01-05-2021, 12:43 PM
(01-05-2021, 10:04 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I have not read through the thread you made that was disparaging the statistic that 93% of the BLM protests were peaceful (and among the 7% that were not it is indeterminate how many were made violent by the police violating the protesters' rights rather than the protesters looting/rioting etc to begin with), but suffice it to say we disagree on both the volume of lawlessness that has occurred under the banner of America's left and their protesting AND the extent to which supporting those protests is tantamount to condoning said lawlessness. Condoning rioting/looting is not the same as saying "Rioting is wrong, but we must address the root of this unrest [police violence], rather than sweeping everything under the rug."
Martin Luther King Jr was quoted saying essentially the same thing back in the civil rights movement era.
But you're a generally well informed person, so I know you know about that quote already.
This, of course, assumes that those rioting are doing so because of that cause and not because they have been given virtual carte blanche to do so by ineffective or sympathetic governors/mayors/DA's. You're making the basic mistake of assuming everyone marching or engaging in the violent activities have the same agenda. This is not true. What is true is that an atmosphere of tolerance, or at the very least benevolent understanding, has been fostered around these activities by both the media and the government of many areas. Essentially, when you excuse violent rioting, looting and arson because of police brutality you're going to get a lot of people who will shelter under that umbrella in order to commit those acts that don't give two shits about that cause. It's an excuse, and the type of people willing to engage in this type of behavior will leap at any such excuse and exploit it.
Beyond all that, I still think we're disagreeing on what "virtue signaling" is. It is a connotative difference only at this point but I don't think supporting the protests is virtue signaling.
Quote:When I think virtue signaling, I think of meaningless bullshit like wearing kente cloths and kneeling, or saying "awoman" or any other meaningless gesture that has no power or intention behind it other than "I'm one of you guys." Especially coming from corporatists that don't really have the people's best interests at heart (this is 99% of politicians, not just Democrats or Republicans). I don't think supporting protests that are aiming to result in meaningful and lasting change/improvement to the way we police this country is without power or intention, so I don't classify those as virtue signaling.
From a denotative stance, basically every word out of anyone's mouth is virtue signaling (i.e. it is virtue signaling to reveal your virtues, like I am to you right now and how you did to me in the above post), so I would disregard that literal definition of the term in this context.
This is where the cognitive dissonance really kicks in for the more left leaning people who use this argument. You can't logically spend four plus years correctly pointing out that Trump creates a "safe space" or an aura of permission for right wing agitators with his words and deeds, both overt and tacit, and then ignore the exact same thing from the Dems. While Trump is more bombastic and obvious the effect achieved is the same. It's telling these people, we're with you, we agree and we've got your back. You need look no further than the results to see this. Portland continues to have nightly violence and the mayor and finally admitted his appeasement strategy isn't working and never will.
If we really want to cool things down and "heal" then we've got to start treating all unacceptable behavior as unacceptable, in every way possible. Until that is done, and done seriously, by both sides. Also, I don't care about what side you, or anyone else perceives as the "main offender", the problem exists on both sides and it needs to be addressed by both sides if it's ever going to get better (please note this is not an attack on you personally but a general statement).
