Blm?

[TheZZMan Moderator Member of the Month Sept 2018PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close TheZZMan]

Its obviously not safe to be a statue these days here in the USA. Doesn't matter, if you are cast in bronze, your coming down. Its like some sort of badge of honor that you toppled another statue.

Does any of this make sense? This is "Occupy Wall Street" on steroids except they are burning shit down, looting every business and creating "zones" where there is no law enforcement what so ever. What does Black Lives Matter have to do with stealing 60" TV's from Walmart? Is it justified based on reparations? I saw one gal on TV justifying looting of a store because they had insurance to cover the losses. All these fools did was drive businesses away from an already depressed area where they will never come back. They call them "food deserts" where no one wants to have a business and those that did, will not return.

When did the "woke" generation suddenly see that the order of law was not needed anymore? These rich woke kids will eventually go back to their neighborhoods while these poor burnt down areas will never recover. Really sad if you ask me, really sad.

[Ultimate Burrito Moderator Member of the Month Oct 2017PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close Ultimate Burrito]

Hey everyone, I know that this can be a passionate topic like some of the political threads . Let's keep the discussions respectful and clean. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the forum rules in the START HERE section if in doubt. Let's have a healthy discussion here .

[Party Senior Member Member of the Month August 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close Party]

Hi. ZZ. Miss you. But really no way to respond to this.

[closed297 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close closed297]

Yeah i best not speak of this

[Joker9125 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Joker9125]

BLM isn't the problem here.

BLM has been co-opted by revolutionary communists. I've been tracking the root cause of the current rioting and looting for several years now and it's an extremely complicated topic that's taken me a lot of personal study to begin to grasp. The short story is that the rioting has nothing to do with BLM. That's right, Absolutely nothing. BLM is a convenient cover for another group of radicals with a different agenda. What happens is that a protest is organized and normal, well intentioned people are encouraged to participate, people are encouraged to wear all black and cover their faces. These normal people inadvertently provide cover for outside agitators to commit crimes under the guise of protesting police brutality. And when I say "outside" I mean from out of town and in several cases out of state.

If you want more information on this rabbit hole there is a recent Joe Rogan interview with a guy named James Lindsay. I suggest you watch it.

[Johnny D ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close Johnny D]

I think of BLM as 3 completely different things:
1. An organization - blm.com
2. A movement - Equity and exposing systemic issues
3. A thing people say - Including rioters and looters

There are many people who don't understand #1 or #2 at all but just keep saying the words. This could be well-meaning people (ignorant woke folk who think it's about how everybody is a racist), or bad actors (knuckleheads exploiting a situation for their own gain but claiming that it's a form of expression).

I have a big gripe with #1 - BLM, the organization - and it's that they don't appear to be providing much education to meaningfully discuss systemic and cultural issues and they seem to perpetrate a willful ignorance of important facts. They've become polarized and agenda-driven, similar to major political parties. On top of that, I have yet to see them condone looting and rioting. I've seen a few local BLM groups do that but I haven't seen anything from blm.com to that effect. If people are rioting in the name of black lives matter and BLM doesn't condone it, eventually it's hard not to believe that they support it.

[not2big Senior Super ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close not2big]

As with most controversial movements, the outliers get the most publicity.

[madyogi Moderator Member of the Month April 2020PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close madyogi]

I think of BLM as 3 completely different things:
1. An organization - blm.com
2. A movement - Equity and exposing systemic issues
3. A thing people say - Including rioters and looters

There are many people who don't understand #1 or #2 at all but just keep saying the words. This could be well-meaning people (ignorant woke folk who think it's about how everybody is a racist), or bad actors (knuckleheads exploiting a situation for their own gain but claiming that it's a form of expression).

I have a big gripe with #1 - BLM, the organization - and it's that they don't appear to be providing much education to meaningfully discuss systemic and cultural issues and they seem to perpetrate a willful ignorance of important facts. They've become polarized and agenda-driven, similar to major political parties. On top of that, I have yet to see them condone looting and rioting. I've seen a few local BLM groups do that but I haven't seen anything from blm.com to that effect. If people are rioting in the name of black lives matter and BLM doesn't condone it, eventually it's hard not to believe that they support it.

I'd agree with most of this. I assume you mean you have yet to see them speak out against looting and rioting? Condone would be to agree with the looting and rioting. To be fair, I did see a decent amount of coverage of people in the early protests who were trying to calm the looters/rioters, not that they were necessarily part of the "organization".

