The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[Admiral Yi]

This is what I meant about protest supporters being careful about picking their heroes, if they want to keep their credibility.  It sure looks to me like some here are making heroes out of those who trash stores to take some free shit with them, and somehow making it out that not only is taking 10 free pairs of pants further the cause of protests, but that it's a necessary part of a successful protests.  If you're against that, you're for people being killed by police with impunity.

Believe it or not, I'm not 100% unsympathetiic to the pro-looter side.  Here's how I see the thinking going.

Looting is in fact an honest expression of rage.  They are trying to get back at The Man, The System.  When people like you and I judge them to be motivated by the desire for acquisition rather than rage, we judge and invalidate their rage.

[fromtia]

Or maybe we're not about making any of this about those idiots trashing and looting stores.

No one is making them heroes here. We're just saying that it's not the point, and that's not where the focus should be.

No, no this is now a looting thread. There may be something else going on here in the US, but the real problem is looting. looting, looting, looting. Remember Looty from 2005? That was the real story of Hurricane Katrina. LA Riots? Looting. Ferguson? looting. Teh blacks are out there doing a loot and teh libs are supporting them on the internet. Thats what's happening.

[Maximus]

Patton Oswalt had a great post about virtue signalling the other day. "Y'know why you yell "virtue signaling" when you see anyone be an ally to the oppressed or abused or "othered"? 'Cuz you can't imagine an action not linked to a selfish motive. You can't accept someone wanting a better world without it directly benefiting them. It's beyond you."

There's a similar lack of imagination/empathy behind other alt-right buzzwords like "identity politics".

You can't imagine why people who have been brutalized because of their identity need to see people with that identity in power, because it hasn't happened to you.

You can't imagine people whose protests have fallen on deaf ears expressing their rage with rioting and looting, because more productive avenues of protest are open to you.

[Oexmelin]

Fine, I take it back. I just felt you were laying it on a bit thick, attacking the fact of people protecting shops from looting.

People in ivory towers often don't give a flying fuck about poor people.

[The Brain]

Fine, I take it back. I just felt you were laying it on a bit thick, attacking the fact of people protecting shops from looting.

People in ivory towers often don't give a flying fuck about poor people.

Hey I'm OK. Luckily I'm not poor. But thanks.

[merithyn]

Fine, I take it back. I just felt you were laying it on a bit thick, attacking the fact of people protecting shops from looting.

Oex made a good point about that, though.

Protecting the store was to prevent the "Well, I was on their side until they started stealing shoes!!" bullshit.

How can anyone NOT be on the side of people tired of being killed in the streets? And if someone stealing shoes (or many someones doing so) can turn you against that, the issue isn't the looted stores. The issue is what you deem more important than people being killed in the streets.

[Admiral Yi]

Protecting the store was to prevent the "Well, I was on their side until they started stealing shoes!!" bullshit.

No one here has taken that position.  This  is pretty much a straw man.  Rather we are distinguishing between righteous and unrighteous protestors.

[Oexmelin]

No one here has taken that position.  This  is pretty much a straw man.  Rather we are distinguishing between righteous and unrighteous protestors.

Why is that a useful distinction to make?

[Valmy]

There's a similar lack of imagination/empathy behind other alt-right buzzwords like "identity politics".

Which is hilarious since few are as big into identity politics like the alt-right. You would think they would have plenty of empathy for racial and identity based nationalism.

[Sophie Scholl]

Protecting the store was to prevent the "Well, I was on their side until they started stealing shoes!!" bullshit.

No one here has taken that position.  This  is pretty much a straw man.  Rather we are distinguishing between righteous and unrighteous protestors.

Is the crime and problem they are protesting, rioting, and looting in support of/because of/sparked by worse than the crime and problem that said protesting, rioting, and looting causes. So far I rank murder and systemic racism as far worse crimes and problems than anything I have seen in the protesting, looting, and rioting. That is me though. That is how I am judging the righteousness or unrighteousness of the sides.

[Zoupa]

Fine, I take it back. I just felt you were laying it on a bit thick, attacking the fact of people protecting shops from looting.

People in ivory towers often don't give a flying fuck about poor people.

Hey I'm OK. Luckily I'm not poor. But thanks.

You're poor in a lot of ways.

[Sheilbh]

Not on topic to this discussion, but watching the influencers getting their content from all of this is incredible:
https://twitter.com/influencersitw/status/1267627931154747392?s=20

[Maximus]

Which is hilarious since few are as big into identity politics like the alt-right. You would think they would have plenty of empathy for racial and identity based nationalism.

They are nothing if not inconsistent.

[Valmy]

Not on topic to this discussion, but watching the influencers getting their content from all of this is incredible:
https://twitter.com/influencersitw/status/1267627931154747392?s=20

See now this is virtue signalling if it is a thing. Just getting images for the brand.

[The Brain]

Fine, I take it back. I just felt you were laying it on a bit thick, attacking the fact of people protecting shops from looting.

People in ivory towers often don't give a flying fuck about poor people.

Hey I'm OK. Luckily I'm not poor. But thanks.

You're poor in a lot of ways.

So cruel.