Even as an outsider looking in, it’s not hard to see why the protests have turned violent, if they hadn’t then this would just have been swept under the carpet once again. That being said, if anything can be learned from the rivers of blood shed by African Americans and also Native Americans throughout history, it’s that violence against militant and institutionalised racism is rarely won.
It'll be interesting to see if cases spike in June, since Americans seem to think that gathering in large groups is a good idea in the middle of a particularly bad pandemic.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy@RogerRoger I live in a small, rural community, so I'm not really expecting to see violence. Thankfully, I think the actual body count from all this hasn't been terribly high. I can't imagine being one of these small business owners whose building was torched by protesters, though.
@nessisonett Yeah, this sort of unproductive violence only ever backfires. This is going to lead to MORE police brutality, and probably less freedom for protesters in general. And probably more consolidation of power by conservatives who will use this to stoke racial anger among whites in this country.
Granted, the problem is that police brutality, like almost every other problem in this country, can be traced back to the deeply corrupt way our political system is set up. It's hard to solve a problem when the rot goes all the way back to the root.
@Arugula Yeah, I avoid news due to the depressing nature of it, but this has jumped out bad enough that I have to pay attention.
@Ralizah Yeah, stay safe. I haven’t been hit, but the effect of these protests are going to trickle into every community, at least indirectly. Like you say - first by potential accelerated COVID spread, but also just in general with its affects politico-socially. Man, is there a neo-Martin Luther King our there somewhere? I sure hope so. I think you have a point that the violent protest may backfire. I sure hope not. I feel for all involved — both the protestors and the bystanders innocently affected either physically or economically by the bedlam.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@KratosMD Just seen the Anonymous stuff, pretty crazy that it’s not being reported on as it’s extremely damning. Although, not that surprising it’s not being reported given that certain media moguls are also on flight logs.
@KratosMD This is crazy.- If I hadn't seen your post I would have had no idea about the anonymous stuff. Even if it was all made up, even the threat of it should be newsworthy and I see no UK based journalists mentioning it - or US mainstream sources.
The world feels like it is in flames.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@KratosMD It’s blowing up and Twitter are trying to delete the tweets but they’re not fast enough, it’s gone over 1.5 million tweets in a few hours. It’s best to save copies instead of just retweeting.
I looked through twitter, and I'm not seeing anything particularly damning.
The Trump/Epstein pedophilia accusations have been known for years. There are a ton of things connecting him to various crimes, pedophilia, rape, etc. and his base thinks it's s deep state conspiracy to silence him.
It is odd that nobody has reported on these people hacking police websites, though. We're due for a panicked report on this, with the requisite exploding vans whenever the news talks about "the hacker 4chan."
@Th3solution If MLK was marching today, Fox News would be pumping out clips about how he's a pervert and a communist 24/7. His reputation would be destroyed before he gained the chance the attain any clout.
@Ralizah I think what’s really interesting is that more than 2 million people are widely spreading information from Anonymous despite Pizzagate and QAnon’s best efforts to discredit any kind of hacktivism. It seems to have only gotten traction on Twitter and literally nothing’s been reported elsewhere which is honestly more of a ringing endorsement since if they had proof this is a hoax, it would have been proudly debunked by someone sooner rather than later. Plus there was some rather juicy info about the UK Royal Family which has also been overlooked by the news.
Following the US protests over this past weekend as much as I possibly can has been infuriating. I've been staying up until past 2am UK time watching livestreams of people on the ground in various cities and it continues to prove how vile and racist the US police force really is. I can't really do anything here in England beyond retweeting the videos which bring the police's actions to light and donating, which isn't the best feeling. I really hope this actually triggers some sort of change because it is depressing to watch. Racism needs to go.
@Ralizah It's Been Pretty Crazy Where I Live In Arizona We Had Looting At One Of The Malls Last Night Where I Found Out From Friend's That Infamous Youtuber Jake Paul Was Also At That Same Mall.
@Ralizah Unfortunately, you might be right. (re: modern day MLK not being given credibility by news media outlets). You could put Ghandi or Mother Teresa out there today and some news media outlet would find something to tear them down with.
Honestly, society at large is the problem. Not to feed into the pessimism (I try to be more of an optimist as a rule), but if the ‘rotten to the core’ political corruption is the root cause, then it’s really society at large who is to blame. One person or a small group of people don’t create these large problems; the majority of citizens have drifted from core values of integrity, equality, charity, and honesty.
