i did the research and it only takes like 3-5 sufficiently motivated people to completely ruin a city's music scene

fat/ugly noise/hc fan moved to town, "didn't like what he was hearing", started booking at established venues, started a bunch of bad bands, started booking his own bands

attendance begins to dwindle, he moves to a Bigger City. two young proteges start a house venue and many horrible bands. they're openly woke, but don't make a big show of it. they work hard, tbf, but they enforce a "safe space" policy and put their own bands on the good shows.

social media + scene turnover + proximity to campus make them seem like the only game in town. after a couple years, they ARE the only game in town. (for punk/diy stuff, at least)

this is when it gets bad. they both move, but they "pass the torch" on to a they/them with Opinions who wants to Diversify the scene. what this really meant was cracking down on the party atmosphere (at the one venue left) and vibing "outsiders."

at this point, i'm getting Vibed Hard for showing up with a 12 pack and talking to people i don't already know from social media. the audience has dwindled and homogenized. (college students were initially excited by the wokeness/location but did, in fact, want to party)

the "solution" to dwindling turnout (and not having any dudes at the venue willing to work the door/shake people down) is to make shows donation-only. this goes HORRIBLY, they/them skips town for a Big Blue City.

this is when the chain breaks. they/them hands over control to an even more obnoxious genderless being who
- won't do the grunt work (posting flyers, making events, etc.)
- tightens the code of conduct
- starts full-on stiffing bands, even when people DO show up and donate

at this point, the "scene" is dead. it turns out no one actually wanted to go to free "all-ages" shows with a rigorous code of conduct except for the people i spent the thread talking about. parallels between this story/many other stories should be obvious

thread is over but here are some things i forgot to mention
1. the two least effeminate (low bar) men in the scene were metoo'd at the same time. multiple unsubstantiated accusations, they were banned from the big scene/show FB groups before they had a chance to respond

2. we had a branch of the "girls rock" charity that spent one spring/summer doing "benefit shows" every weekend. in hindsight, this fucked over most of the smaller venues and got people way too used to playing for free/donation-based shows

3. i would not be interested in politics at all if these people hadn't completely ruined something i loved while loudly proclaiming that they were doing the exact opposite.