We Can Work It Out - Politics & Philosophy | Page 108 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Absolutely. If they were smart, they’d bring them into a room to discuss their concerns and negotiate a plan. This way, everyone clams down and police who abuse their power are sentenced fairly. 

Yes, that’s how you deal with peaceful protesters. Not RIOTERS WHO ARE BURNING THINGS DOWN AND KILLING PEOPLE. I’m sorry, but you forfeit your 1st Amendment right to freely assemble when you start infringing on property rights and using physical violence against people and things. I’d like to see you bring people into a room when they’re smashing things and whacking you over the head.

This is a… really misleading take on the situation. The protests didn’t just turn violent on their own, in fact in most cases the violence seems to have escalated much further once the police arrived. In Minneapolis the protests started off mostly peacefully with a few instances of violence until a shop owner fatally shot one of the protestors, thinking they were looting, at which point the violence worsened, and then it escalated even further after the police arrived. There has been a huge amount of footage online of police quite clearly and deliberately escalating the violence, attacking journalists, and using horribly excessive force on protestors, and then there’s the (unconfirmed) cases of police infiltrators and agitators stirring up the protests from within.

Obviously we don’t know the full story of every city and protest, particularly given their sheer scale, but it does seem a little dishonest to act as if this is just a case of lawless rioters who simply can’t be reasoned with and not a situation where both sides have contributed to the extent of the violence and destruction. Not to mention that these protests wouldn’t be happening in the first place if it wasn’t for the decades-long continuous police violence and discrimination against black people.

Basically, I hope the riots and the looting stop, but I also hope that meaningful change occurs so that things never get this bad again, starting with real accountability being brought to police forces statewide, such as mandatory Department of Justice investigation for every example of extrajudicial killing. I mean, hey, we’re both libertarians – isn’t it in line with both our principles that the state should face severe scrutiny to make sure that it doesn’t overstep its remit? 

People do rail against Trump’s tweets all the time, lol… have you seen the “reply guys” (and/or gals) who make a career out of calling him out in his Twitter threads… still not Twitter’s job.

I don’t have a strong opinion either way on the legal status of Twitter, but people ‘railing against Trump’s tweets’ is not a substitute for proper fact checking. This reminds me of when Dave Rubin argued that it would be fine to scrap all regulations because Yelp reviews and social media posts would apparently be just as effective in calling out malpractice. 

Dark Overlord said

Doesn’t Dave Rubin know easy it is for people to lie online?

Dave Rubin doesn’t really know anything, to be honest. I’ve rarely seen a political commentator less educated and more naïve. 

Anyways, as much as i hate to say it @QuarryMan i doubt much will come of these riots aside from all the destruction it caused. Back in 1992, we had the LA riots following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King and all that came of that was that the officers were retried with half of them being found guilty. A bit more might come out of these riots considering Rodney King survived the attack but it’s unlikely it’ll be much more than the officers going to jail.

Sadly, you might be right. It’s bloody depressing that so much violence and pain and destruction might just end up coming to very little. We’ve already seen some progress, such as Chauvin’s charge being changed to second degree murder and the other three officers present being charged as well, but that might end up being it. 

Here’s a neat video by an ex-convict who know works with both police groups and others on how to improve the police service. 

Ehhhhhh. I agree with their aims like de-gentrification, police abolition/defunding, rent control, funding of community health etc, and I wish them success in their endeavours, but the whole thing honestly just screams ‘controlled opposition’ to me. It’ll provide years of terrible news coverage for left wing & progressive ideas, inspire a pro-law and order backlash that might just get Trump re-elected, and will most likely eventually just quietly dissolve. 

I do, however, really like this mural that they did:

^ Pretty much the same for me. I expend so much of energy criticising the Democrat establishment that I often almost forget just how awful Trump is. Though I guess Trump does get thoroughly criticised all the time, so it’s really covered ground at this point, whereas I think too many people are still under the impression that everything will suddenly be okay the moment a Democrat is back in the White House. Biden’s incompetence is extremely funny, sure, but it’s also dangerous – you have a president flirting with very real authoritarianism whilst their only real rival is too busy talking about how ‘you should marry into a family with five sisters’ and other such nonsense like it’s 1872. 

@Starr Shine? , I don’t know the full extent of your conservative positions, but if SCOTUS being filled up with anti-gun judges is what’s concerning you, I wouldn’t be too worried – it’s already got a conservative majority, and even if Biden does get in he most likely will not get the opportunity to flip the balance anytime soon. The way things are looking, RBG will be the first of the current course to be replaced, and Breyer is the only other member even close to her age, so the two justices Biden would most likely be replacing are liberal anyway. 

My position over the past few months has veered between reluctant critical support for Biden and no compromise ‘Bernie or Bust’ purism, but after Trump’s recent attacks on the welfare of LGBTQ+ folks and his scary flirtations with authoritarianism (seriously, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” is one of the most terrifying phrases I’ve ever heard from a politician) have now put me firmly on the side of the former. I quite honestly despise Biden – the guy represents to me everything that is wrong with the US political system – but at the end of the day his positions and proposals are generally much more tolerable than the nightmare that is Trump’s behaviour. I don’t think a Biden presidency is the solution to any of the fundamental, underlying problems ‘Murica is experiencing the effects of, but in the short term, getting him in office would represent a clear improvement in the lives of the vulnerable people whose welfare is the #1 priority.

You heard me – I’m Ridin’ with Biden, baby.