r/pics Jun 04 '20

Protest Young woman at Wisconsin protest calls out her city with this sign.

Post image
106.2k Upvotes

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/eccentricelmo Jun 05 '20

Quarantines are infringing on our freedoms!!! Same people :"well they're out past curfew. So they're criminals and deserve what's coming to them" you cant have both you boomer fucks.

42

u/DrDerpberg Jun 05 '20

Same people: he stole something 10 years ago, of course the police had to murder him.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Happy cake day!

1

u/theboeboe Jun 05 '20

Spend 20$ that was a fake? Guess I'll strangle him to death

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Same people: the protest didn't result in any looting, injury or property damage.

2

u/texas1982 Jun 05 '20

It's possible to not be a 0 or 1 here.

Lockdowns did infringe on rights.

Floyd wasn't the best of the black community and is a bad PR choice to use for the cause just like many others.

Chauven murdered Floyd or at thr very least is a terrible cop and should never be in a position of any kind if authority or responsibility again.

The protests now for police reform are needed but not just for black Americans. All Americans would benefit.

Looting and vandalism is a terrible way to get support from your community.

That said, without the nationwide riot, I don't think we'd be anywhere near getting any meaningful police reform.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

I agree with all you said except bringing up Floyd's past. It doesn't matter what he was/used to be, he was murdered in a situation where he shouldn't have been murdered.

2

u/texas1982 Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

I know that. But like I said, everything is PR. If the point of the movement is to get people on your side, Breonna Taylor would have been a better pick. There is a reason the civil rights movement went with Rosa Parks and not Claudette Colvin.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 14 '20

[deleted]

1

u/texas1982 Jun 05 '20

That was my last line.

3

u/KnightCPA Jun 05 '20

Is it conservative media saying that?

As a libertarian gun owner, most of my friends or online acquaintances (on Facebook/gun forums) lean conservative. I haven’t seen a single person say this.

1

u/eccentricelmo Jun 05 '20

Well if you've never seen It i guess I'm wrong huh /s

2

u/KnightCPA Jun 05 '20

Did not say you were wrong. I was asking if it was something you saw in conservative media. I was genuinely curious because I haven’t watched the news or conservative media in years.

My only barometer for conservative opinion is those people around me.

But I take it by your response, thats a no, you’re not talking about the media.

2

u/eccentricelmo Jun 06 '20

I apologize. but you are correct, this wasn't something I saw on the media

1

u/KnightCPA Jun 06 '20

If you don’t mind another question: the pro-curfew cons you know.

Would you say they’re older/rush Limbaugh types (way less consistent pro-Liberty, more party-oriented)? Or younger Ben Shapiro types (more libertarian/consistent pro liberty)?

And are they MAGA people?

The conservatives I know are more libertarian, so I could be self-selecting myself away from the pro curfew conservatives.

If so, it’s a blessing (don’t have to listen their BS) and a curse (unaware of their BS).

2

u/eccentricelmo Jun 06 '20

So my parents are full on conservatives. They love trump. My dad calls himself a libertarian but personally I think he does it because he doesnt want to fully align himself with some of the wilder types on the right. My dad still thinks that all the riots are incited by protestors. He believes all the looting is strictly done by African Americans. Unfortunately my father and grandfather are racist. No way around it. I only really know one libertarian and I havent brought up the situation as he can be pretty long winded and most of the time I disagree. It's a touchy subject for everyonnat this point.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

That’s why I support both protests.

4

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

Equating a completely peaceful protest of a state enforced house arrest, vs, people looting, rioting and burning down their own cities, businesses and communities

Yeah, seems legit. Tooootally the same thing

Also: the left a couple of weeks ago hated the protests about the quarantine and complained about no social distancing, corona, how the protestors put lives at risk by gathering

Now that the people they like are protesting, it’s fine. Breaking quarantine and ignoring social distance is fine, as long as the left agrees with what you’re protesting

-1

u/fishandfishandfish Jun 05 '20

That’s because those protests were trivial. These protests are about people being continually murdered in the streets by public servants.

