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Minor Deity |
Sorry, rambled again - and (worse) edited while writing.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana  |
Hmmm. Well I guess I should try to explain myself. First, some background. I've spent the last 4 months trying to administer CARES funding to people. We have employees who've been waiting FOUR months and still haven't received a single dime from that program, which has actually expired. One of the main reasons for the delay is antiquated systems that weren't equipped to handle the deluge that the pandemic, furloughs, and unemployment have caused. Funding is complicated, but a significant problem comes from the tax-cutting that has happened under (predominantly) GOP leadership. So I've been getting an earful from people who are really, significantly, hurting--worried about losing their home, unable to pay rent, unable to figure out a way to go back to work because there is no child care and the schools are closed. These are real issues that I am dealing with every day. Trump's latest exec order (the infamous $300 week) is only going to be available to people who are already getting more than $100/week in unemployment insurance--which means that these are people who are already earning around $42K a year. Not a lot, granted, but what about the truly underpaid employees? They will get nothing. Toss in what I see and hear about every night, in terms of the protests downtown, and how they're being turned into a showcase for Trump (and being escalated by his right-wing supporters in order to provide that showcase). Now we have ANOTHER unarmed black man shot in the back multiple times, while a very highly armed white teenager who actually shot and killed people was allowed to saunter past multiple police and go home and sleep in his bed that night. This. Is. Wrong. I don't care if the people protesting it are not doing it the right way. I don't find it amusing, I don't feel the need to offer up some sort of middle of the road, bipartisan view. This. Is. Wrong. It's not a game, it's not politics as theater. It's affecting real people every day. So yeah, I get a bit tired of being told that people protesting our current administration aren't doing it the right way. I feel like there are lots of people who are more upset about things like protests than are upset by people being killed, or thrown out of their houses. I'm not saying that's what anyone here believes. I'm trying to explain why I just sort of snapped, and I probably haven't explained things well. But until these systemic issues are dealt with, I don't really care if people aren't protesting politely. So, back to work (literally and figuratively). | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
+1
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
+1 | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
+2 My theory, ugly though it may be, is that many people don't care about the latter, because it doesn't affect their daily lives, whereas at the same time, feel aggrieved and threatened by the former, because their perception of the true nature of these events is lacking. | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Awesome post. Thank you. | |||
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
By 'narrative' I mean the moral framework through which media companies and consumers filter and interpret the news, usually as facile as deciding who the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' are. So when I speak of "an appeal to stick to the narrative", I mean a desire to limit or avoid discussion of events which introduce nuance or moral ambiguity into a situation which one wishes to see as essentially black and white. (probably not the best metaphor - lol)
Politically, at least, I post on broadly the same two themes in both forums. One is something like 'Trumpism is a danger to the republic and must be stopped' and the other is something like 'The post-liberal left is a danger to the republic and must be stopped'. In each forum everyone seems to like one or the other topic, only a tiny handful seem genuinely sympathetic to both.
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)| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Don Lemon called this the Democratic 'blind spot' the other day.
https://thehill.com/homenews/m...ws-up-in-the-polling If the convention was any guide, the Trump campaign thinks the rioting is a potentially winning issue for them. The Biden campaign's polling may agree, if the noises they've made in the last few days are any indication. I just hope it's not too late.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana |
I agree, the violent protests aren't helping. That's one of the reasons why I keep harping on the whole "false flag" narrative--because from what I've seen and heard reported here, a significant amount of violence is coming from far right so-called patriots or anarchists (NOT antifa). They are the ones who are instigating much of the violence here, who are looting and destroying things. It is playing right into Trump's hand. Most of the local BLM type organized protest groups have denounced the violence and begged people to stop. You can see self-policing happening, with people trying to de-escalate the situation. But if your goal is to incite violence, and that's the primary, if not sole, reason why Proud Boys, Boogaloo, Patriot Prayer groups are here, well they will. And doesn't it make for great TV?  | |||
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| "I've got morons on my team." Mitt Romney Minor Deity  |
The likelihood that the protesters I posted to start the thread, the ones harassing diners, is a false flag operation is essentially zero. Shushing people who point this out, or calling them uncaring, leads to sane, sensible, and otherwise sympathetic people moving away from "the movement." Carry on. | |||
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Or it leads to silence out of fear of social repercussions. Who wants to be viewed as “on the wrong side of history?” Then next thing you know we all just sit around and pretend the bad **** isn’t happening and Trump runs the table because our politicians won’t condemn it.
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| "I've got morons on my team." Mitt Romney Minor Deity |
Where's that dinosaur emoticon ... that's us.  | |||
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana |
Agreed, which is why I clarified to include "looting and destroying things," not just getting into someone's face. I don't think that the super-aggressive protests targeted at individuals like the diner you posted are helping, either. But I'm trying to make the point that there's a big chasm between getting in someone's face and looting, destroying property, assault or shooting someone. If you want to argue the thin edge of the razor, sure, getting in someone's face, if you touch them, is assault. Punching someone and putting them into the hospital is also assault. I won't argue that point, if you were getting ready to make it. | |||
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| "I've got morons on my team." Mitt Romney Minor Deity |
If I had been the diner, I suspect one of the yelling protesters might have needed nose reconstruction surgery, and things might have gone quickly downhill for me afterward. Aggression can lead to counter-aggression. Anger is a powerful emotion. | |||
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