 Alan Dubbs. 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:07.720 Yep. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:13.960 So yeah, the reaction was, you know, just kind of 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.760 like a general we should do something about this, that 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.560 Matt Walsh has come to campus or is going to 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.640 come to campus. So you know, there was lots of 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:30.119 flying campaigns, lots of calls online. There is a petition 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.000 circulating trying to get the university to not allow Matt 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.280 Walsh on campus. But here in Iowa, the board of 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:44.360 regents is all just appointed by our Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.240 so you know, there's no way that they would do that. 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.560 And yeah, so that's how everybody found out about it, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.720 and you know, it was just a lot of the 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.320 YAF would put up flyers and then they would instantly 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.240 get torn down and they would cry about it. Yeah, 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.360 that was a lot of the build up to this event. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.200 Yeah, that's how I knew. And one of the things, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.200 I mean, the thing that because obviously there are different 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.560 right wing shitheads speaking in various places and protests against them, 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.000 you know, every day that go a variety of ways. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:18.919 One of the reasons I was interested in what you 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:20.719 had to say and I think that this is a 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.760 worthwhile want to talk to people about is that I 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.000 think the Young America's Americans Foundation kids who invited him 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.200 wound up demoralized at the end of this. That was 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.599 my take on this. This is not an event that 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.320 seems to have gone well to them. So I want 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.320 you to walk through kind of what happened that night, 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.279 both in terms of what you saw from the folks 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.200 showing up to see Walsh and what you saw kind 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:43.360 of from the response to him. 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.760 Yeah, I would say it's a fair assumption that the 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.080 YAF people were demoralized after this. 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:52.560 So the protests. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.680 It was last Wednesday, the nineteenth, and the protest was 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.880 very you know, there was no leader It was very decentralized, 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.479 you know, just lots of people showing up, and instantly 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.680 when everybody showed up, like at four o'clock when the 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.159 documentary was showing before Matt Walsh was going to speak 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.960 his you know, shitty documentary What is a Woman showed beforehand. 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:15.120 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.960 It was like a joyous occasion almost. People just were 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.000 trickling in on the park right across the street from 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.359 the IMU, and more and more people. There's hundreds of 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.880 people came, you know, not just students, but like people 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.880 from Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and you know, just 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.719 eastern Iowa in general that were just like, we do 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:38.920 not you know, we're feeling really bad that this absolute 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.120 fucking shithead is in our state right now. You know, 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.640 the air smells bad, so we you know. Yeah, So 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.320 it was it was very joyous. And then people were like, Okay, 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.080 the documentary is about to get out. And the way 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.159 this event was set up was the documentary was being 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.360 shown in a theater that's in the IMU, the Memorial Union, 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:04.560 a student hangout spot basically, and then all the people 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.440 that were in the documentary were going to then file 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.200 into the main lounge whereas where he was speaking. And 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:17.960 so when the documentary got let out, all the activists 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.040 or just the people that came to protest him were 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.880 just like, all right, we're going inside, you know, We're 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.640 not We're not gonna, you know, just stand out here. 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.039 You know, we're going to make sure that they know 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.599 every second that this is bullshit that you came to 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.200 see this guy speak, and especially in Iowa City, this 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.960 isn't going to fly, you know, without some type of resistance. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.560 So everybody that lined up for the Matt Walsh speaking 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:47.360 event and who came out of the theater after watching 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.240 his documentary had to wait in line and be screamed 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.880 at by protesters for like an hour at least. And 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.320 it was so funny just these people like they arted 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.400 out at first, you know, for a few minutes being 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.240 like haha, look at all these triggered libs. But then 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:09.080 after like twenty minutes they were just kind of like 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:10.680 thousand yards steering, you know. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.680 Yeah, Yeah, that's really interesting to me because obviously, like 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.440 one of the particularly with the younger right right, you know, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.880 I think there is sort of a dividing line both 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.800 in my head and in physical behavior between kind of 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:31.320 like older and maybe even less radical Republicans who are 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.560 really tied to this idea of the silent majority and 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.080 get a degree of emotional comfort from the idea that 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.000 most people do think like them, they just don't want 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.920 to talk about it. And then there's sort of not 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.360 an entirely separate, but certainly much more common attitude among 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.680 the younger right wing activists, people who were raised online 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.680 in places like four chan about the where a lot 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.200 of their focus is on the joy of triggering the left, 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.240 which they see as like controlling the culture to a 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.240 large degree. And so it's interesting to me, you know, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.840 that's something that these people like to talk about a lot. 