Isn't it interesting that every killing by every cop is just a single bad apple that should never be thought to spoil the bunch, while every protest by and on behalf of marginalized people must be flawlessly perfect, or all participants deserve the brutality the police exist to deliver to them?
Isn't it remarkable how every white male cishet mass shooter must have some form of exceptional circumstance or cause behind their action so as to separate them from all those other lone wolf white cishet male mass shooters, while every marginalized person who commits (or is said to have committed) a crime like shoplifting becomes the exemplar, the shining epitome of every other marginalized person in that and any other group?
If only there were some way to square that circle, something about differentiation.
@theogrin@JuliusGoat It's remarkable how the same profile of a mass shooter is repeated over and over and over since Charles Whitman in 1966, and they still feed us lines about there being no obvious motive.
Meanwhile, students protesting are treated with disdain, and physical abuse, because they don't fit the profile of campus shooters?
Protestors get considered misguided extremist sheep. School shooters get considered misunderstood lonesome souls.
@JuliusGoat Also, the cops are supposed to be trained professionals and are allowed to slip up and accidentally murder people every now and then, but emotional kids with no actual power are not allowed to even once use hyperbole.
@JuliusGoat If it's just a few bad apples, why was it necessary to cover a Holocaust memorial in London? If the majority of the protesters opposes antisemitism, why don't they take action against antisemitic aggression at the protests? Because it's not just a few bad apples. "From the river to the see" and "globalize the Intifada" chants have been common at these protests from day one.
@JuliusGoat Cool. So why are there so many cases of Jewish people being harassed? Why can't they protest without chanting slogans that imply that destruction of Israel? And why is the responsibility of Hamas never mentioned? Why isn't there any international and vocal pressure on Hamas to release the hostages?
@SallyStrange@JuliusGoat
I don't see a problem with either. I also don't see a problem with moderate Christians being expected to speak out against Christian fundamentalists, for that matter.
@starsandinfinity well that's too bad, because "Muslims should condemn Al Qaeda" was some Islamophobic bullshit that arose in the wake of 9/11 and had fuckall to do with Al Qaeda and everything to with making all Muslims everywhere seem complicit with Islamic terrorists, thereby justifying harassment and violence against anyone who wore a turban or a hijab. You really missed that? Are you a very young person or something?
Anyway, the "protesters should condemn Hamas" is serving the exact same function.
@JuliusGoat Protests don't have to be flawless, but they need to make clear that the worst people are not welcome at their protest. And they don't. At all. Nowhere. That's a choice that reflects on the entire protest.
@StreetDogg@JuliusGoat Reolace “protest” with “police force” in that comment. Holds at least as true that way. And police forces do have hierarchies that could enforce that, unlike protests. #ACAB
@bigiain@JuliusGoat I'd hold the police to a much higher standard and want them to be flawless indeed. They should fire everyone who isn't doing their job right, no exceptions.
It's pure whataboutism, though. Shitty police is no excuse for being a shitty protest.
@StreetDogg@JuliusGoat I don’t think I agree with your assertion that a protest that has assholes show up is a shitty protest. Certainly not in anything like the way that police forces with asshole employees is a shitty police force…
@bigiain@JuliusGoat It's not about the assholes showing up, it's about the protest welcoming the assholes and defending them.
Many protests have the problem of terrible people trying to hijack them and getting rid of these people is a normal part of protesting for many a little more spicy topics.
But some protests don't even try to do that. At all. And instead do the complete opposite. That makes them a protest by assholes for assholes.
@StreetDogg if your support of a demand for justice relies on there being no assholes around, you are incentivizing people who want injustice to show up and be assholes.
@JuliusGoat I've been involved in many protests and is completely normal to talk about who's not welcome at the protest and what to do to get rid of them. It can be done and was done many times.
If there's not even an attempt to do so, that is a choice by the protest.
The idea that protests cannot realistically get rid of antisemites is nothing but a lame excuse. The reality is much more likely that they can't get rid of them because there is a consensus that these people are welcome there
@samhainnight@fmhilton@JuliusGoat hey, that is how the a metaphor goes? I’m shocked – shocked to consider that. I thought one bad apple couldn’t possibly be held accountable because all the other apples are fine upstanding apples working together to desperately hold back the forces of evil on a thin blue line or something
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