Is it wrong that I think the American public would side with the police even if they started openly gunning down protestors? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"What do you mean 'started'?"

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I want to clarify that I'm talking about open mass-killings in the vein of Sharpeville or Bloody Sunday.

Reading and seeing the public's reactions to things like the gassings and beatings at pro-Palestine encampments, BLM protestors getting run over, Kyle Rittenhouse's victims, etc. it seems like the American people take an open and ghoulish delight in protestors getting brutalized, maimed, and killed. Go to any video or article about these things happening, and the comments section is an endless parade of the worst people imaginable cheering and hollering for it with extremely little or no pushback. It's depressingly consistent.

It just gives me this horrible feeling that one day the police are going to unload into a crowd of protestors and leave a mass of bodies in their wake, the American people will hoot and clap and cheer about how the victims got what they deserved, and that'll become the new MO. The only reason they aren't already doing this is fear it might make them look bad, and if it doesn't end up making them look bad in the eyes of the public, then there isn't a single thing stopping them.

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

I mean, the answer is kind of in your post. 2020 BLM was the largest set of protests in the history of the country. There would be massive amounts of pushback from everyday people.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

2020 BLM was the largest set of protests in the history of the country.

Is this true? I feel like it isn't but purely based on vibes.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Data on this is based on polling, and varies a lot, which makes the data flawed. The usually cited figures in what I could find put self-reported participation at between 15 and 26 million.

Of course, people could be lying or exaggerating how much they "participated". But even if we half the low-end estimate, it still puts the George Floyd uprisings as the largest mass action in American history by a wide margin.

this post was submitted on 15 May 2025

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