09-05-2020, 02:41 AM
(09-04-2020, 07:26 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: Do you apply this logic process to things like purposedly misgendering people, using slurs, fat shaming, or wearing MAGA gear to a BLM rally?
I'm generously curious. Because none of these things physically harm people, nor are they crimes. They all share a common response: being offended, hurt, disrespected, etc.
If you're wondering why some allow the act of burning a flag to greatly upset them, do you wonder the same for across the board?
I'd have to take it on a case by case basis with any of those things, but this is a bit of a false equivalence argument to me. I associate US flag burnings with anti-imperialism, anti-military aggression, and maybe anti-corruption types of sentiments. If you go and call someone a racial slur or burn a pride flag, you are just punching down on people and going after easy targets. That would be an action that would indicate opinions which were tribalist at best, outright fascist at worst. That's not exactly the same thing as calling out the most powerful empire in existence today - an empire which claims that its moral superiority legitimizes all of its shortcomings. Good, intelligent people don't think that way IMO.
I can empathize with being annoyed at the act of flag burning, but to believe that it's more serious than crimes which cause more serious harm to people - I'm just not capable of thinking that way. I'm not that in love with a set of imaginary lines and a set of ideals which are selectively enforced based upon your standing in society. The US's idealized values system has a lot to like about it: the promise of individual freedom, individual responsibility, multiculturalism, fairness under law, opportunity for all, etc. Unfortunately the US doesn't always live up to it. Criminal politicians, criminal intelligence agents, criminal police, wasteful lifestyles, glorification of ignorance, science denial...you get my drift. The types of people who overthrow democratically elected governments and replace them with brutal dictatorships for the benefit of oligarchs(or a fruit company) aren't punished in this country. That's by design.
(09-04-2020, 09:44 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: I understand what u ate saying but could not say the same for quotes and signs etc for all lives matter or thin blue line or maga hats, why do people get so upset..
People are allowed to wear those things imo. People are also allowed to get annoyed with the "thin blue line" stuff. I take that flag as meaning: "don't snitch on the cops." Well what if there's a criminal cop? Shouldn't police officers be held to a higher standard than your average Joe on the street? All lives matter is a factual statement, but it was used by a politician to shout down a constituent who was saying that black lives mattered. That one needs some context to understand - I believe that both Jerry Rice and Richard Sherman, two bright dudes, once said "all lives matter" without really getting how a lot of the people who say that are using it as a rebuttal of "black lives matter." Maga hats represent a ludicrously corrupt and inept president JMHO. People are free to wear it and people are allowed to be annoyed by it.
