Black Lives Matter

 

Well, duh. The sky is blue. The sun rises in the East. This goes without saying, and in 2020 America no one disputes it. Otherwise, they would be tarred, feathered, and burned at the stake.

Nevertheless, we are professing it across the country, and in some instances, in very nauseating ways. People getting on their knees with hands raised chanting like some cult after some bland leader’s recited creed from a stage. Why? Because of some perceived privileged guilt or fear or both. Sad.

So what does Andy Rooney have to do with this conversation? Rooney was very memorable from his “60 Minutes” days and particularly with his closing sketches that started with “Didja ever notice” … and proceeded to highlight some blatant inconsistency and hypocrisy with some piece of “conventional wisdom.”

Which brings me to BLM. Didja ever notice that Black Lives Matter, except, when they are at Planned Parenthood? Legal abortions by race of women. And didja ever notice that BLM, except, during a weekend in Chicago?

Ladies and gentlemen, there is an elephant in the room. Does racism still exist in America in 2020? Yes, of course, but I would suggest that it is more isolated and a result of flawed human beings rather than some sort of institutional or systemic racism in America itself. And to be forced, forced at the threat of lives destroyed if not compliant, to chant some mindless drivel in order to somehow “prove” that you are not racist is un-American, unjust, and unsustainable as some sort of solution to mobs of looters and destroyers who will not be placated.

The elephant in the room is that many black folk are not very hospitable to their own people and own communities. And it is a jarring concept that those same people are saying that this diminishment of the value of black lives is solely due to the institutional racism of white folk. Didja ever notice?

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  1. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    Let me explain this again. “Black lives matter” the phrase should *not* be deconstructed. The phrase has a special meaning in that Black folks feel they are oppressed by tyrannical government via police. Saying “XXXX matters” dismisses the intended meaning and expression of frustration. A good response is “government tyranny is bad and should not be tolerated by a free people.”

    It is like a big TEA party movement where people are chanting “taxed enough already” and an observer responds with “taxes are high in England”. It is insulting.

    Then there is the BLM organization. Whatever that was in the beginning is now just a socialist front.

    What led my wife to embrace the phrase “Black Lives Matter” was Rep. Ilhan Omar’s breezily dismissive “some people did some things” to wave away 9-11.

    That makes no sense whatsoever.

    Mention 9-11 to most Americans and most can tell you where they were the moment they found out, and what they did that day. For Omar, a self-professed al qaeda fan girl, to write off the loss of thousands of people from Islamist terrorists as “some people did some things” is infuriating.

    To some people, being told “all lives matter” as a riposte to “black lives matter” is like them calling a suicide hotline and being told “suck it up, sunshine; everybody hurts.” Aside from the professional grievance-mongers, blm (lowercase) is a need to hear “your life matters too.”

    The problem is that the narrative the term is meant to convey is a Big Lie that is being employed as a cudgel to remake society, exactly like the transgender movement destroying the lives of people who do not submit to a socially destructive denial of reality, but on a much larger scale. To validate the politicized phrase is to support the brainwashing of children against their country and parents and the unpersoning of anyone who does not take the knee, and that’s only the short term.

    Boy, that is a huge leap, to equate the fear that blacks have when stopped by the police to the transgender movement.

    By the way, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott has been stopped a half dozen times in the same number of years for being a black man driving a nice car in the wrong neighborhood.

    • #31
  2. GFHandle Member
    GFHandle
    @GFHandle

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    Let me explain this again. “Black lives matter” the phrase should *not* be deconstructed. The phrase has a special meaning in that Black folks feel they are oppressed by tyrannical government via police. Saying “XXXX matters” dismisses the intended meaning and expression of frustration. A good response is “government tyranny is bad and should not be tolerated by a free people.”

    It is like a big TEA party movement where people are chanting “taxed enough already” and an observer responds with “taxes are high in England”. It is insulting.

