DavidSterned wrote:Nuntius wrote:DavidSterned wrote:
1. BLM is not just a few people on a board of trustees who may or may not have held protests. BLM is a huge umbrella and has tons of self-described followers and supporters in every region and large city of the country. The evidence for BLM involved protests being on a smaller scale following the death of Daniel Shaver (or other non-black victims) is pretty self-explanatory. There weren't widespread major demonstrations whatsoever in 2016 or in 2017 when that body-cam footage was released. I understand there are a multitude of reasons for that, but it is still an objective reality.
2. The mass media definitely plays a big part in us wading through the mud, but we must remember that tribalism and prejudice are intrinsic to human nature. It's an ugly reality but that is who we are as a species and no nation or ethnic group in human history is beyond reproach. The problem we see right now is that the power dynamic in this country has shifted increasingly in favor of the few and those few are holding themselves to an even lower standard of accountability than the rest of us (which is already quite low). And the many are being further divided by empty rhetoric that in most cases contributes nothing to tangible progress.
1) Yes, BLM isn't a board of trustees. Neither I nor anyone else have claimed that it is. It's a social movement. And it is that social movement exactly that decried and protested Daniel Shaver's murder. Not the "All Lives Matter" "movement". It was the BLM. Heck, how do you think that a random dude in Greece like me learned about Daniel Shaver's murder? I learned it from people online who either identify with or simply support the BLM and its goals.
2) What are you even trying say here? Honestly, your post is pretty damn convoluted.
You say that tribal and prejudice are intrinsic to human nature. What does that mean, though? Does it mean that we shouldn't try to eliminate prejudice? Does it mean that simply because you consider it to be intrinsic that we shouldn't do anything about it?
You say that the power dynamic in this country has shifted increasingly in favor of the few but you don't name who those few are.
You talk about empty rhetoric that contributes nothing to tangible progress but you don't say what that empty rhetoric is about or what you may consider to be tangible progress.
This part of the post was initially a discussion about the media and its role but, frankly, I'm not sure what it is about now. You may be trying to make a point but all the generalities you've used make that point quite unclear. Can you please clarify what you mean?
1. You literally posted an op-ed presumably describing the small, local 1 day protest held in Mesa (
https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/mesa-rally-for-justice-held-for-daniel-shaver/75-501627698) about the Shaver case and then made the implication of "See, people cared on the same level". To stand by that would be completely disingenous. Here's an op-ed from 2017 saying the literal opposite
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2017/12/08/what-if-unarmed-daniel-shaver-killed-ex-mesa-cop-had-been-black/935490001/See how easy that was? At no widescale level whatsoever, including among BLM supporters, were the magnitude of responses remotely comparable. I can't believe I am even having to say this. If you can't concede that then you're clearly operating in bad faith here.
Yes, it was a murder that received less coverage and therefore the reaction to it wasn't of the same magnitude as the reaction to George Floyd's death. I never said otherwise. What I've been, though, is that it was the BLM movement who called this murder out as an outrage. It was the BLM movement who protested for it. It was the BLM movement who did anything about it. Did the "All Lives Matter" folks do anything about that murder? No, they didn't.
DavidSterned wrote:2. My point is that prejudice and human bias are not only inherent but are often incredibly difficult to quantify or even identify, and if we are going to pride ourselves on creating a better system then we first must operate on identifying what we can tangibly improve upon.
I disagree that prejudice and human bias are inherent. I do agree that they are at times difficult to quantify and identify as sometimes they operate at a subconscious level. As for identifying them, social justice movements have been doing a lot of work on that aspect. The subject of implicit biases and how we can identify them and recognize how they're affecting our actions is a pretty well-talked about topic. If you have chosen to ignore that and not partake on this discussion, that's not on them, that's on you.
DavidSterned wrote:Otherwise how will progress ever come? Do you think shouting epithets at cops in the streets is going to accomplish it? That means statistics and objective laws should absolutely be given more weight than blind emotion and outrage. An understanding of the past, an understanding of the present, an understanding of the law, and an understanding of the human condition from all sides.
Progress will come from the people that are fighting for it. It will come from the people that want to make a positive change in the world and have ideas on how they'll achieve it. On the topic of police brutality, ending Qualified Immunity and de-militarizing the US Police is a good start. Finding a way to break the culture of impunity that has been bred in police precincts will also help.
I can say with certainty that progress will NOT come from those that are fighting against it and those who want to preserve the current status quo.
DavidSterned wrote:George Floyd is the perfect example. As callous as his treatment was, at no point have we actually seen evidence linking his death to race. How could we definitively know? I don't know Derrick Chauvin or what's in his heart. A lot of it is personal bias and assumption that his status as a white cop influenced his racial views somehow. And without tangible evidence of such that personal whim is really not necessarily a convincing starting point for formulating changes.
How can we definitively know that George Floyd's race played a role in his death? For starters, we can look at the statistics that you talked about above. Here's an example of those statistics ->
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/As you can see, it is pretty clear that black people are more likely to be killed by the police. As the website says, it is 3 times more likely for black people to be killed by the police than it is for white people. The website also points out that black people are 1.3 times more likely than white people to be unarmed when killed by the police.
So, really, what more do you need other than the fact that it actually happens? Do you believe that what the stats above imply is merely coincidence?
We all saw the video of George Floyd's murder. We all saw his murderer, Derrick Chauvin, employ excessive force against a man who was unarmed and complying with their instructions. We all saw Chauvin ignore Floyd's cries that he couldn't breathe anymore and we all saw him keeping his knee on Floyd's neck until he was dead. Every bit of it is caught on video.
We all know that black people are disproportionately targeted by police brutality. We have seen it happen time and time again. I'll ask again. Do you honestly believe that this is a coincidence? Because I believe that it is indicative of a culture of systemic racism in the gulfs of the US police.
You say that "without tangible evidence this isn't a convincing starting point for formulating changes". And I'm going to be 100% honest with you. There's never going to be a convincing starting point for you. Never. You are here, disputing an incident that was as clear as day. The last few days have laid police brutality bare. Everyone can see it now as police officers have been filmed attacking peaceful protesters and journalists without provocation time and time again. And yet, you have your head in the sand.
This is the image that best describes your post:

DavidSterned wrote:Empty rhetoric masquerading as activism (Occupy Wall Street being another example) does little more than kick the can down the road until we see another round of protests. Putting your outrage into action and formulating a workable plan on improving things should be the goals, not anarchy. And Intellectualism should not go out the window in favor of tribalism and deconstructing every issue into black/white. That only tends to bring the worst out in people.
Actually, activist movements
do formulate workable plans. Both the Occupy Movement and the BLM have made several proposals on what they want to see change. You have just chosen to ignore it because as I said before:

It's also ironic how you say that intellectualism should not go out of the window and try to portray this as something that is happening within left-leaning social movements while, in reality, the massive rise in anti-intellectualism is phenomenon that is seen almost entirely on the right, particularly among the ardent supporters of your President. Frankly, you are just projecting here.
DavidSterned wrote:I AM seeing some signs of progress in places, I know BLM leaders met with police officials in Portland again yesterday for several hours which could be a great start. But far too often we are seeing a bunch of people who are more than ready to lash out in anger but when pressed for offering their ideas they cower. No coherency to it. That's not true activism in my eyes. And that's why, fair or not, a lot of people conflate today's activism with opportunism. It's easy to say you're really for something so your friends will agree that you're woke, but much harder to put your money where your mouth is and value rectifying an issue.
Really, that's what you see? Once again:

Activists have proposals. Just ask them about their proposals and they'll tell you all about them. What you're describing above is not what actually happens out there. You have chosen to construct your own reality and, once again, stick your head in the sand.
Don't get me wrong, living in your own reality is absolutely your right. Just don't try and use that made-up reality against the rest of society.