It is not often to find two articles in the same paper covering two sides of the same event. The Willamette Week columns on why people are leaving or arriving in Portland, OR, is more revealing than what they may have expected.
The “They Arrived” column published yesterday remarkably links back to the “They Left” column published in February. Even accounting for the leftwing bias in both, the compare/contrast is stark enough to make the rational reader conclude that the color of the sky for Portlandians is quite a bit different than what most adults see.

Right off the bat, the headline and subtitles give you an understanding of the author’s (who wrote both) POV.

They Left:

Portland Is Losing Some of Its Biggest Fans
Rising taxes and a falling quality of life have some Stumptown die-hards voting with their feet.

They Arrived:

Portland Is Becoming a Haven for Gender Refugees
Thousands of people are leaving Texas, Florida and other states that are waging a culture war on LGBTQ+ people. Portland needs them.

Hmmmm … money v culture? Let’s continue into the articles.

They Left:

“Multnomah County has lost residents for the past three years, according to Portland State University’s Population Research Center. … For some longtime Oregonians, the U-turn is hardly puzzling. Portland has switched from attracting new arrivals to repelling its current citizens—especially those with a few coins in their pockets and feet that start itching at tax time.”

The article goes on to talk about the “upper-crust Portlanders” bailing out of the state. Even when featuring some of those willing to talk to the author about their decision to leave, it is framed around their income. It’s as if the author wishes us to doubt the sincerity of the reasons they offer in moving. One woman talks about her husband and son waiting for school to open and watching as an addict shot up behind their car, leaving a bloody needle behind. Others cite witnessing stabbings, being chased by mentally ill homeless people and having their homes burgled.

But the author makes sure you know that other, better folk, are not buying it.

Stephen Green, founder of PitchBlack, a competition for Black entrepreneurs, says the panic about Portland is overdone.

“We had a lot of people move here from 2008 to 2012 because we were No. 1 on this list or No. 1 on that list,” Green says. “They came here to consume the culture, not add to it. A lot of folks who are leaving were never committed. I’ll be here in 30 years.” (snip)

Not everyone who leaves Portland does so screaming in terror, or sounding like Ayn Rand. Some feel the allure of new places. The city’s woes just make it easier to leave.

Sounding like Ayn Rand. How cute.

They Arrived:

John Welsh, a 46-year-old father of two, moved to Portland a year ago, and he has a message for the thousands of people fleeing because crime and blight make the city feel unsafe: Try raising a transgender teenage daughter in Texas.

Was his trans-identified son mugged in TX? His home’s front door kicked in by Ultra MAGAS? Nope, he wanted his boy to use the girls’ restroom at school and didn’t like that Texas was going to look into parents who were pushing sterilizing drugs and maiming surgery on their kids.

During the past month, WW spoke with families and individuals who made the same journey. If Portland is seeing an exodus of wealthy residents who are tired of high taxes that don’t seem to fix anything, it may soon become a haven for people who have seen what else government can do to its citizens: oppress them.

How dare people object to medical experimentation on minors based on the feelz? OMG, the oppression of it all!!

You see where this author is going.

He profiles a lesbian couple from Texas who also couldn’t cite any actual incidents that happened to them or witnessed, just the feeling they “couldn’t hold hands” or the fear a government clerk would “go rogue on us” … something that never happened.

Being surrounded by Trump flags didn’t exactly put her family at ease, either. “You knew that a majority of your neighbors voted against the safety of your family,” Rodriguez says.

Not one of the trans-advocates in the They Arrived column cite any incident that directly affected them. No burning dildoes on the lawn, no security guards keeping males from purchasing dresses. Nosireebob. It’s about about the feelz of now being in a place where rainbow flags abound, where having one’s child mutilated will be supported and guys can use women’s intimate spaces with abandon.

There is also a risible claim from Erin Reed, a queer-rights researcher, that “260,000 trans people have already fled red states for blue ones and that another 1 million are considering it.” That’ll be bigger than the Dust Bowl, she squeals.

No comment on California’s out-migration over the last three years that has the net result of 500,000 people leaving that Left-totalitarian paradise.

So, what’s the big deal about nightly gunfire, dead bodies, bloody needles, assault and burglary when you can feel all snug and warm wrapped in your Rainbow flag? A sucking chest wound is a small price to pay for living in Woke utopia.

Right? Sure, that’s the ticket. Thanks to Willamette Week for so clearly laying it all out.

Heh.

(hat tip David Thompson)

featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license