    Then there is the BLM organization. Whatever that was in the beginning is now just a socialist front.

    The founders were leftists, of course. But the fellow travelers, including Romney, are probably well meaning people who just want to stand up for decency and refuse to see the agenda. They don’t care if they are being used because they are consumed with egotistical guilt.

    • #32
  3. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    Let me explain this again. “Black lives matter” the phrase should *not* be deconstructed. The phrase has a special meaning in that Black folks feel they are oppressed by tyrannical government via police. Saying “XXXX matters” dismisses the intended meaning and expression of frustration. A good response is “government tyranny is bad and should not be tolerated by a free people.”

    It is like a big TEA party movement where people are chanting “taxed enough already” and an observer responds with “taxes are high in England”. It is insulting.

    Then there is the BLM organization. Whatever that was in the beginning is now just a socialist front.

    What led my wife to embrace the phrase “Black Lives Matter” was Rep. Ilhan Omar’s breezily dismissive “some people did some things” to wave away 9-11.

    That makes no sense whatsoever.

    Mention 9-11 to most Americans and most can tell you where they were the moment they found out, and what they did that day. For Omar, a self-professed al qaeda fan girl, to write off the loss of thousands of people from Islamist terrorists as “some people did some things” is infuriating.

    To some people, being told “all lives matter” as a riposte to “black lives matter” is like them calling a suicide hotline and being told “suck it up, sunshine; everybody hurts.” Aside from the professional grievance-mongers, blm (lowercase) is a need to hear “your life matters too.”

    The problem is that the narrative the term is meant to convey is a Big Lie that is being employed as a cudgel to remake society, exactly like the transgender movement destroying the lives of people who do not submit to a socially destructive denial of reality, but on a much larger scale. To validate the politicized phrase is to support the brainwashing of children against their country and parents and the unpersoning of anyone who does not take the knee, and that’s only the short term.

    Boy, that is a huge leap, to equate the fear that blacks have when stopped by the police to the transgender movement.

    ‘Black Lives Matter’ is about far more than that, but I suspect you knew that. 

    • #33
  4. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    Let me explain this again. “Black lives matter” the phrase should *not* be deconstructed. The phrase has a special meaning in that Black folks feel they are oppressed by tyrannical government via police. Saying “XXXX matters” dismisses the intended meaning and expression of frustration. A good response is “government tyranny is bad and should not be tolerated by a free people.”

    It is like a big TEA party movement where people are chanting “taxed enough already” and an observer responds with “taxes are high in England”. It is insulting.

    Then there is the BLM organization. Whatever that was in the beginning is now just a socialist front.

    What led my wife to embrace the phrase “Black Lives Matter” was Rep. Ilhan Omar’s breezily dismissive “some people did some things” to wave away 9-11.

    That makes no sense whatsoever.

    Mention 9-11 to most Americans and most can tell you where they were the moment they found out, and what they did that day. For Omar, a self-professed al qaeda fan girl, to write off the loss of thousands of people from Islamist terrorists as “some people did some things” is infuriating.

    To some people, being told “all lives matter” as a riposte to “black lives matter” is like them calling a suicide hotline and being told “suck it up, sunshine; everybody hurts.” Aside from the professional grievance-mongers, blm (lowercase) is a need to hear “your life matters too.”

    The problem is that the narrative the term is meant to convey is a Big Lie that is being employed as a cudgel to remake society, exactly like the transgender movement destroying the lives of people who do not submit to a socially destructive denial of reality, but on a much larger scale. To validate the politicized phrase is to support the brainwashing of children against their country and parents and the unpersoning of anyone who does not take the knee, and that’s only the short term.

    Boy, that is a huge leap, to equate the fear that blacks have when stopped by the police to the transgender movement.

    By the way, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott has been stopped a half dozen times in the same number of years for being a black man driving a nice car in the wrong neighborhood.

    I take it, that’s his interpretation of what happened.

