rats as thompson hunter layed em out...

[bentech]

“The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo” is such a beautiful documentary. Phillip Rodriguez is so amazing on his perspective on white supremacy, American democracy, and the 1960s and '70s. That film is a gift. I was so happy to have been in touch with [Rodriguez] and Ricardo Lopez, a producer, who’s also amazing. He had done FOIA requests for the last 30 years about Oscar Zeta Acosta. And realizing how much the FBI, how much the Los Angeles Police Department, were seeking him out and trying to destroy him, it goes back to the question about Thompson and Acosta and what I think we miss about the 1960s: the goal of law enforcement at certain times was to infiltrate a legitimate civil rights organization, have undercover agents then attack police while pretending to be part of the civil rights movement, and then police could use lethal force which is the most terrifying weapon the American republic has to silence dissent. That was happening with the Black Panthers, it happened with the Brown Berets, it happened obviously all throughout the 1960s.

We know that, but to see it — and this is why I think it’s important for [understanding] Thompson — Hunter Thompson really believed as a white man who didn’t go to Harvard that he was outside of the mainstream. He deeply believed that, and he was wrong. But he met Oscar Zeta Acosta, who said [to him], I have been working my whole life to make this world better, I have done everything I possibly can, we live in an unjust system that will destroy me through my effort. Thompson really wanted to continue to work within the American system to make things better, and Acosta eventually looked at him and said, there is no amount of effort I could put out that would allow me to make this better, because it’s rigged from the start.

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