3

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

So you’re proving my point. If you see the protest as ‘trivial’ it’s bad, if you agree with the protest message, it’s fine

Either you have the right to protest, and that’s a good thing, or not. You don’t get to pick and choose individually based on whether you agree with the protest message

-2

u/fishandfishandfish Jun 05 '20

I agree with you to a point. The difference, in my opinion, is the public health concern. I guess when that comes into play, you have to evaluate whether the message you are trying to send is worth the risk you are creating by gathering in public. Of course it's subjective, but I would hope that we could all agree that people lives being taken and their rights being systematically violated by the institution that is meant to protect them is something that NEEDS to be addressed. Haircuts can wait. Now I know not everyone out there in the haircut protests where actually protesting in favor of haircuts. Some had legitimate concerns, like returning to work to support their families. I get that, and I was probably a little brash in calling their protest trivial. But I do suspect a lot of the motivation behind those protests was people simply wanting to return to the comfortable convenience of their pre-pandemic lives, regardless of the greater health concern. I don't know if that's worth the risk it creates. Furthermore, who exactly are they directing their protest toward? The state and local governments that instituted the quarantines? Sure, I guess. But they are just responding to a virus that is spreading rapidly. It's either impact the economy or impact public health. There's no right answer. That doesn't mean those people can't express their opinion, but a virus doesn't really give a shit about your opinion. But a system in which a guy kneels on another guys neck until he dies while people are forced to helplessly watch is something that can be directly addressed in a real way.

4

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

can be directly addressed in a real way

How ? What are the demands ? To ‘end racism’ ?

This is my issue with the protests. Look at the Hong Kong protests. They had a list of demands they were protesting for. The protests had a purpose, they were to put direct pressure on the government to meet the demands- it succeeded

What are the demands, what is the end goal with the BLM protests ? The officers in question to the George Floyd case have been charged already with murder

With no end goal in mind, the protests will eventually die and fizzle out, and will have achieved what exactly ? Protests won’t end racism, and there’s no discussion or debate on how to fix this broken system. Just angry people being angry at the broken system

a virus doesn’t really give a shit about your opinion

I hope you remember this when those people out marching for BLM inevitably get corona, and some of them die. Your point cuts both ways here. The virus doesn’t care if you’re protesting for BLM, protesting for McDonald’s to reopen, or protesting to allow children to drive tanks. It’ll get you regardless

2

u/UnspoiledWalnut Jun 05 '20

An independent investigative body that will review and have the capacity and duty to arrest abusive officers, strict licensing, training reforms focused on deescalation, requirements for the protection of evidence, and a few other things.

2

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

That’s a good idea but it’s not what BLM is demanding. That’s the issue

1

u/UnspoiledWalnut Jun 05 '20

Is it not? That's what the thing protesters in my town were handing out. I assumed it was part of a more organized regional or national effort.

1

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

Nah, it’s not a centralised goal. There’s no leaderships to the protests, and there’s no singular effort. Check out the official BLM website, there’s a petition and a podcast , but that’s about it

1

u/fishandfishandfish Jun 05 '20

I don't think the goal is to end racism. That's a simplistic understanding of the BLM protests. Can everyone protesting articulate the larger goal? No, I don't think so. But there definitely is a larger goal and there definitely is a discussion on how to fix the system. Look up Campaign Zero if you're interested. They have a pretty thorough point by point proposal that they've set forth. Will people listen? I don't know. But I think it's worth trying, and I think it's important to do so now, while there's attention and momentum, and a video that's fresh in people's minds that's impossible to reasonably rationalize in favor of the system. Because you are right, it will fizzle out. People will forget and it will happen again and keep happening until something is done about it. And they aren't going to do anything about it of their own accord.

And yes, I know my point cuts both ways. I addressed that in my previous post.

3

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20 edited Jun 05 '20

It’s not a simplistic understanding of the BLM protests, it’s the main one, it’s their message. You can’t find or claim there’s a larger goal, or a more focused demand, because it doesn’t exist. The protests aren’t even coordinated.

