It lets me know that the individual(s) that have done this have too much free time. They aren’t involved in the community and it lets me know one of two things: 1. that just some kids have come through and did it or 2. that they are individuals that actually support this group that want to scare tactic me and so on to try and get us from the viewpoints that we hold that or and (sic) they just don’t like anybody that’s against it. I really don’t know,

—

Pastor Joe Gutierrez of the Church on Fire, quoted in Bash Back! Strikes queer-hating church — Fort Wayne, IN

Seriously, “someone must have a lot of free time” as a way of minimizing someone else’s opinion/action is so obnoxious. And so what? Why is the idea of having free time such an insult anyway? I wish I made better use of my free time, and had more of it.

What is Bash Back!? Is Bash Back! a network? An organization? A gang? A tendency?
If we are a network, what do we find in one-another? What do we hold in common? A desire? A passion? A strategy? An Ideology? or simply an identity, a name?
If BB! is an organization, we are doomed from the start. We can expect a future filled with heavily moderated consensus meetings upon heavily moderated consensus meetings until we are nothing but arrogant hipsters meeting in a bookstore and taking nearly six months to plan or write anything. If we are ever to have a member-list, count us off of it.
If we are a gang, what is our ritual? How should we fight? How do we measure in/exclusion? In what ways can we share the means of our existences? What are the best ways to have there for eachother? How do the trappings of activism and organization limit us? More importantly, how cute is our outfit? Have we worked out our dance-moves? If we are to be a gang, we have so much to do.
If we name a tendency, how do we make that tendency spread like fire? How can we make that tendency escape the dead-ends of liberal identity politics and/or academia and/or activism? How will we find commonality with other forms-of-life that bash back? How can we make this world explode?

— Bash Back!: Questions to be addressed before Denver