It's all very disheartening, and hard to explain to my children.
Would love to hear alternative takes or solutions if anyone has them.
We have to change the payoff matrix.
It was all partisan.
And not only have the people in question not spoken up in defense of the press, they've actually routinely declare them the enemy of the people.
Yeah, I don't either.
Yes, rioting isn't free speech. Unfortunately, nothing short of rioting seems to work---the people in question are poor and already at the bottom of the social pile, so their options seem limited.
Democrats already had the African American vote and the cities. Rioting will swing the suburbs back to Republicans, completing the cycle again.
On its own I agree the Tea Party is wonton vandalism. The patriots knew that too. They wanted to start a war. They also knew it was lawless and it was debated afterwords until it set of a wave of similar vandalism.
No one outside of a very small group looks back on the race riots of 1968 with pride, or the burning of LA, or Camden.
Are the rioters trying to start a revolutionary war? I hope not. There will be a lot of death everywhere.
The rioters don’t even have a plan or goal for if they “win.” They aren’t making demands. “Fix the police“ and “end systemic racism” isn’t something that can just happen. The rioters don’t have Federalist Papers or any plan for what’s next (unless you count the Communist Manefesto).
Personally I’d like these things to happen too. The police shouldn’t be terrifying. When I was growing up they were likable Andy Griffith types. Everyone knew them. Now they are shaven headed paramilitary. I have no idea who my local cops are. Wtf?
What positive are they doing for us at this juncture?
This all will not end well.
P.s. Were there significant riots with the Occupy thing? I seem to recall it being mostly quiet (and completely ineffectual).
Conservatives support protests by white people, but never by black people.
More generally, there is always nearby the temptation to definitionally exclude one's political opponents from serious discussion by the lazy insinuation that they don't really believe what they say they believe, that their side is more opportunistic and cynical than yours, and that, therefore, what work even needs to be done to argue the point? After all, there are only two staked-out positions: those who agree with me already and those who are lying about their motives!
Try to resist this. It goes nowhere. It leads to nothing. And I assure you that, whatever the issue, there really are people who see it differently than you. I know that can be hard to accept, but it's almost always true.
Are the only Press allowed to be Press those that are part of a large national news network? Is Alex Jones Press if he shows up to these with a guy with a camera and enters areas civilians are not allowed to be in?
We're FAR past that point, and the reason that comfortable white people are so taken aback by this is because they've been given the freedom to ignore it all. Just watch the alternate dimension that is OAN or Fox News, and you will never have to worry about how a minority is ever treated in this country, because they will either tell you it's all bullshit or they will wring their hands for a segment and then go right back to bashing Obama or Clinton for things that are happening 3.5 years into Trump's presidency.
RIGHT NOW cops are shooting tear gas and grenades at peaceful protesters.
RIGHT NOW photographers are losing their vision because police officers are firing rubber bullets at their heads.
RIGHT NOW cops are destroying property and blaming it on imaginary groups of paid protesters.
RIGHT NOW cops are hiding their badge numbers because they don't want to get fired.
RIGHT NOW cops are assaulting and arresting the press.
RIGHT NOW cops have the right to wander into a woman's apartment and shoot her stone cold dead because they didn't read the number.
RIGHT NOW people in this country watch with baited breath to see whether people like that woman who murdered Botham Jean in his own home would even get charged.
It seems to me that a large portion of the conservative side of this country is more than happy with "coming down hard" on people to try to scare anyone else from trying to upset the apple cart. Because it "works."
These protesters? They're just reciprocating what "works."
You do see a difference in the protests, right? The protests against lockdowns didn't include looting, arson, rape, murder, and multiple murdered police.
Here, have a small sample,
Black pawn shop employee murdered by looters for TVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhG0v9pDycM
"You said black lives matter.. look what you did to my store"
https://mobile.twitter.com/Mus1yMustafa/status/1267874483840...
Destroying store and beating unarmed woman and her husband
Restaurant manager beaten and stomped for trying to defend his workplace
Stopping, beating and stomping a truck driver while protesters yell to kill him
Protesters attack a media member and then pummel him
Police officer beaten on the streets
Car runs over a cop
Protesters set homeless man’s belongings on fire
Throwing fireworks at the cops
Chasing and beating guy with red had
I can keep going. It is utterly dispicable. There's a long long list of videos with these "peaceful protestors" in action. Everyone has a camera, and all of this is available for you to see, if you only choose to see it.
This was staged by infowars. I cannot be arsed to look at all of your videos.
The right wing lockdown protests had a strong smell of AstroTurf about them:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/coronavirus-p...
Oh well, I guess black lives don't actually matter to you then, because the video I lead with is a real black man who really died.
https://fox6now.com/2020/06/02/police-retired-st-louis-polic...
You neglect the hundreds of thousands of people who turned up in peaceful protests around the world over the last week. These people are seeking positive change within their communities.
Your attempt to mine a simplistic “protests bad” narrative from a complex event is done in bad faith.