• Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This is an actual conversation I had with my oldest nephew when we went to the Boston Tea Party Museum last week.

    “If you ever hear people complaining that damaging commercial property during a protest is unacceptable, remember what you learn about the Tea Party today. Our country was literally founded on protests trashing commercial property. And remember that some people complained to them that it was unacceptable too.”

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The tea wasn’t owned by the mom and pop shop neighbors who were also fighting for the same cause. There is a difference to me in a large corporation sustaining damage it will recoupe from insurance and people trying to scrape by and now can’t afford rent until the hopefully if they had insurance, then maybe a check comes in a few months.

      Those places if a protestor breaks in during a riot I am fine with being shot at and even killed if need be. Your cause doesn’t give you the right to starve or put in jeopardy other people’s lives who did not choose to riot.

      • Stoneykins@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Owners are owners. I can’t have too much sympathy if a group of disenfranchised people, who have never had the opportunity to own anything, don’t distinguish between hyper capitalists and regular vanilla capitalists. Both are pieces of the system that denies people the value of their labor.

        • Ataraxia@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s exactly what the government wants. They want you to eat each other not them and the corporations. Stop buying shit, stop paying for internet and cell service, stop buying cars etc. That’s the real control we have. Just be idle and watch them bail.

    • HughJanus
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      1 year ago

      What a fucking asshole. Maybe your position will change when it’s your property that’s being destroyed.

      Destroying private property does not make politicians or police question their choices. It barely hurts them in any way. You know who it hurts? Your friends and neighbors who had abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with whatever it is you’re upset about.

      The Sons of Liberty only destroyed property that was directly responsible for their oppression.

      You wanna go burn down the mayor’s house? The police commissioner’s house? The police union HQ? Have the fuck at it, you have my full support.

      You wanna burn down the local convenience store or meat market? You wanna destroy vehicles and businesses that belong to your neighbors who are suffering alongside you? You’re human garbage.

      • Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Second verse, same as the first:

        "IIt was the Sons of Liberty who ransacked houses of British officials. Threats and intimidation were their weapons against tax collectors, causing many to flee town. Images of unpopular figures might be hanged and burned in effigy on the town’s liberty tree.

        Of course, the winners write the history books. Had the American Revolution failed, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty would no doubt be regarded as a band of thugs, or at the very least, outspoken troublemakers."

        https://www.ushistory.org/us/10b.asp#:~:text=It%20was%20the%20Sons%20of,on%20the%20town’s%20Liberty%20Tree.

        I’ll let Dr. King do the talking:

        “A riot is the language of the unheard. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention”

        https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/29/minneapolis-protest-martin-luther-king-quote-riot-george-floyd/5282486002/

        “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens’ “Councilor” or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direst action” who paternistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

        https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/letter-from-birmingham-jail

        • HughJanus
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          1 year ago

          Of course, the winners write the history books. Had the American Revolution failed, the Sons and Daughters of Liberty would no doubt be regarded as a band of thugs, or at the very least, outspoken troublemakers."

          So then you agree?

          “A riot is the language of the unheard. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

          Your mistake is conflating an explanation with a justification.

          the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice

          Maybe you glossed over the part where I supported disorder. The problem is with how and where (and not when, as you suggested) that disorder takes place.

          Remind me: did they burn down or steal from MLK’s church?

          • Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Third verse, same as the first:

            This is an actual conversation I had with my oldest nephew when we went to the Boston Tea Party Museum last week.

            “If you ever hear people complaining that damaging commercial property during a protest is unacceptable, remember what you learn about the Tea Party today. Our country was literally founded on protests trashing commercial property. And remember that some people complained to them that it was unacceptable too.”

            See also Dr. King:

            “who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action” who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom”

            • HughJanus
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              1 year ago

              Dude I think your record is broken. If you’re just going to repeat the same nonsense over and over without acknowledging my responses I can safely block you and move on with my day.

        • HughJanus
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          1 year ago

          Are you going to actually construct an argument against me or just throw up some fancy words you learned on the internet and bail?

      • pangolinpalantir@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Rioting is regularly the result of the social contract being broken through injustices continually being applied to a group. When it is made clear over and over that the state or society isn’t going to uphold their end of that contract, we cannot be surprised when the oppressed decide to throw away their end.

        Riots aren’t about what is effective, they are a natural consequence of inequity and they’ll continue to happen as this continues.

        • HughJanus
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          1 year ago

          No one is confused about the cause of riots.

          No one is surprised that riots happen.

          This conversation is about the justification of senseless destruction. I don’t argue with strawmen.

    • MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Even Jefferson wrote how technically it wasn’t right for the colonists to destroy the tea, they had an agreeable reason for it.