"The opposite of fascism is creativity..."

[Rideback]

Keep Portland weird!
They came with costumes, not weapons. It started with the Portland Frog, now the weirdest city in America is dressing up and turning out to fight (and mock) Trump's goons.
We’ve all seen the photo: a giant green frog staring down a line of armored riot cops.
But now he’s back and he brought friends.
Behind him: a unicorn with a bubble gun. A raccoon on roller skates.
A man in a chicken suit, flag cape fluttering, struts past soldiers in riot gear with a deadpan stare. Someone dressed as a capybara doing the Cha-Cha Slide in front of the ICE building.
This is Portland 2025. And it’s hilarious, it's weird, and it's deeply defiant.
The now internet famous Portland Fog—real name Seth Todd—started showing up at protests in a $30 costume after Trump called Portland “a war zone.”
“The best way to show we’re not violent extremists,” he said, “is by being in a frog costume.”
Now he’s joined by a menagerie of inflatable animals, dancing, blowing bubbles, even holding weddings, right in front of federal officers in full riot gear.
Portland’s genius is its absurdity. It flips the fascist aesthetic, black uniforms, rigid order, marching boots, into slapstick theater. Authoritarianism thrives on fear. So Portland responds with joy.
The city that once hosted “Keep Portland Weird” stickers has evolved into something more radical: Keep Portland Human.
Because the opposite of fascism isn’t chaos. It’s creativity. Every unicorn wedding, every bubble gun, every frog shimmying in front of stormtroopers says the same thing: You don’t get to define what resistance looks like.
There’s something profoundly American about that, a reminder that protest doesn’t always have to roar; sometimes it can ribbit.
What’s happening outside Portland’s ICE facility isn’t just comedy, it’s cultural jiu-jitsu. It’s turning power’s own imagery back on itself, exposing how ridiculous tyranny looks under a disco ball.
When the story of this era is told, people will remember not just the cruelty of those who enforced Trump’s will, but the courage, and humor, of those who met them with frogs, bubbles, and the wild imagination of a city that refused to give up its joy.
Keep Portland Weird!