[RD] George Floyd and protesting while black

[r16]

am an enemy of US of A (and yes , for the thousandth time they know where ı live) but riots = you people have no hope of controlling hence winning . These douchebags people mention they have everything under control and they think they will remain in control . They are defined by lack of morals and they will kill everyone in your family and do you have it to kill everyone in theirs ? This is the real question and yeah , do not ever answer that you could . These douchebags were never allowed to fight a nuclear war , just do not make it easier to for them to try a Civil War you will not win . You know , some random howling at the moon , the Floyd family already reported in this country to have asked for no looting .

translation : lf Trump wasn't assured of success , he would be doing none of the things he has been doing . Much like previous examples he is counting on people who would be in the middle of things , those inhibited by cheezy concepts like rules , laws , traditions and conventions , all of them adhered to because honour . People who would be horrified of what might happen and stop before taking action , hoping some miracle will take place . Yeah , time to loop to the top and remember what ı am .

 

[Gorbles]

If someone blocks your carotid artery is that the same as asphyxiation?

I don't know what relevance this has on the quoted article, it kinda seems like a leading question. Could you clarify?

 

[Farm Boy]

Tim, the LA riots also took place in a nasty heat wave with a lot less air conditioning, didn't it? I forget. The anger was hot, like a steamy nasty get nothing done two weeks sitting in front of the fan. This feels more like our constant scourge. Abeyance and disease and discontent.

 

[El_Machinae]

Better to try than to let fear of failure prevent you from standing up to tyrants.

Absolutely. But it emphasizes how important it is to be knowledgable about what caused the failed efforts.

 

[Hrothbern]

Absolutely. But it emphasizes how important it is to be knowledgable about what caused the failed efforts.

Succesfull revolutions (or rapid transformations) in the past were typical done by people between 30-50 years old.

Some were better prepared than others... but the general experience years of leaders and followers do weight in on some lack of preparation.

 

[Traitorfish]

Trump claims that his side is the "silent majority". Wrong. They are not silent, and they are definitely not the majority. Trump lost the popular vote by a comfortable margin. That's not even including people in jail who can't vote, voter suppression against oppressed people, gerrymandering, etc. Almost all of these people would have voted against Trump. The vast majority of the world's population at large is against Trump. Not even remotely the majority. And racists and bigots haven't been silent remotely.

Even within his own terms, he's deeply mistaken to imagine that all American conservatives and Republicans are on his side. Many of them may have made peace with the devil's bargain they struck to keep the Democrats out of the White House, but it doesn't follow that they're happy about it. If there is a "silent majority", it is the majority of his own party, who have so far endured the disgraces of his administration but may yet, unlikely as it sounds, discover some sort of moral courage.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Tim, the LA riots also took place in a nasty heat wave with a lot less air conditioning, didn't it? I forget. The anger was hot, like a steamy nasty get nothing done two weeks sitting in front of the fan. This feels more like our constant scourge. Abeyance and disease and discontent.

TBH I don't remember it being particularly hot, but it seems likely enough. Of course that same likelihood makes it probably a non-factor. LA is almost always hot, so no one is rioting over it, or putting off a riot over it. Just one of those background constants.

Yeah...constant. Constant scourge. Between virus quarantines and riot curfews this just feels like it is going to be the new normal. I can't really find the handle that allows that "sigh of relief, move on" moment. RK riots had that moment when the feds announced the freed cops would face federal charges. Promises made and the prospect that maybe the LAPD would get cleaned up really never provided that kind of turning point.

I dunno what it would take to have that turning point here. It touched off in Minneapolis, but I really have trouble seeing "Minneapolis fires police chief" as something the nationwide mob turns around on. The genie is out of the bottle at this point and a big genie requires a bigger reset button. Maybe November. I dunno.

 

[REDY]

Do protesters have clear demands and goals?
"Black Lives Matter" is all good, but it's a slogan, not a demand.
"Justice for George Floyd" is also not much of a demand, the murderer is already arrested.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Even within his own terms, he's deeply mistaken to imagine that all American conservatives and Republicans are on his side. Many of them may have made peace with the devil's bargain they struck to keep the Democrats out of the White House, but it doesn't follow that they're happy about it. If there is a "silent majority", it is the majority of his own party, who have so far endured the disgraces of his administration but may yet, unlikely as it sounds, discover some sort of moral courage.

I genuinely believe Trump could hit these Republican's children in front of them and they'd stand there and say nothing, wouldn't even get angry.

 

[Traitorfish]

I genuinely believe Trump could hit these Republican's children in front of them and they'd stand there and say nothing, wouldn't even get angry.

They'd be angry, but they'd swallow it. That's been the problem so far, that conservatives who are disgusted by Trump are prepared to tolerate his leadership. But his administration assuming that this tolerance will be extended indefinitely is a gamble, not a plan. Compliance isn't enthusiasm.

That said, I'm sceptical that five months will be enough time for conservative voters to dredge themselves out of this moral malaise. The most likely scenario is that Trump wins re-election in November, but is badly punished in the mid-terms, then the Republicans find a less obnoxious candidate in 2024 and nobody learns anything. The burden remains, as it has always done and will always do, on the left to find a way forward.

