Kevin Rose becomes a target of anti-tech protesters

Steven Loeb · April 7, 2014 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3623

The group demands that Google donate $3 billion to an "anarchist organization" of its choosing

We've all seen and heard the reports of protestor ambushing the Google bus, which is meant to ferry Google employees from from their homes in San Francisco and Oakland to corporate campuses in Silicon Valley, by blocking it, and even purposely vomiting on it. Lovely image, right?

Now, though, those same groups have started to make their targets more personal.

Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose revealed via Instagram that he was picketed by protestors early Sunday, with fliers that called him a "parasite," and accused him of "destroying San Francisco" through his work with the company.

"My house was protested today by anti-tech folks, they had a large banner saying 'Kevin Rose Parasite', handed these to my neighbors," Rose wrote.

The flier accused "techies" like Rose of pricing them out of the area, by making "four times more than a normal service worker," including "the ones who serve them coffee, deliver them food, suck their cocks, watch their kids, and mop their floors."

(Sing it with me now: One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish my song?)

The group that distributed the flier calls itself The Counterforce, and they also showed up with a banner that read, "Ima Snip Snip yr Ballz," which, as they explained in a blog post put up on Sunday, is "a reference to Kevin's televised 'joke' about cutting off women's breasts with scissors."

In the post, the group also outlined its "first clear demand of Google," namely that it give $3 billion to an anarchist organization of the group's choosing, so that they can create communities either "in San Francisco or in the woods," where no one will ever have to pay rent and housing will be free.

"With this three billion from Google, we will solve the housing crisis in the Bay Area and prove to the world that an anarchist world is not only possible but in fact irrepressible. If given the chance, most humans will pursue a course towards increased freedom and greater liberty," the group wrote.

"As it stands, only people like Kevin Rose are given the opportunity to reshape their world, and look at what they do with those opportunities."

What exactly the group will do when this demand is not met, was not made entirely clear.

Rose also took to Twitter on Sunday, to talk about the incident, where he noted that his picture of the flier was not complete: it also mentioned the scissors quote, which he called "a bad joke."

flyer got cut off, but it also mentioned diggnation, calling it a "terrible program" and quoted my bad joke about scissors and teat
— Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) April 6, 2014

He also mocked the protestors for using Google products in order to, you know, protest Google:

they recoded video on an android phone and said they were going to post it to youtube, which i thought odd.
— Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) April 6, 2014

But, he also seemed to have some sympathy for their cause.

that said, I did agree w/ them that we need to solve rising rents, keep the SF culture, and crack down on landlords booting folks out.
— Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) April 6, 2014