quash wrote:Opus131 wrote:And yes, Bernie Sanders should have stood up to those Black Lives Matters agitators. I can't even begin to comprehend how anyone would think it is ok to let bullies get away with their antics.
The hypocracy on this particular subject is staggering. This is a movement that caused
violent protests and, directly or indirectly, caused a
presidential candidate to make patently false claims in front of the world.
Just in this thread we've seen people condemning Trump for inciting violence and being statistically inaccurate. Yet when the dank memer does the same shit, not only does nobody make a stink about it, they turn around and defend him (with even more lies).
When your allegiances boil down to such an obvious blind trust in Democrats, can you blame anyone that refuses to be so dogmatic for not taking you seriously?
I can't believe I'm about to explain Black Lives Matter on a shmups enthusiast forum.
Have you ever seen the movie "Do the Right Thing?" The film takes place in a mostly black neighborhood in Brooklyn on the hottest day of summer and follows the main character of Mookie (played by Spike Lee) as he delivers pizza for Sal, a white Italian-American who owns the pizzeria on the block. The film is an exploration of the various complexities of racial relations in America, and if anything it comes down harder on African Americans. There are no heroes or villains in this movie. Sal and the community are friendly with each other, but there are definite barriers between them.
At the end of the movie a fight breaks out between Sal and Radio Raheem. The cops arrive and put Radio Raheem in a chokehold that kills him. Realizing what they've done, the cops panic, put Radio Raheem's body in their squad car, and take off, leaving Sal and his son facing the outraged crowd. Now Radio Raheem definitely was an instigator in this fight, but the cops used excessive force. I wish I could find the scene on Youtube where the crowd expresses their outrage at Sal that the cops "didn't have to kill the boy."
Sal shrugs and says "You do what you gotta do."
A quarter century later that movie and that scene is
still depressingly relevant today. Police use excessive force and kill an unarmed black teen and it's met by shrugs in the mainstream media. *shrug* "Oh well, he shouldn't have resisted arrest." Type "unarmed black killed by police" into Youtube and a parade of horrors fill up your screen. *shrug*
These constant shrugs in response to these constant outrages bring the implicit message that Black Lives Don't Matter.
Now let's turn the clock way back. In the 1960s Bernie Sanders took part in Chicago's first civil rights sit-in to protest segregated housing. Sit-ins like those are celebrated today but back then they were the considered incredibly rude. Can't they read the sign "No Blacks Allowed?" How rude! Why must they bully these hard-working business owners? But now with our 21st century hindsight we can see that their seemingly rude behavior was a necessary disruption to an intolerable
status quo that wasn't going to fix itself. *shrug*
So when the Black Lives matter people showed up to Bernie's rally, and he gave them the microphone, he wasn't being bullied by thugs. He knew what they were doing because he did the same thing himself when he was their age. When you're working as an activist, a common discussion that comes up is how you'll respond to future activists when you're older and in a position of greater power; would you sell out like a Hippie or would you do the right thing? I'd say Sanders passed that test with flying colors.
In short, if you're retorting, "Hey,
all lives matter!" then you're missing the point entirely.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.
An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.
Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
Maybe Tuesday will prove me wrong; I already voted though.
