Thread by @SethAbramson

I have a lot of competing thoughts about the Rittenhouse trial, but I will say this: if you're crossing state lines to be at the site of a protest to render medical aid or wash graffiti off a wall or alert police to dangerous situations, what the f*** are you doing with an AR-15?

Rittenhouse wanted to be a tough guy the far-right Proud Boys would respect. He wanted to make a statement to “the left” consistent with the Proud Boy cry, “Whose streets? Our streets!” He had a cover story that was a *lie*—being an EMT—but he was there to Be a (Far-Right) “Man.”

If he’s acquitted of the most serious charges—as I expect he will be—it’ll be because jurors have no sympathy for those of any political view who decide that a protest can include violence, arson, destruction of property, and threats. Americans have little sympathy for that idea.

I don’t think the verdict in this case will have anything to do with Jacob Blake or corrupt policing. It will be about Americans being sick of protests that get out of hand. In essence, Rittenhouse may be saved by the very circumstances he willingly and stupidly put himself into.

I contrast this to the ongoing McMichael case. That was a straight-up execution of an innocent Black man (Ahmaud Arbery). If there’s an acquittal in *that* case, in my view it’s 100% about how America values—or doesn’t—Black lives.

But I believe that case will end in conviction.

What I think raises the temperature of the Rittenhouse case substantially is not just that it arose from a protest over the shooting of Blake but that the defendant has some Proud Boy affiliations and America believes Proud Boys are getting off easy for January 6—which many are.

Personally I am sickened by anyone who engages in violence or arson or destruction of property or threats during a protest. And I am *just as sickened* by anyone who shows up to a protest with an AR-15 acting like they don’t know what that’ll lead to, when they most certainly do.

When unarmed Black men are killed by police contrary to any and all SOPs, sustained mass protest is *well* warranted.

The problem is that then a bunch of white anarchists show up to use Black misery and suffering as a canvas for their political awakening. That makes me so angry.

I support BLM and BLM protests. And just like BLM, I *don’t* support such protests being hijacked by white anarchists looking for an excuse to do violence and destroy property and threaten people.

Rittenhouse is a PoS who *may* get off because anarchists exploit Black suffering.

To be very clear—and to dip into what I realize is “not all anarchists” rhetoric—I absolutely recognize that there are many peaceful anarchists who earnestly hold a philosophy with relation to institutions and governments that does not in any way depend upon violence of any kind.

But for the last year I’ve watched BLM protests of unimpeachable righteousness be dragged into chaos and madness by white men who have nothing to do with BLM and who are almost uniformly white. And it makes me so angry. If/when Rittenhouse is acquitted, my anger will only deepen.

If our country was in a healthy place, the right would be telling a PoS like Rittenhouse to stay the f*** away from protests that have nothing to do with him and to never go armed in a volatile situation. And the left would be telling white male anarchists to go f*** themselves.

But we are where we are. So the right valorizes Rittenhouse engaging in behavior no honorable person would ever engage in and those on my end of the political spectrum defend out-of-control protests—even when they’ve preposterously centered white men *at the demand of white men*.

So where I come down is that protests of bad policing should be massive, diverse, sustained, and peaceful. And the white men on both ends of the political spectrum who show up at them to f*** them up can go f*** themselves to eternity.

(Please excuse my language in this thread.)

(PS) I also want to be clear in saying that if Rittenhouse were Black, and if the protesters were Proud Boys rioting after Trump’s 2020 election defeat, Rittenhouse would be convicted.

In that respect I *agree wholeheartedly* that race is a key component in the Rittenhouse case.

(PS2) The complication is that just because a “Black Rittenhouse” would be convicted—as he would be—*doesn’t* mean a conviction would be warranted in *that* scenario. This is a distinction I fear many will miss: it may be that a conviction can’t be sustained in *either* scenario.

(PS3) I recognize I may lose some followers for this thread. Please understand that I’ll never say anything on this feed but what I earnestly believe—and that I’ll never decide what to say or not say on the basis of how I think it will be received. Life is too short to be a liar.

(PS4) I’ll now return to playing “Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2” on my phone. It’s ranked #11 on RETRO’s “The Definitive Top 100: Best NES Games Never Released in America” (a curation of assessments from 120+ industry outlets and experts).