Things Aren't All Right · 12:33pm Jun 5th, 2020
The world is kind of on fire right now.
Protests in every one of the 50 states, and various places around the world. People angry at systemic racial injustice and police brutality being met with... more police brutality.
And nazis and racist shitheads on websites about cartoon ponies.
Cynewulf's blog post lays out the history.
MrNumbers blog post explains why silence, and failing to address it drives people away.
I'm so tired of needing to defend spaces I love from neo-nazis, the alt-right, fascists, pick your moniker. I'm appalled that they exist at all, and even more so to discover they exist in such numbers. It's even more bewildering that they've somehow managed to ignore all the lessons from a kid's cartoon that is aggressively about feminism, diversity, love, and tolerance.
I've been lucky--and privileged--enough to be able to remain silent, but it's become pretty clear to me that that's no longer a viable option.
Black lives matter. Fascism is bad. Nazis are deplorable.
Sitting back and remaining silent enables them. "Leaving politics out of it" only encourages them. Politics are everywhere, and being silent sends a message too.
Here's a pile of resources about how and why racism exists, and what it means.
Here's some more, plus calls to action.
Polygon has a good list of ways to help.
Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter
🏴
Anyone who supports hatred and bigotry is THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!
I agree that George Floyd's death was an absolute travesty, but rioting, looting stores, and killing police isn't justice. Its just more violence. Black lives matter, but everyone else's lives matter too, and this senseless violence is hurting more than it helps. Please protest peacefully, and call out the bad actors when they try to stir up violence.
5278078
I've seen this sentiment elsewhere, and I understand it. Looting and violence suck, and anyone inciting violence without provocation, or destroying property and stealing under the guise of "protesting" are scumbags. I feel like it's formulated backwards though. Instead of "this death was a travesty, but looting and violence are terrible", we should be saying "looting and violence are terrible, but this death was a travesty".
There are no numbers to back it up yet, but I suspect the looting and protestor-led violence are in the minority. There's ample evidence that many of the protests becoming riots are the result of overly-aggressive policing, which expert analysis seems to agree with.
At times like this, I am reminded of a particularly poignant quote:
It sounds like you're trying to say that the violence is okay because the crime that it claims to be protesting is so horrible, but it isn't. What justice does burning down a Target or the death of David Dorn bring to Floyd's family and friends?
None.
It only associates his murder with senseless violence, which I guarantee will be what he is remembered for thanks to this mess.
If you want to protest the increased militarization of police, or demand the implementation of safer policing methods, I will be right there with you, because people of color aren't the only folks to be afraid when the police come knocking, and they aren't the only victims of police brutality.
But to say that because George Floyd was murdered by a cop that any bit of the riots in Minneapolis or Washington or Dallas was justified is nonsense. Justice for George Floyd will come when Derek Chauvin is tried in a court of his peers by an impartial judge, not at the hand of angry protesters or rioters.
5278583
"All Lives Matter" is a disruption that is deployed only to stop protests for the lives of minorities, not something the dominant culture actually believes.
Riots are what happens when all peaceful avenues of protest have been exhausted and ignored.
And Derek Chauvin was only arrested because of the riots, so saying this isn't justice, a fair trial is justice, is a bit rich.
Black Lives Matter, happy Pride Month.
5278964
First off, you bring up All Lives Matter, but at no point in my comment did I bring that up. The only thing I can see even close to that is when I said that it isn't just people of color who are victims of police brutality, or maybe it's because I brought up David Dorn?
Secondly, Are we certain that Chauvin was arrested because of the riots, or would he have been arrested without them?
We don't know. (And now we never will.) I think that there's enough evidence to put him behind bars, and I'll be glad when he gets there.
You say that rioting is what happens when all peaceful avenues have been exhausted, but burning and looting your local grocery store doesn't hurt the big corporations and destroying a police station doesn't hurt the people who perpetrate police brutality. It only hurts the local community by robbing them of supplies and law enforcement, dilutes your message by associating it with violence and destruction, and it gives the cops a great reason to come down on the movement. If you're so concerned about black lives, why are you condoning these people who are making the lives of everyone in their community worse off? If not for the people, then do it for the sake of your message, which has already been tarnished by their actions.
If you want to have a discussion about police brutality, make some real change, let's start with finding the real reason police brutality occurs, rather than just assuming that the police and the country are racist.
Because all this racism talk has gotten us nowhere. For all the protests, all the riots, all the hashtags, the amount of change that's been made in actually stopping police brutality is effectively nil, which, in my opinion, is at least an indication that the problem is more complex than it appears.
Have a happy Pride Month.
5279099
5278078
The entire history of race relations and policing in America suggests the former.
I'm not gonna waste my time debating which protests are "the good ones". Everything you say here was said about MLK Jr back in the day too. The protests have already tremendously shifted the public conversation in their favor, and everyone can see with their own eyes how happy the police are to brutalize anyone who questions them even slightly. And if you think looting is bad, murdering people is worse.
That is all I will say.
5278583
I feel like I made my stance pretty clear. Looting and violence are bad. Neo-nazis and fascists are bad. These protests are uncomfortable but necessary.
5279099
It's impossible to say what would have happened about anything, had events gone otherwise. But it would be foolish to ignore the mountain of evidence:
First, the county medical examiner initially claimed that there was no evidence to support the conclusion that George Floyd's death was a homicide. It wasn't until an independent autopsy was performed that it was ruled a homicide.
Second, there is1 a mountain2 of evidence3 that this4 sort of thing5 happens all the time6. It should not be a leap of the imagination to believe that the officers in this video would not have been charged without public outcry.
1: No charges or consequences.
2: All six officers arrested, four tried. Of those four, none were found guilty. No further consequences.
3: Sealed grand jury trial, followed by officer being fired, and no (as far as we know) no further charges.
4: Both officers tried, neither found guilty. Eventually, one officer fired for violating use of force policies, and the other suspended for three days for losing his temper.
5: Officer fired, charged with murder. Has pled not guilty and trial is ongoing.
6: Two months after her death, the officers three involved have been placed on paid leave. No further charges thus far.
Demonstrably false. There has been a flurry of legislation and policy changes directly attributable to protest. There has also been a real shift in public perception which, while harder to measure, and which may disappear, has a real effect.
Anyway. This blog post was more about how neo-nazis on Fimfiction is fucked up, and shouldn't be tolerated, so this is the last I'm going to say on this topic.
5279142
At least on the topic of Neo Nazis on the site being bad, we can agree.
Thanks for taking the time to have a talk with me.
5279112
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/david-dorn-st-louis-police-shot-trnd/index.html
I think I brought this up twice.
Yes murder is worse than looting, but the latter does not always come without the former.
Thanks for at least taking the time to read what I had to say.