Im curious to see/hear how the rest of the world is reacting to the protests/riots that are occuring in major cities across the USA for the death of George Floydnat thenhand of a police officer. Here is a picture of where all these protests and riots are occuring.
The Real Wizard · Member since
The combination of the Trump administration's poor response to the pandemic, centuries of systematic racism, a now almost non-existent middle class, and the worst unemployment since the great depression has resulted in a dumpster fire the world is now watching burn without a shred of surprise.
And instead of offering a word to bring calm, Trump is unsurprisingly egging on authorities to be more forceful while methodically branding those protesting systematic racism as "thugs," effectively fanning the flames of racism to keep his base happy. It began with his support of the white supremacists in Charlottesville, and in the ensuing couple years the country has now successfully regressed over 150 years on the rapist in chief's watch. And nearly half the country still thinks everything is just fine, because Fox News told them it is.
Meanwhile Joe Biden spent the day in Delaware chatting with black protesters, with a mask on and with social distancing.
And that's without mentioning the military industrial complex, the evangelical Christian lobby, tens of millions still without health insurance, and gun violence.
We're watching the fall of an empire. And thanks to social media, the world can watch in real time. The country may not even make it to the next election.
Stay safe.
Saint Jiub · Member since
It is pitiful that one must glorify a "dumpster fire". The gloating over this "dumpster fire" dishonors the many peaceful daytime protestors, and glorifies the opportunist outsiders that invaded Aurora IL in the dark of night..
If conservative white America continues to sit silently, or even to support the murder of unarmed black citizens by paramilitary police then they are responsible for and indeed deserve everything that happens as a result of that.
Holly2003 · Member since
Great speech by Joe Biden today. The right words, the right tone, spoken at the right time. But will anyone listen?
"There's no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday. It is counterproductive," Obama said at a press conference from the White House. "When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they're not protesting. They're not making a statement. They're stealing. When they burn down a building, they're committing arson. And they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities. That robs jobs and opportunity from people in that area."
The above quote is regarding Baltimore in 2015.
The organized looting by opportunists (Uhauls and cars lining up for looting) is not a legitimate protest.
It's an indictment against white America that if George Floyd's murder wasn't caught on camera the cops that murdered him would likely still be on duty, protected by institutional racism, their militarised police colleagues, and the ignorance, racism and deafening silence of white America, all personified by a fuckwit president.
As I said, keep ignoring it and everything that comes after is inevitable.
richrich · Member since
@Holly2003: I was once talking to a blatant liberal - he was standing opposed to me, his eyeballs black and hot. He didn't say anything, he just stared at me and made purring noises.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
It's an indictment against white America that if George Floyd's murder wasn't caught on camera the cops that murdered him would likely still be on duty, protected by institutional racism, their militarised police colleagues, and the ignorance, racism and deafening silence of white America, all personified by a fuckwit president.[/QUOTE]
Bingo. Although I wouldn't be quick to dismiss 45 as a "fuckwit" - he knows exactly what he's doing.
Pieces like this are a combination of heartbreaking and infuriating:
America is an inherently racist country. It was founded by slave owners, for crying out loud. Things have barely improved since colonial times. Redlining still exists. The plantations still exist - they were just relocated to the jails so that they'd be out of sight. Ever since the Southern Strategy was implemented, every single Republican at every level of government has been complicit while in office. And over 40% of America has no problem with any of this.
It's inspiring to see how mobilized people are at this moment in history, but it's far too late. There is just too much ignorance and hatred on the right, and it will never go away. The time to fix it was before the alt right took over places like 4chan and reddit, where 14 year old kids are now red pilled with "alt lite" guys like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro, and soon enough Breitbart or Daily Stormer is their primary news source. Even most liberally minded folk over the age of 30 have no idea any of this exists, never mind old dudes in rural Kentucky who think Reagan was a nice guy.
There are a million things in this world that can be fixed - racism in America isn't one of them.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Saint Jiub wrote:[/b]
It is pitiful that one must glorify a "dumpster fire".[/QUOTE]
It's not glorifying - it's illustrating reality with the necessary language to convey the urgency of the situation.
America has been a dumpster fire since colonial times. Ask 100 black people and Hispanics within your borders. At least 99 of them will agree.
And it was designed that way. An individualist and capitalist society with no social safety net built on the inherent idea of pursuing liberty and success at the expense of others is not one where people en masse will help abolish racism (or solve any other social issue) even if they're aware of it. They get their piece of the pie, and then it's don't tread on me.