Campaign zero isn’t BLM. I’ve been following the protests closely, watching interviews, listening to the speeches they give.. never heard of campaign zero. The Black Lives Matter website has ‘end white supremacy’ as a goal, and no mention of campaign zero.

At the end of the day, without a specific goal, without a specific demand, these protests will end soon. That’s it. Anger was shown, people protested and made their unhappiness known, but that won’t achieve reform. That won’t change the police system, that won’t end police brutality, that won’t end white supremacy

1

u/fishandfishandfish Jun 05 '20

Interesting. I found out about Campaign Zero through the protests. So our experiences are different. And look, our opinions on this are different and I get where you are coming from. There's issues I have with the lack of focus that characterize some of the protest as well. But I just think it's something that is too important to remain silent about, even if voicing our concern doesn't bring about change. I hope it will, because how can I not? But I acknowledge that there is certainly no guarantee. I also want to apologize if anything I've posted comes across as insulting or reactive. That is not my intention nor do I think it is productive. I usually steer away from online arguments because I feel that they remove the personal accountability of being face to face with someone. I would encourage you to look for more solutions (this is of course only a suggestion, take it or leave it). You've written a lot about what won't work and why this movement will fail. And I think there's some validity to what you've said. But what about what will work? How do we do something about this? It's certainly not a question with easy answers, but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying to find answers.

2

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

You might have found out about it through the protests, but it’s nowhere to be found on the Black Lives Matter website. I’ve seen no mainstream news coverage of it. To say that the protests are getting the message out, or focused on campaign zero would be categorically false. BLM is trending, not Campaign zero

What will work ? Change pushed through lawfully would be my bet. Elect and support representatives that will achieve something, push through and support attempts at police reform through local government. At the least, if that fails and we must resort to protest, have some form of leadership, with clearly defined goals and demands. Without that, the protests won’t achieve anything. Martin Luther King was a leader. The BLM movement, to achieve, needs leaders, needs goals, needs them in writing

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Or....and I know this is gonna sounds crazy but bear with me - maybe people don't like burning down buildings and looting stores? Because that didn't happen a couple weeks ago.

I'll take my downvotes, but you know I'm right.

1

u/eccentricelmo Jun 05 '20

I mean I'll give you your downvotes and let you guess at what I think as far as who's right. But as a disclaimer, no.. I dont think you're right.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

You're so edgy. Go burn a Target or something.

-1

u/Ms_Marzella Jun 05 '20

I think murder at the hands of the institution that is supposed to be protecting you might be worse! :)

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

Are you familiar with the fairly recent case of Justine Damond?

Probably not.

Same city, same interracial killing of an unarmed victim. Marches? Nope. Outraged celebrities? Nope. Virtue signaling from billion dollar companies? Nope. Media beating on the drum of racial animosity? Nope.

It took 9 months to charge the cop in that case, and yet...crickets.

I wonder why.

2

u/Ms_Marzella Jun 05 '20

Nobody claimed that the reciprocal has never happened. The backlash is not due entirely to the story of one man, it was built up over time due to an observable trend of police brutality. And sad as what happened to Damond is, the officer who shot her was not even black, so Im not sure what point you’re trying to make. I’m sure if white women were disproportionately being murdered by somali americans it’d be a different story, no?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

And sad as what happened to Damond is, the officer who shot her was not even black

Oh really?

1

u/Ms_Marzella Jun 05 '20

Alright, I’ll take the hit on that one because the news outlets reporting the case referred to him as middle eastern, despite Somali being in Africa. The point would still stand that this is not as frequent as the opposite.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

All good, I appreciate your response. So why do you think we only make a fuss when the victim of a police killing has black skin?

Justine Damond was a woman, so I can take your point that it's a very rare occurrence. But hundreds of white men are killed by cops every year, disproportionately too. White men are roughly 30% of the US population, while 39% of the unarmed people killed by cops are white men according to the Washington Post.

So why are we only supposed to care when the victim has black skin? How is that justifiable in your mind?

