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[–] 2 points 10 hours ago

If we try to do a proper protest, we’ll get killed by subpar gun laws and a shot by some members of the official Kyle Rittenhouse fan club.

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  • [–] 2 points 12 hours ago

    "Having a conversation" is a stall tactic.

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  • [–] 5 points 15 hours ago (1 child)

    I see the problem. You heard something from leftists, and then brought up something said by liberals.

    Easy mistake in the bullshit US discourse

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  • [–] 6 points 15 hours ago*

    Yeah the monolithing OP is doing is honestly impressive. Here, let me try another:

    "Americans say trans rights are human rights, but then they also say trans people should be banned from public restrooms. Wtf lol????"

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  • [–] 3 points 14 hours ago

    I will never forget when the neighborhood Facebook was alight about the hoards that were going house by house through the suburbs. That was almost 10 miles of suburban sprall...my nerd brain can't fathom the logistics of that and where that force would have come from.

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  • [–] 11 points 20 hours ago (1 child)

    Keep in mind, the property damage after the murder of George Floyd was started by a white supremacist, too. "Umbrella man" smashed windows on an auto zone and spray painted it "free shit zone," it would later be set on fire. Out of 20 people charged in Minnesota for rioting, only 4 were actually local to the state.

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  • [–] 10 points 20 hours ago (1 child)

    During the BLM demonstrations right wing provocatours deliberately caused damage to discredit the demonstrations. Two were caught and prosecuted in Cleveland where i live. Don't be a tool

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  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago (1 child)

    I still remember when students at the local high school organized a BLM march from the school to the police station (a 30 minute walk) I saw so many posts from people in this town itching to shoot them if they even looked at their house weird.

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  • [–] 13 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

    Um, all BLM has to do is wear merch and hold up a sign and the police start lobbing CS grenades.

    The point of protest isn't to riot, but to get the state to over-respond, brutally. Its why the entire world knows about and sympathizes with the BLM cause.

    At least that's the game, according to COIN. Hearts and minds. Though in the Civil Rights movement, we added lawsuits.

    And Trump and the red states are quick with their riot squads. Left wing movements just have to represent and make booga-booga faces to trigger anti-riot shooting civilians with rubber bullets. (They're plastic and steel, actually.)

    And then two years later, the victims are awarded millions from the districts or the US treasury, depending on the department of the officer who decided it was time to bust heads.

    Law enforcement in the US has already lost its legitimacy in the public eye, worldwide. We know they're just thugs of the state, and their response to protest, especially minority protest, especially black protest, figures largely into that paradigm shift.

    So, just because protesters in the US still carry signs instead of molotovs, doesn't mean the protests are weak. It means the state's responsers are incredibly easily trolled into initiating violence while camers are watching.

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  • [–] 7 points 22 hours ago* (1 child)

    The point of protesting is not to provoke the state to kill you so that people will watch it.

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  • [–] 2 points 17 hours ago*

    There are many points to protesting. Provoking the opposition is one of them. We see this in civil disobedience protests and noncooperation actions.

    Provocation of state responders is one of the effects of protest, regardless of whether it is intended. But it's so consistent, especially in authoritarian regimes, that it is absolutely figured into the calculations of organizers. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for instance, staged actions expecting casualties, but knowing they would ultimately further the cause by orders of magnitude.

    It's unlikely you (a specific person) will get killed at a protest, but we see casualties at protests all the time, and they are often honored, such as the Kent State victims, who have a folk song written about them. It also sparked a student strike four million strong, and helped to speed the end of the war.

    Not all antagonistic responses have to be lethal or even injurious to to create a backlash in support of the cause. The No Kings Snapchat account shutdown by Meta is already resulting in backlash against the Trump regime, against Zuckerberg, and against the tech bro coalition in general.

    But again, all a state really needs to do is manage a protest with grace. Authoritarian regimes just jave a tendency to take visible dissent personally (or any criticism, really), and then more liberal states often fail to instill in their law enforcement a predisposition of deescalation. I suspect right-wingers just enjoy the notion of cracking dissenter heads so much they can't help themselves.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    it ain't the same guys saying both.

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    [–] 2 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

    Return2ozma: posts accurate meme

    Americans: (insert excuse or bad reaction here)

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  • [–] 2 points 17 hours ago

    It is usually local people harmed by property damage when the people who are the problem point fingers from afar at strawmen. It seems no matter what you do, tribalism will overcome any change.

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  • [–] 7 points 22 hours ago (4 children)

    All these people saying that Americans can't protest forget that we literally host hometown hero Luigi. Arguably the best way to get the message across. Needs more consistency, but It's certainly effective.

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  • [–] 11 points 21 hours ago* (3 children)

    a lot of people somehow missed the fact that luigi's actions worked to force change immediately.

    "somehow" as in the media kept that part quiet as best they could.

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  • [–] 4 points 19 hours ago

    I've said it before.

    People are alive today that wouldnt be alive if someone hadnt shot that UHC CEO.

    The entire insurance industry got so scared and so panicked that they stopped denying coverage for curable issues for like.. the next year. Hundreds, thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people are alive today, and are in better health today, because one vile piece of shit got shot and died.

    Thats an easy trade to make any day of the week.

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  • [–] 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

    Hate to break it to you but the same is true in France. Media coverage here has focused almost exclusively on small shops being looted. The human brain has a much easier time focusing on individual tragedies rather than systemic issues, and the government and its cronies (and the local versions of fox news) are taking full advantage of that bias.

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