Hello All,
I wasn’t going to comment further on this thread as after seeing a basically positive message on Seiberton’s part degenerate into some of what I’ve seen here has been disheartening, but I was compelled to share some thoughts as I have engaged a few of my friends on these subjects who I feel are being misled in similar ways.
I want to send shout-outs to ZeroWolf, Z3ROhour, Wheelimus Prime, gothsaurus, firefox91, Short Circuit, Glarryg, SirWhozit, shawnmct, High Command, Che, and others for their posts on this topic that is a central concern for so many. Honestly, to voice support for justice and equality in the form of “Black Lives Matter” as Ryan has done should not be controversial. But here we are.
To others on this thread who criticize this and voice discontent or disagreement with Ryan’s sentiment, let me simply say, I may not share your views, but I appreciate your right to share your views, and indeed, I would fight for that right to remain protected.
However, I have been troubled by much of what I have heard used as justification for those views, and I have heard the parroting of right-wing talking points by pundits such as Tucker Carlson, Tim Pool, and others who make a tidy living by either spreading outright falsehoods, or taking outlying and isolated incidents and amplifying them into a narrative that they have had an integral part in crafting for a long time.
It is the narrative of the “culture war.”
It is a narrative that de-legitimizes so many legitimate calls for reform, and too many legitimate sources of information that provide the statistical data to support those calls, by causing the discourse to degenerate into a largely imaginary conversation about “PC” culture.
It is a narrative that powerful individuals such as Putin and Jinping delight in seeing, as it grows like a malignant tumor and pries open fissures in democratic societies that allow for a weakening of institutions and the very systems that allow a country to be a functioning democracy.
Now I know how some of this may sound. “Outlying and isolated incidents? Then why am I seeing SO MANY examples of ‘extreme’ behavior from groups like ANTIFA and BLM?”
Are you?
There has been an awful lot of misinformation going around. I have seen false claims made about Floyd’s death, the protests, and even conspiracy theories coming out of the White House about the elderly man assaulted by police in Buffalo falsely having connections to ANTIFA.
The right-wing talking heads have jumped all over these claims. But that’s nothing new. Pool in particular cherry-picks incidents either on YouTube (a questionable source of information, to put it mildly) and tabloids like The Daily Mail to feed a right-wing subscriber group that lives for this sort of confirmation bias.
He and others have also, sometimes knowingly, enthusiastically amplified rumors and false claims about BLM and ANTIFA to feed this narrative.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ ... e-n1222486Pool himself has either parroted right-wing talking points or jumped on “stories” that have turned out to be spectacular hoaxes.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/poli ... 993799002/This isn't surprising, as Pool attended a White House summit for right-wing media figures at the invitation of President Trump:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7q ... hite-houseThink carefully about what he and others are doing. He claims to be a “liberal” and yet always seems to criticize anything associated with “the left” and will often only mutedly say he doesn’t agree with something on the right and then get back to ranting against anything that he calls “leftist.” Dave Rubin does much the same. Both seem to operate inside a right-wing media apparatus that amplifies culture war talking points either to directly profit from an audience that lives for it or see their political agenda forwarded by either encouraging people to vote against their interests or encouraging enough dissatisfaction for representatives they otherwise would vote for so that they don’t show up at the ballot box.
The marrying of BLM to the culture war narrative is a tactic many have used to try and de-legitimize the BLM movement. It’s very insidious. One of the best “Decepticon” plots I’ve seen. Foment false doubt about the movement and its goals, all the while claiming you agree with or “sympathize” with it “in spirit,” but doing nothing to look at actual problems with policing and the treatment of black citizens by police. Falsely claim that the movement has been “hijacked” by “extremist forces” which means you “can’t in good conscience support it,” and convince others to do the same. Mission accomplished. Others who would otherwise be supportive of the BLM movement now voice opposition to it, and the fissures deepen. We, here on this thread, instead of comforting and showing solidarity for the black members of our community who may be hurting right now, degenerate into hostility and spread the same false claims. And pundits like Pool laugh all the way to the bank as subscriptions and ad revenues increase.
Others like him have done so before and there will likely be others after him doing the same thing. Pool is basically Ann Coulter in a beanie.
(Although interesting note, Coulter herself has actually criticized Trump severely, and voiced support for causes close to the BLM movement).
I know the “whataboutism” that will come out of this. “If BLM and ANTIFA ‘rioters’ are truly ‘outliers,’ why don’t you have the same view of the police?” I do. However, I recognize that the mechanisms that exist in the law (such as qualified immunity) and the way that those outlying officers are allowed to continue to abuse their power, even after multiple complaints against them, are unjust and must change. Calling for accountability from a decentralized protest movement in the same way is a false equivalency.
“What about ‘black-on-black’ crime?” What about it? The BLM movement is about a changing police practices. “Black-on-black” crime is not their focus. And to suggest it should be reveals a disturbing perception of “criminality” among black people and the extent to which the community “must be held responsible” for it. Do we view “white-on-white” crime the same way? Why are we asking this of the BLM movement?
“What about David Dorn? What about black people who have been negatively affected by rioting?” Terrible, of course. And many have come out publicly to urge calm. Look at “Killer” Mike Render’s impassioned plea to the citizens of Atlanta to not let their anger at police brutality spill out into violence.
But it’s important to note that BLM has come out overwhelming in protests that were and are peaceful, and has condemned violence. Many questions have also been raised as to just who is responsible for protests turning violent. And fake sites have been reported to be spreading messages falsely attributed to BLM.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... r-saturdayhttps://www.dazeddigital.com/science-te ... r-protestshttps://www.bbc.com/news/52877751https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/t ... r-n1221456https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... ning-riot/I could go on, but I won’t. I’m sure there are plenty of other “whatabouts” I could address here, and many who want to respond to what I’m saying with more, but I just don’t have the time or energy to devote to this. It’s the same reason I’m sorry to say that I will be unsubscribing from this thread after this post. It means I will not be able to see messages in support of this and arguments against it in equal measure. I have other responsibilities in my life that I have to attend to. But I wanted to make this contribution, for what it’s worth.
I would caution everyone who talks about the “mainstream media” being “fake” to really understand what that means. It means de-legitimizing professional journalism and creating an environment where we cannot agree on what should be shared, objective truth. It’s also hypocritical, as this attitude only seems to apply to certain media sources and not others (such as FOX).
Is the media perfect? Of course not. Does bias exist? Certainly. But the vast majority of real reporting out there is reputable, and turning to YouTube pundits for “the truth” is both damaging to dialogue and our ability to distinguish objective reality. It’s also exactly what those pundits want, because their wealth and influence increases as the reputable journalism we should be turning to dies in the process.
(Side note: I read The Economist, Foreign Affairs and look for headlines at Reuters.com. If you want real, well-informed centrist reporting and commentary, I would recommend those sources.)
All the while our attention has turned away from the real issue. For too long, black communities have been unjustly maligned and targeted by law enforcement, and reform is desperately needed. That’s what’s being asked for here. Please remember that. Black people’s lives are literally depending on it.
Please take care of yourselves and each other.
Till all are one!
#BlackLivesMatter