I tend to think of myself as part of #2, but from afar ... understanding the systemic problems and hoping for some fixes, but not necessarily actively involved. #1 seems pretty unhelpful on balance. #3 tends to look like opportunistic criminals taking advantage of chaos and/or people doing woke virtue signaling, like you said.

I do agree with not2big, the crazies will get the most publicity, and those who don't pay attention (or who are looking to confirm their biases) are likely to assume they represent the entire movement.

[getinbig Senior Member Member of the Month March 2015 Find all posts View Profile Close getinbig]

BLM isn't the problem here.

BLM has been co-opted by revolutionary communists. I've been tracking the root cause of the current rioting and looting for several years now and it's an extremely complicated topic that's taken me a lot of personal study to begin to grasp. The short story is that the rioting has nothing to do with BLM. That's right, Absolutely nothing. BLM is a convenient cover for another group of radicals with a different agenda. What happens is that a protest is organized and normal, well intentioned people are encouraged to participate, people are encouraged to wear all black and cover their faces. These normal people inadvertently provide cover for outside agitators to commit crimes under the guise of protesting police brutality. And when I say "outside" I mean from out of town and in several cases out of state.

If you want more information on this rabbit hole there is a recent Joe Rogan interview with a guy named James Lindsay. I suggest you watch it.

Because of the co-opting by revolutionary communists, it now has become the problem...and a serious one.

[getinbig Senior Member Member of the Month March 2015 Find all posts View Profile Close getinbig]

Its obviously not safe to be a statue these days here in the USA. Doesn't matter, if you are cast in bronze, your coming down. Its like some sort of badge of honor that you toppled another statue.

Does any of this make sense? This is "Occupy Wall Street" on steroids except they are burning shit down, looting every business and creating "zones" where there is no law enforcement what so ever. What does Black Lives Matter have to do with stealing 60" TV's from Walmart? Is it justified based on reparations? I saw one gal on TV justifying looting of a store because they had insurance to cover the losses. All these fools did was drive businesses away from an already depressed area where they will never come back. They call them "food deserts" where no one wants to have a business and those that did, will not return.

When did the "woke" generation suddenly see that the order of law was not needed anymore? These rich woke kids will eventually go back to their neighborhoods while these poor burnt down areas will never recover. Really sad if you ask me, really sad.

A lot of truth in this post...and it's very sad!

[SuperGuy Member Find all posts View Profile Close SuperGuy]

My main problem is that they don't appear to give any solution. They are protesting but if you ask protestors what their solution for the problem is they often give an obscure non-answer. The only tangible thing I've ever heard is "defund the police," which seems like a radical idea.

[madyogi Moderator Member of the Month April 2020PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close madyogi]

If you want more information on this rabbit hole there is a recent Joe Rogan interview with a guy named James Lindsay. I suggest you watch it.

JRE is one of the handful of things that keep me sane these days. There's also a great discussion with Bret Weinstein from a couple days before the James Lindsay one that is well worth the time. They discuss BLM, Covid, and an interesting potential solution to this shitty choice between Trump/Biden we are about to have to make.

[madyogi Moderator Member of the Month April 2020PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close madyogi]

My main problem is that they don't appear to give any solution. They are protesting but if you ask protestors what their solution for the problem is they often give an obscure non-answer. The only tangible thing I've ever heard is "defund the police," which seems like a radical idea.

I agree with this sentiment. It appears to me that the problem is real, and the frustration is legit, but the answers being put forth are either hollow talking points, or phrases intended to make others uncomfortable. Most of the "defund the police" proposals don't really mean getting rid of the police, btw. The messaging is just terrible.

I think the real problem is our corrupt political system that attracts people (of both parties) who aren't really interested in solving problems, or at least once they get into the system, actually solving problems is not at all incentivized and it does us all a disservice.

Search out the Joe Rogan convo with Bret Weinstein for a much longer conversation about this, and a potential solution.

[SuperGuy Member Find all posts View Profile Close SuperGuy]

I agree 100%. Seems like Republics/Democrats act more like sports teams than actual representatives. Hurting the other party even if it's bad for the nation chalks up to a win for these folks.

[Johnny D ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close Johnny D]

I assume you mean you have yet to see them speak out against looting and rioting? Condone would be to agree with the looting and rioting. To be fair, I did see a decent amount of coverage of people in the early protests who were trying to calm the looters/rioters, not that they were necessarily part of the "organization".

Correct. Mis-typed. I have yet to see them condemn the riotous acts and it's been far too long for them to not speak out against it. Again, I've seen various people and local organizations say something in response, but BLM, the organization, hasn't done so. Nothing on the web site. No tweets. Etc... If they don't condone it, they sure aren't acting that way.