 

[Tristan_C]

I was alive in the 60's but don't remember them well (except Apollo 11); I grew up pretty isolated. But what's going on now is more like Detroit 67 than Chicago 68. Chicago 67 didn't happen because Mayor Daley didn't allow it to happen.

Yeah...constant. Constant scourge. Between virus quarantines and riot curfews this just feels like it is going to be the new normal. I can't really find the handle that allows that "sigh of relief, move on" moment. RK riots had that moment when the feds announced the freed cops would face federal charges. Promises made and the prospect that maybe the LAPD would get cleaned up really never provided that kind of turning point.

The prompt for my question is the large volume of civil war talk going around. It seems like every internet ip address is of the mind that, as usual, the situation is incredibly serious, and are cajoled by the media and authority figures to assign responsibility with the outgroup. The 60s and 70s happened and, while in the chain of cause and effect, are now long-gone with the union quite intact for these many years. So I was wondering what people with a heuristic perspective on the societal unrest of that time think of all this. So thanks for the responses so far.

One case-in-point of people leading a charge without the old guys' perspective is this rare thrashing Tucker, of Gen X, administered last night to Trump and Jared Kushner (I don't have an idiot box so I just picked up on it today). He is of the mind that all of this is seismic, a festering revolt many years in the making. But Tucker is also too young to have watched the country congeal after civil rights/vietnam etc. And we're all too young to have any working lessons from the 1850s.

"Our leaders dither" monologue

Spoiler :

 

[Farm Boy]

I think the reset button is more likely a vaccine. This is global pestilence. It makes everyone just crappy. We're facechecking this one hard.

 

[Estebonrober]

More what Lexicus said. We need a national commitment to become better to each other. Police reform. Healthcare reform. Welfare reform.

 

[EnglishEdward]

They'd be angry, but they'd swallow it. That's been the problem so far, that conservatives who are disgusted by Trump are prepared to tolerate his leadership. But his administration assuming that this tolerance will be extended indefinitely is a gamble, not a plan. Compliance isn't enthusiasm.

That said, I'm sceptical that five months will be enough time for conservative voters to dredge themselves out of this moral malaise. The most likely scenario is that Trump wins re-election in November, but is badly punished in the mid-terms, then the Republicans find a less obnoxious candidate in 2024 and nobody learns anything. The burden remains, as it has always done and will always do, on the left to find a way forward.

You are too pessimistic. They don't have to do anything. If 1/8 who voted for him last time sit on their ass at home, Donald's re-election is a dead duck.

 

[innonimatu]

A man was shot and killed in Louisville after law enforcement said they had to "return fire" at a crowd of people. He was identified by family members as David McAtee, a popular chef and BBQ joint owner who used to feed cops for free (BuzzFeed News, via Twitter)

I guess it's true what I keep seeing posted by americans: never ever trust the police, they're not your friends. It's weird because no other country, not even some not-exactly-democratic ones I have known, has such widespread belief. And I knew about police brutality, impunity and crimes there, they've regularly been discussed on this forum. But seeing reports of so many outrageous police crimes here... damn, things are rotten there!

 

[AmazonQueen]

6 Atlanta police charged.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...yd-protest/ar-BB14VXwL?ocid=spartan-ntp-feedshttps://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...yd-protest/ar-BB14VXwL?ocid=spartan-ntp-feeds

 

[Takhisis]

The &pizza fast food chain has now announced that they will consider time spent by their employees protesting to be ‘paid time off’ and the Patagonia clothing brand has announced it's donating $100,000 to the NAACP, so not all companies are just posturing. I hope they fulfil their word.

This is something really new to me, I thought the American have right to armed themselves in order to protect themselves from state oppression.

Urm, first it was ‘states' rights’, i.e. that the federal government could not force member states to illegalise slavery.
So the right to bear arms was, in part, a codeword for the right to rise in arms against the government. But in the 1850s that was a single-shot musket. Today you can have an automatic rifle with an expanded 50-bullet magazine and then just walk out onto the street and do a mass shooting.
Then now when city and state governments are trying to de-escalate things Donald Trump, who rode the support of ‘STATES' RIGHTS!’ and other groups to power, is now saying that they'd better do as he says or he'll send in the US Army to do ti for them.

They should be. Problem is that for a very long time the people haven't acted like it.

Well, they'd better start already.

 

[Takhisis]

‘My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln. Passed Opportunity Zones with @SenatorTimScott, guaranteed funding for HBCU's, School Choice, passed Criminal Justice Refom, lowest Black unemployment, poverty, and crime rates in history...
...AND THE BEST IS YET TO COME’

Donald Trump on Twitter.

 

[emzie]

Heartbroken. Scared. This is going to be a very very very long summer.

 

[Arwon]

Social Justice Capitalists

These things are cloying as hell and next to useless, but still probably work as barometers of the public mood, similar to how all that rainbow capitalist stuff indicated, but did not directly help with, mainstreaming of LGBT acceptance and support.