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.440 They like to at least portray themselves as sort of 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:14.400 above caring, but very few people are capable of like 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.840 just being screamed at by a crowd of people and 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.400 not feeling shitty after a while. That makes a lot 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:21.960 of sense to me. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.160 Yeah, I mean it was definitely breaking through to a 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.080 lot of them, I could tell, And I even heard 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:32.000 some conversations amongst them, like very taken aback and like 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.880 in shock, you know, like voice shaking when talking about it, 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.240 just like why are they doing this? You know, I 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.959 mean like putting two and two together, Like it was 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.480 very fascinating to hear to eavesdrop on these conversations, and 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.320 it was a lot of that, and it was also well, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.679 one thing that happened is I don't know if they 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.720 oversold tickets or just didn't track like how many people 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.760 were going to be there. But the people that showed 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.240 up to see Matt Walsh I would estimate about half 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.079 half of them were not able to go see him. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.400 They were told they were keeping track of how many 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.480 people were going into the main lounge, and then just 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.720 randomly they were just like, all right, that's it. You know, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.479 the cops there and the staff and Matt Walsh's private security, 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.280 which I will say there was more private security, or 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.560 there was more security there in general than when Mike 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.040 Pence spoke at the exact same place. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.920 At least obvious security with Pench. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.280 More obviously more obvious security. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:40.000 Yeah, and you know they had bomb snipping dogs and everything. 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.400 Oh wow. Interesting. Do you know how full the actual 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:44.000 theater was. 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.479 The YAF claims seven hundred. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.840 People, and what's capacity for them. 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.839 I don't exactly know, but they said that seven hundred 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.000 people were able to see Matt Walsh. And then so 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.560 I would say more people came to see Matt Walsh, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.160 if thousand or something, that's another number that the YAF 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:07.679 threw out there. But I would say there was at 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.080 least an equal amount of protesters there at its peak too. 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.440 And I will also say that there were people keeping 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.320 track of the cars leaving when they were able to leave, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.480 and there was a considerable amount of out of state 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.120 plates and out of county plates. People traveled pretty far 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.640 to see Matt Wall's speak, is kind of and there 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:32.760 were people that showed up that, you know, the right 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.679 wing weirdos that I know that live in Des Moines, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.599 which is like two hours away, and even some in 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.000 Omaha that came that I recognized personally. So yeah, people 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.719 came pretty far for this, and a bunch of those 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:47.360 people that came pretty far were not able to see 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.079 Matt Wall's speak and they were extremely pissed. And so 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.679 I was watching a lot of these people yell at 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:58.160 staff and trying to bargain with police officers, like come on, 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.320 we drove, like, let us in everything. The cops were 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:08.559 just not having it, and so the mood turned pretty angry. 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:08.840 At that point. 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:22.360 I would say, I'm interested in sort of are you aware, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.240 kind of like who was organizing the counter response and 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.559 how that was. People were like informed that there was 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.120 going to be something, because you know, it's not usually 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.240 a simple matter to get that folks many folks to 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.520 show up around one thousand for a counter protest. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:42.240 Yeah, I think mainly there were multiple student orgs. I 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.559 think I named them a little bit earlier that you know, 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:49.480 there was the Graduates Union, a COGS union, a graduate students' union. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.240 They put out a statement inviting you know, not only 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.559 their members to come, but everybody to come. They do 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.040 a lot of good work around the university. The why 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.280 d Essay, the Young Democratic Socialists of America they have 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.280 a chapter here and they were organizing. They did heavy 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.320 flying campaigns around town, not just campus, but around Iowa 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.600 City itself. And on top of that, I would say, 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.679 just sharing flyers and word of mouth, like on the 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:24.920 internet too. People know that Matt Walsh is kind of 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:30.440 public enemy number one when it comes to the LGBTQ community, 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.679 specifically the trans communities. So I think a lot of 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.160 people were just extremely pissed that he was here in 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.920 this town, in Iowa City, people call Iowa City a 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.000 gayer town than San Francisco. 