As for me, like @LiamCroft , I feel powerless, but I also know that in the end, living a good life and being a good person is probably the best thing I can do, while also supporting efforts for peace, tolerance, and change. If all the good people on Push Square can be a force for rightness in your own sphere, maybe we can be a part of stemming the tide of racism and destruction.
@nessisonett@KratosMD Alternatively, if Anonymous had something real to leak, they would. But they haven't. Unless I'm missing something, I've seen reposts of Epstein's Black Book (previously available),posts of court documents related to Trump, Epstein, and that woman who says Trump raped her when she was a teenager (we've known about this for years), and a bunch of hyperbolic claims that aren't backed up by anything at all (Trump had Epstein killed, for example).
Am I missing something? Did they post a video of Trump or Prince Andrew or someone else hunched over a young girl? Or some sort of independently verifiable new document?
@Ralizah Agreed that Anonymous may not have anything that is going to literally bring down a presidency at this point, other than further detail that was not publically available (though widely acknowledged to have happened). I think possibly the bigger news is that they have hacked PD's and released documents and have threatened to do more with regards to Trump and Epstein etc.
It could all be complete nothingness and hyperbole but I still think a large scale hacking and threats is newsworthy globally, even if just to condem it or not it. I can only see that Forbes, as of last night, had acknowledged that anything had even happened. Could be that the real media are analysing what has come out and validating before mentioning as they would be in a sticky legal position to report on potentially false news.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
One of the reasons I went off social media is too many people thinking they have the next big scoop and using conspiracy theories, rumours, speculation etc and reporting it as facts. To be clear I'm not way saying that recent events have been made up or anything. For every genuine story there is a bunch of complete bs just to get someone their 15 mins of fame. I prefer to leave this kind of stuff to the professionals so that they can do their due diligence.
Has anyone seen any of the Flat World stuff? Look it up on YouTube, it is quite hilarious although a bit frustrating in places. Just shows that some will believe anything and ignore everything that has been proven scientifically as conspiracy theories.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder check out “Behind the Curve” on Netflix. At least in the U.S. it’s on Netflix; I know that Europe/UK have slightly different Netflix libraries. But it’s a whole documentary about flat-earthers.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@JohnnyShoulder I mean, some people deny that evolution is a thing, think that vaccines give you autism, argue that Hillary Clinton ran a pedophile ring from the basement of a pizza parlor, still think the moon landing was fake, etc. What's one more bit of stupidity to add on top of that?
@Areus Keep safe, bud. You want to be away from any areas with high concentrations of people. More to avoid the virus than anything.
@Th3solution Well, I think the problem is that small groups of people DO create these problems. That's the issue: our society isn't democratic, and we've allowed small groups of powerful people to completely bend the political system to their will. Thus, the 0.01% of mega-rich people have more influence over the direction of the country over everyone else. Shady systems of dark money funding and gerrymandering are common and pretty much expected at this point.
I don't really put the problems caused by the scheming of the mega-rich and the political class on the heads of people who are, by and large, just trying to get by.
And yeah, we've found out how horrible a person Mother Theresa is years ago, and even if a person isn't horrible, every flaw and mistake they've ever made is going to come to light and be hammered on endlessly if they try to effect real change that subverts the will of the ruling class. Heroes depend, to some extent, on public ignorance to boost the mythic nature of their image, and the general trend of the information age is toward all-encompassing knowledge about the world around us. While things are rough right now, I've told people before that, in general, it's less that the world is becoming worse in the 21st century (it's not) and more that all the horrible things that happen every day are becoming known to everyone. Which, in the long run, is probably a good thing. Problems don't disappear in the darkness; they fester and become more extreme without moderating forces. You can think of this as global humanity's coming-of-age: exiting the warm glow of the pre-information age childhood, where trusted authorities told us what to know, and stepping into the adulthood of the modern age, where the media lies to you, the world is a far more broken place than you realized, and you realize the extent of your own powerlessness on the national and global stage.
It's a crazy time right now. Commercial space flight taking its next big step. Protesters burning down cities across America, which may or may not be instigated by "left wing anarchists" or "white supremacists," depending on who you listen to. This virus hasn't just gone away, even if it feels like people have somehow forgotten that gathering in large groups right now is a really, really bad idea and will end up hurting everyone, regardless of how many masks are worn.
Maybe some random hacktivists taking down police websites and peddling conspiracy theories on Twitter just aren't the top billing of the day right now?
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