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Marco Rogers Profile picture
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Jul 14 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Defunding IS different from reform. #DefundThePolice is an explicitly anti-reform platform. Reform usually results in more funds being allocated to police. Reallocate also leaves room for shenanigans. Defund the police. It means what it says.
That's why people hate it. That's why they're so sure it's a "terrible slogan". Precisely because it's harder to misinterpret, redirect, or water down.

You don't like it because you don't really want to defund the police. That's fine, but it ain't got shit to do with the name.
It IS an anti-cop movement. #DefundThePolice takes a very clear stance that reducing police interaction with the populace will result in less violence and less death. It also allows us to actually address the causes of crime through non-violent means.
I swear to gawd y'all. We are not misunderstanding each other. #DefundThePolice means exactly what it says. It's not a slogan or a metaphor or a euphemism. It's not a sneaky way of saying reform. It means reduce police budget and reduce policing accordingly. Full stop.
We know most people hate the idea of defunding police. We know most people can't actually imagine a world where we can actually feel safe with fewer police. It's gonna require a lot of time and a lot of patience to educate people enough to see it.
I tell you what though. Every time people have to watch more babies die, they become a little more open to the reality that more police is not the answer to feeling safe. The police themselves will continue to do this work for us.
The more you become open to the question, the closer you are to understanding the truth.

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More from @polotek

Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 14
Here's some simple advice. If you see something on here that makes you want to argue, post it on your own TL instead of replying. Instead of picking a fight with a random stranger, use it as an opportunity to express your own personal values to those who want to hear you.
Some of us may have to work on building this new habit. But it has so many nice benefits.
- Fewer shitty fights with random strangers
- The people who opt-ed into hearing from you will hear from you more often
- You may gain more followers and thus get more opportunity to influence people.
- Ideally you'll build a habit of self-reflection and thinking about how to speak your own values. Rather than only expressing them in opposition to others.
Read 5 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 13
"Defund the police has no real plan" is the same phenomenon as "Democrats never deliver results". Folks just really want to be spoon fed. They want big bang solutions that are neatly packaged. And it's just never going to be that way.
That's the real reason why it's difficult to build political movements. Why it creates so much apathy and disengagement. It's work. It takes actual work from everyone to figure out what we're gonna do and to get on board. It's not gonna get dropped in your lap.
I'm 41 years old. I say that only to illustrate a point about growth. I'm only now at the phase in my life where I'm really figuring this out. Many older folks already get it. It took them a lifetime to get it. But now they show up. Because that's what is required.
Read 4 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 12
I know this is a useless comment at this stage, but I still think it needs to be stated explicitly. Trolls and bots are the biggest reason that social media is toxic and harmful. A lot of other issues stem from and revolve around that.
There are many other problems. This stance isn't meant to minimize or dismiss a lot of other real and valid issues. But I believe those issues stem from humans being humans. The issue of fake people having outsized impact on public discourse is uniquely a social media problem.
We can't actually get the value of being more connected and having important conversations as a society. And the reason is that it's impossible to know which actors are fake. Some large set of people are only here to intentionally fuck shit up. And that population is amplified.
Read 11 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 10
This is so accurate. And I want to let this sentiment stand on its own before I go into a related thought. I have been damaged so much by people who didn't want to listen to me before and now want me to bail them out.
But this led me to another thought that I wanted to try to unpack. It's related to the thread from earlier as well. People hate hearing "I told you so" more than anything. And a person like me frequently gets interpreted that way. But that's just not it.
I don't have any interest in saying "I told you so". It's useless, it's counterproductive, it makes people feel bad. That's why people hate it, and I understand that.

But there is a different conversation that I think is *critical*: "Are we learning from this?"
Read 11 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 10
Right. This part.

And it has to come with the same message. Black people been knew this. We've been telling you how it goes. Now you're finding out.
When I say this, it's not really about saying "I told you so". It's not really about saying you should've listened to Black people. Although clearly you should.

What's it's really about is getting people to accept what has actually been happening to Black people for *decades*.
What is happening to everybody right now is what has been happening to us. It's the same. But when it was just us, white people told themselves it must not be that bad. There must be some reason for it. We must be doing something to deserve it.
Read 8 tweets
Marco Rogers Profile picture
Jul 9
It's not just working from home. There is a whole host of reasons in the article (linked in the thread). But it's fascinating anyway. We're in a weird time. Workers are re-evaluating what they're willing to put up with. I really want people to organize and take advantage of this.
I also have to be the party pooper though. All of this worker empowerment is not free. We will also have an impact on each other. A lot of things we take for granted are understaffed. They're going to be shitty for a while.
It turns out that the output of most work actually matters. And that's great for building leverage and sticking it to The Man. But what we're gonna find out is that it's pretty hard to stick it to *only* The Man. The decisions we make have impact on everybody.
Read 5 tweets

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