Same. I was there, and young, and righteous/whatnot. It was a mad experience that taught me a lot about media and power.
At the time, the "left" was rabidly anti-globalism and anti-GMO-those were themes. I was on a youthful anarchy kick that was informed by the archives of 80s non-leftist anarchist zine world, but also interested in economics and futurism.
As an aside wrt today: my area was tear gassed to such an extreme that I had to carry a guy a dozen blocks while throwing up ropes of phlegm and while national guard stalked through the zero-visibility beating anyone they found with what looked like long wooden dowels.
Later, helicopters lobbed flash bangs and cs gas into residential neighborhoods through which I was slowly escaping. At choke points, random people would band together to make fire barricades before escaping.
I normally avoid these political threads on HN, so made another throwaway.
I and friends have for a few years discussed the idea of freezing all gun and abortion laws in place for 20 years as a means to declawing the US parties' stranglehold on dialogue.
At the time, the "left" was rabidly anti-globalism and anti-GMO-those were themes. I was on a youthful anarchy kick that was informed by the archives of 80s non-leftist anarchist zine world, but also interested in economics and futurism.
As an aside wrt today: my area was tear gassed to such an extreme that I had to carry a guy a dozen blocks while throwing up ropes of phlegm and while national guard stalked through the zero-visibility beating anyone they found with what looked like long wooden dowels.
Later, helicopters lobbed flash bangs and cs gas into residential neighborhoods through which I was slowly escaping. At choke points, random people would band together to make fire barricades before escaping.
So, what's happening now is not especially crazy.