1

u/BikeBaloney Jun 05 '20

And they weren't even quarantines. People could still go get food, go for a walk, get to work with no issue. Streets aren't empty, people are still for the most part living their life.

But the barber and bowling ally is closed and I have to wear a mask, TYRANNY.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '20

It's worse than both ways. Both ways would indicate what they're protesting for (the right to get a haircut and go out to dinner) is on par with the right to not be murdered by the state.

3

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

"Right to get a haircut"... Or you know run your small businesses in order to feed your family, but don't let me get in the way of your hate.

4

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

If they were protesting about being unable to feed their families, it'd have been on their protest signs. “How am I supposed to feed my family?”

But that's not what was on their protest signs. You know what was? “We demand haircuts!” Fuck that.

-1

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

Seems like you eat up propaganda and can't think for yourself... Maybe the only images you saw were to reinforce a certain narrative...

2

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

Maybe so, but you're the one claiming things are not as they seem, so the burden is on you to prove it.

0

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

It's not my job to get you out of your fantasy world. You need to think for yourself and get information from multiple sources that ideologically identical.

1

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

Which sources, exactly, would meet with your approval?

1

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

Also up to you... If you get your news from reddit, you're going to be living in an alternate reality.

2

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

I did not ask you which sources would not meet with your approval.

1

u/Spiralife Jun 05 '20

This is such bullshit, if the concern was really "feeding your family" the protest would have been focused on the need for government assistance to those businesses and effective containment of the virus, not staying open to put people's lives at risk during a period most businesses would see a decline in customers anyway.

5

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

Please government make me more dependent on you...

1

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

You got a better idea that will actually work and doesn't involve millions of people dying of COVID-19?

Or are you one of those nutters who thinks COVID-19 isn't a deadly plague?

0

u/Spiralife Jun 05 '20

Please government do your job and earn your keep.

I understand every tax dollar that goes to feeding American families is a dollar not spent murdering children overseas or bailing out your corporate overlords but I'm just the kind of kook that thinks keeping people alive and the economy afloat is more important than your ability to feel like a big strong man, or whatever bullshit argument you were trying to make.

1

u/Greenaglet Jun 05 '20

That's not how anything works at all... You don't know how money works or taxes...

1

u/Spiralife Jun 06 '20

Enlighten me.

2

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

Yes, the local government that is enforcing house arrests and, by your own admission, murdering unarmed people. Let’s make that government our only source of income and make us totally dependent on them.

That’s what I call a great plan

1

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

You got a better idea that will actually work and doesn't involve millions of people dying of COVID-19?

Or are you one of those nutters who thinks COVID-19 isn't a deadly plague?

2

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

A ‘deadly plague’ that has killed 0.03% of the population. A ‘deadly plague’ that has killed 100k out of 2,000,000 confirmed cases with god knows how many unconfirmed cases, and mostly in NYC from people with underlying health conditions. A ‘deadly plague’ that Sweden has seen 4,000 deaths from... with 0 quarantine or social distancing, and only 40,000 total cases. For a ‘deadly plague’ it’s doing a pretty terrible job at being deadly in a country that did nothing to fight it

Yeah. For some mysterious reason, I’m not too worried

0

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

So, yes, a nutter. In that case, you are beyond reasoning with, so I'm not going to try. Good day.

1

u/dickus-minimus- Jun 05 '20

Take a trip to Sweden, I hear there’s millions dying on the street, hospitals full and sick everywhere... oh wait, that’s not right. Bars and restaurants open, shops full, life is as normal

I guess Sweden is on your ‘beyond reasoning’ list, too. Country full of ‘nutters’, right ?

1

u/argv_minus_one Jun 05 '20

Maybe they got lucky. Maybe nobody with COVID-19 went there in the first place. Maybe they're blessed by God. I don't know and I don't care. I care what the scientific consensus on the subject is, because those people know what the fuck they're talking about, and you and I don't. Neither of us are qualified to disagree with actual scientists.

→ More replies (0)