My take on looting is the Covid relief bill gave out a single $1,200 check to struggling people and a $500b slush fund with no oversight for corporations and billionaires.
I’d rather not see unrest and riot and looting, and so I recommend standing firmly against the structural generational corruption, injustice, terror, theft, and bigotry that make these things inevitable. If you oppose only the act of riot you oppose only consequence, not cause.
Not a bit. Our society has no trouble connecting dots between property and owners. It’s designed for that as a first priority.
Our society has trouble connecting the dots between prioritizing property rights over human lives, and riots.
Our society has trouble connecting the dots between prioritizing property rights over human lives, and riots.
A riot isn’t meant to make things better. It’s the result of a country in which the people who wield the power to make things better and therefore bear the responsibility for doing so had 1,000 opportunities to make things better and opted not to.
Scolding rioters for “not making things better” is a category error. Rioters live in a country where things have been made so much worse for them for them for so long by people who could have made it better but refused that now they determine to spread some of that worse around.
A riot is an indictment against a society that subjects so many to structural generational injustice, terror, theft, and death.
They aren't helping? They're the victims. This is the result of what's been done to them. How is it helping to make the solution their responsibility?
They aren't helping? They're the victims. This is the result of what's been done to them. How is it helping to make the solution their responsibility?
It's the sign of a country built on imbalance, that we put all the responsibility for fixing that imbalance, not upon ourselves, who benefited from it, but on those who have suffered from it.
The thing about imbalance is, it falls.
Minneapolis isn't unique.
We need to change.
The thing about imbalance is, it falls.
Minneapolis isn't unique.
We need to change.
Instead so frequently what we do is engage in demonstration, not to protest that the streets have been stolen from us, but to demonstrate that they are completely ours.
I'm including myself in this 'we,' even though I oppose it. The same imbalance that shields them shields me.
I'm including myself in this 'we,' even though I oppose it. The same imbalance that shields them shields me.
We riot, not as the voice of the heard, but as the voice of the flagrantly heard.
Not because of how much has been stolen from us, but to demonstrate that we know all property is ours.
We riot over recreation. Sports.
Not because of how much has been stolen from us, but to demonstrate that we know all property is ours.
We riot over recreation. Sports.
No sports team rioter was ever threatened with massacre by the president of the United States. White armed rebellion was ended peacefully.
We are a country aligned with imbalance. We need to re-align, and catch our balance.
Imbalance falls.
Unsustainable things don't sustain.
We are a country aligned with imbalance. We need to re-align, and catch our balance.
Imbalance falls.
Unsustainable things don't sustain.
And then there's this excellent point.
The Cliven Bundy standoff.
This is a valid critique, as is the reminder that the violence is usually not instigated by protesters.
And of course it's true that people have agency.
I hope to highlight the alignment of power with systemic unjust imbalance—the prime cause of unrest.
And of course it's true that people have agency.
I hope to highlight the alignment of power with systemic unjust imbalance—the prime cause of unrest.