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.319 People have referred to Iowa City as that. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.320 I don't know if trial hiar it is. San Francisco 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:48.480 is a very gay town. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.720 Yeah, well if you Iowa City people call it little 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:53.359 San Francisco for that reason. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.760 That's sweet. I don't think I've actually been to Iowa City. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.240 Yeah, I mean, it is definitely the place in Iowa 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:05.160 where it is, you know, eastern Iowa. It's considered the 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.640 lib part of Iowa, but specifically Iowa City. People call 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.000 it the People's Republic of Iowa City because like the 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.800 right wingers think it's so left wing here, but in 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.640 reality it's our city council is run by like Pete 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.079 Boodh Judge supporters, but you know, to them, that's communism. 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.240 Yeah yeah, yeah, So I think just. 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.719 The spirit of Iowa City in general, like everybody was 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:29.559 just pissed that this guy was coming to town, and 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.480 everybody found out one way or another, and yeah, people 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:35.400 showed up and showed out for sure. 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.360 When it comes to like kind of confrontations and stuff. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.280 How would you describe sort of the uh, the general 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.319 mood towards that sort of behavior outside like, was this 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.600 the kind of thing where there was there uh action 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:52.719 sort of taken beyond like the yelling, or was it 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.520 kind of like mostly focused on demoralization and providing kind 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.520 of a visual show of how much resistance there is 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.200 to walshit his ideas well. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.920 After a lot of them were denied entry, I think 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.520 a lot of them were extremely pissed off. And at 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.000 that point I saw a bunch of old like, not 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.360 a bunch, I would say, a handful of almost scuffles 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:22.840 breaking out. The couple I saw were definitely the vaults 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:27.760 and instigated by Matt Walsh attendees, because you know, they 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.840 probably drove really far and weren't able to get in, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.800 and now you got all these people with trans flags 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.680 screaming at you and calling you a Nazi and a 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.280 fascist and that you're a piece of shit, you know, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.600 and so but there was a lot of people and 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.720 a lot of cops that were really, really really wanting 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.000 to make sure that that didn't happen. So after these 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.960 people weren't allowed in, they were being escorted towards the 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.840 back entrance where they came in. And so they all 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.200 went back towards the back entrance, and that is when 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.080 somebody or some people I didn't see it. I only 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:08.520 heard it dumped thousands and thousands of marbles by that exit. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.840 Yeah, that was my favorite thing that I saw in 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:11.640 your thread. Yeah. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.760 So then the cops were like, well, shit, sorry, guys, 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.320 you can't come this way, so you have to go 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.800 back through the gauntlet of screaming protesters to get out. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.480 I love that. Yeah, area denial, taking a yeah, area 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.680 denial and also kind of re routing them from an 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.520 area that's going to force them to confront the least 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.240 pleasant aspect of it. Yeah, that's very smart exactly. 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.240 And then even after that, lots of people were going 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.960 to like the way the imus set up. There is 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.200 a park by it, and there's also a parking garage 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.120 right across the street from it, and there's a one 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.840 way out of the parking garage, so there's one way 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.480 out if you parked in the parking garage. And towards 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.400 the end of his talk, and when everybody was filing 0:15:55.480 --> 0:16:00.400 out of the Matt Walsh event, protesters had completely taken 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.520 over that street, So there was no way any of 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.520 these people were getting out. They just kind of like 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:10.360 came out in a giant like horde of people, and 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.840 then they slowly started realizing, you know, since all these 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.080 people were blocking the street and there is a pet 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.080 band in the middle of the street playing, you know, yeah, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.480 they were starting to understand that, oh shit, we're not 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:23.200 gonna be able to leave. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:24.800 So a lot of them were really mad about that, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:26.240 and they. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.440 Started going up to police officers and staff saying like, 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.120 you got to get these people out of here. I'm 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:32.920 trying to leave, you know, and the cops there was 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.600 only like outside, I would say, there was only like 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.760 seven police officers and there is no way, Like the 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.320 cops tried to get people to move out of the street. 