Yesterday the president brought in the army to clear away peaceful protesters with tear gas and flash grenades so that he could do a White House photo op with a bible in hand to appease his evangelical base. You know who brings in the army to defend them from their own people? Dictators.
Watch this in full and tell me American democracy is not in peril:
If you don't think your country is a dumpster fire, both literally and figuratively, then you haven't been watching carefully enough.
The experiment that is America is about to fail. To most who are a visible minority it has already failed by the time they're 8. Now it's your turn. Be prepared.
Saint Jiub · Member since
I agree that Trump should not have unleashed tear gas, flash grenedes and mounted police on peaceful protestors. I also agree that Trump should have been more diplomatic than "when the looting starts the shooting starts".
However, the rest of Seth Myers diatribe is his garbage masquerading as humor.
I doubt you read anything i previously presented, as your cognitive bias, arrogance and gloating would not allow it. I cannot believe you can legitimitize organized looting.
Here is another article you won't read to completion:
In my small suburban hometown only one building was looted.
Can you guess the building?
It was the marijuana dispensory which has fuck-all to do with peaceful protesting.
The Real Wizard · Member since
You may not like Meyers' humour, but can you point out one factually inaccurate part of that clip?
The looting sucks. Obviously. Nobody apart from a small minority of anarchists is in support of it. Your suggestion that I feel otherwise is a straw man argument, as I hadn't even mentioned it.
That column you linked to is a gish gallop of Fox news talking points, designed to change the channel from the actual story (side point: the suggestion that Joe Biden is far left is laughable - by European standards he would be centre-right).
The actual story - since the inception of the United States, to this day, there has been systematic racism in place. The current incarnation of it began with the COINTELPRO program started by J Edgar Hoover after the success of the civil rights movement, aiming to control the narrative by sowing doubts in people's minds that those fighting for equality were the enemy. The program may not exist anymore, but its principles continue to exist in today's right wing media, like that column you linked to.
Your fixation on the small minority of anarchists doing the looting instead of the root of the problem - racism that has existed for centuries - proves that they continue to be successful.
If you want to help solve the problems your country faces, stop posting garbage like this on internet forums and educate yourself about America's longstanding history of racism. Then you can participate in the discussion, the solution, and the healing.
Holly2003 · Member since
Conservatives want to focus on looting so they don't have to talk about George Floyd's murder. And if forced to talk about the man's murder, I expect to hear the "one bad egg" excuse deployed again.
Amidds · Member since
Just something to think about. Instead of hating a group of people because of their beliefs (Democrats or Republicans), it might benefit us all if we tried acceptance and understanding. Blind hatred gets us nowhere and makes you that person you are complaining about. If you must insist on an Us vs. Them mentality, shouldn't it be the people vs. politicians? You can take a side all you want and blame the other for every negative thing that's ever happened, BUT, if you look back, you will see that both sides have used us for votes, power and money. Very few have our best interest at heart. Maybe it's time we do more than point fingers and stop blindly putting our trust and faith into a political system that has failed us time and again from BOTH sides. We all need to wake up and start trying to make changes to the upper level instead of just sitting back, pointing fingers and insulting people who, if you listen closely, want the same things we do (yes, there are always exceptions). If we stopped aligning ourselves with the people causing the problems and band together, we will eventually make the changes we all need.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Amidds wrote:[/b]
Just something to think about. Instead of hating a group of people because of their beliefs (Democrats or Republicans), it might benefit us all if we tried acceptance and understanding. Blind hatred gets us nowhere and makes you that person you are complaining about. If you must insist on an Us vs. Them mentality, shouldn't it be the people vs. politicians?[/QUOTE]
That kind of simplistic dualistic thinking just doesn't work in practicality, especially in a country where over 40% of the people support a racist president. It's them who are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the hate, not people who are fighting for marginalized people's basic rights to exist.
We should not be branding the people who are fed up with racism as also being filled with "hate". That's precisely what Trump did when he said there were "very fine people on both sides" in Charlottesville - as if Nazis and people fighting Nazis are somehow equal opposites.
Furthermore, this false notion that there are only two ways to think pervades so much of American discourse. The two party system has most people thinking there are only two possible ways to think - "my" way or the "wrong" way. Indeed, both parties have their flaws, but the Democratic party has not spent the last several decades passing legislation to destroy education, the environment, and the institution of government itself. That solely lies on the Republicans - particularly Mitch McConnell.
People who support a racist president absolutely do not "want the same things" non-racists want. Your enthusiasm for finding middle ground is admirable, but the reality is - you live in a country where about half its citizens are not interested in helping anyone but themselves. And we're going to need more than platitudes to solve this problem.