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.280 They even put their hands on some people to try 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.240 to move them, but then forty more people would just 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:48.720 get in the street, and so they realized that that 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.480 wasn't going to happen. So after going through a gauntlet 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:57.080 of protesters and stepping over marbles, you know, these people 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.320 are then also not able to leave the event when 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.320 they want to. And I would say the road was 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:08.160 blocked probably for like an hour hour fifteen minutes until 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.160 the police were finally able to kind of like wedge 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.960 a way out for these people. And that's when one 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.280 confrontation that I know happened where one of the Matt 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.600 Walsh attendees started shining a strobe light in people's faces 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.359 and someone put a sign in front of it to 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.080 stop them from doing that, and then that person grabbed 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.880 the other person and there was kind of a fight 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.639 that happened. But that was the only physical confrontation that 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.120 I saw the entire night, besides cops putting their hands 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.000 on protesters trying to get them out of the street 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:41.640 at one point. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:53.719 So would you say, we're kind of the main takeaways 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:55.399 from this for people? You know, this is going to 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.040 continue to be a thing. Folks are looking at participating 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.760 in or organizing responses to EVINCED like this in the future. 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:06.280 What were your kind of big takeaways? My takeaways is 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:11.320 that marbles obviously great idea. Marbles, Yes, marbles are a 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.119 great idea, you know, But also what I think is 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:16.600 kind of worth taking from that is that like it's 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.280 not enough. We often see this when like different tactics 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.359 go viral. Don't like do the cargo cult version of it? Right, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:24.600 The reason why the marbles were effective wasn't just that 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.520 like it made an exit inaccessible. It's that because it 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.000 made it was in a situation where it rerouted people 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:35.520 back through that screaming gauntlet of counter protesters, which was demoralizing. 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.760 So strategy is also like worth taking into account when 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.120 you're adopting new tactics. 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:41.439 Yeah, certainly. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.080 And from how it seemed to me is that that 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.080 was intentional, that it was meant to block that exit, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.119 so they had to go back through the screaming people 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:50.920 to get out. 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:53.000 Yeah, yeah, definitely. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.000 You know, marbles are funny, but it was deployed in 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.840 such a way where it was even more funny, Yeah, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.320 and effective. A takeaway that I had was that, you know, 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.479 there's always going to be risk with this type of thing, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.760 risk of you know, risk of anything really you know, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.800 physical harm, emotional harm, people getting in trouble at school 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.320 or something. But I think these kids and a lot 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.679 of these attendees went there expecting to own the libs 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.240 and then walked away really demoralized, you know, And so 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.639 I think it was definitely worth it to put our 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.800 bodies on the line and everything and put ourselves on 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.840 the line to just send that message and also make 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:40.600 it clear that other people can do this too. And 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.399 Matt Walsh speaks, you know, just make it miserable. You know, 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:45.919 you don't even necessarily have to prevent him from speaking, 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.280 even though that would be pretty cool. But even though 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.240 he did speak, like, no one's talking about that, and 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.119 no one's talking about what he said. People are talking 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.240 about how all the Matt Walsh people got stranded, and 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.639 how there were more bulls that blocked their exit, and 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.800 how the pet band came and played to a cadence 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:05.840 of Buck Matt Walsh. 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:10.159 You know, yeah, yeah, all right, was there anything else 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.040 you want to talk about before we roll out? 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.080 I'd say that about does it for me, unless you 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.359 have any more questions about specifics of the night. 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:20.440 No, thank you for coming on, Oliver. Is there any 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.800 sort of plugs you've got for anything you want to 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.040 direct listeners towards before we end? 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.959 Yeah, there's an organization around here called Iowa Trans Mutual 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.440 Aid that does a lot of really really really good 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.120 work for people in the state of Iowa that currently 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.560 is experiencing, like so much of the country, really really 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.960 really bad anti trans legislations. So if you find it 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:43.560 in your heart or have the means to donate to 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.920 such an Iowa Trans Mutual Aid, I really, I really 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:47.960 can't recommend it enough. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.080 Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Oliver, and a big 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.920 thank you to everybody who showed up that night in 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.200 Iowa City. That is it for us today. Everybody, have 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.800 a great rest of your day, all right, Thank you 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:06.399 so much. It Could Happen here as a production of 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:07.320 cool Zone Media. 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.199 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.360 Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.720 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.439 find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:21.720 Coolzonmedia dot com slash sources. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:22.719 Thanks for listening.