    Another possible explanation is:  he was speeding.  For unknown reasons, black drivers tend to have a heavy foot.

    • #34
  5. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    Let me explain this again. “Black lives matter” the phrase should *not* be deconstructed. The phrase has a special meaning in that Black folks feel they are oppressed by tyrannical government via police. Saying “XXXX matters” dismisses the intended meaning and expression of frustration. A good response is “government tyranny is bad and should not be tolerated by a free people.”

    It is like a big TEA party movement where people are chanting “taxed enough already” and an observer responds with “taxes are high in England”. It is insulting.

    Then there is the BLM organization. Whatever that was in the beginning is now just a socialist front.

    1. There is no systematic oppression by any race by the police.

    2. The left deconstructs everything.  Turn out is fair play.

    3. The BLM platform is anti Jew. Period. Using the logic of the left, people using the term must support the platform.

    I will deconstruct anything I darn well please.

     

    • #35
  6. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Taras (View Comment):
    Another possible explanation is: he was speeding. For unknown reasons, black drivers tend to have a heavy foot.

    As shown by the New Jersey Traffic Study. 

    • #36
  7. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Taras (View Comment):
    Another possible explanation is: he was speeding. For unknown reasons, black drivers tend to have a heavy foot.

    As shown by the New Jersey Traffic Study.

    And several similar studies regarding speeding and other driving violations (watch between 15:30 and 17:30 for a quick succession of multiple studies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmhJ78eYJZU

    I just ran across this now, he got himself a new subscriber.  He was apparently previously associated with a bipartisan news show run by the Huffington Post and Boston Globe journalist Jon Saltzman.  Its worth watching from the beginning.

    Refraining from deconstructing and challenging the ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan out of a desire not to offend, alienate, or emotionally discomfort well-intentioned dupes leads not only to the suppression of such necessary information, but the outright persecution of anyone who talks about it.

    Edit: And the worst part is that its not generally ‘tyrannical government authority’ doing this (yet); its our cultural, corporate, and media institutions (albeit incubated within public education).

    • #37
  8. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    You may be forced to choose between voting for George Romney or voting for a Democrat. Who would you choose? 

    Been there, done that.  Voted for Mitt.  In what was, as usual, a binary contest.

    Primaries are where the tactical and ideological battles are fought over how far we should pursue freedom against tyranny in the current cycle.  The general election, in my lifetime, has always been a binary choice between advancing the cause of freedom, if only a little, versus advancing the cause of tyranny, usually a lot.  Third party choices are philosophical temper tantrums.  Any “protest” vote for the binary opponent is simple betrayal of your philosophical allies.

    • #38
  9. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    You may be forced to choose between voting for George Romney or voting for a Democrat. Who would you choose?

    Been there, done that. Voted for Mitt. In what was, as usual, a binary contest.

    Primaries are where the tactical and ideological battles are fought over how far we should pursue freedom against tyranny in the current cycle. The general election, in my lifetime, has always been a binary choice between advancing the cause of freedom, if only a little, versus advancing the cause of tyranny, usually a lot. Third party choices are philosophical temper tantrums. A@garyrobbins case, voting Democrat and donating to their cause is something he does. They are his philosophical allies. 

    • #39
  10. Pony Convertible Inactive
    Pony Convertible
    @PonyConvertible

    I think Shelby Steele summed it up pretty well in an interview with Mark Levin,

    “So when people start to talk about systemic racism, built into the system, what they’re really doing is expanding the territory of entitlement. We want more. We want society to give us more. Society is responsible for us, because racism is so systemic. Well, that’s a corruption, and I know it’s a corruption, because the truth of the matter is blacks have never been less oppressed than they are today.”

    • #40
  11. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Columbo (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    And now Senator Never Trumper Romney has gone full on racist with BLM. Time to defund the junior Senator from Utah.

    And he is such a phony. Everything he does is calculated, poll-tested and air-brushed. He thinks this is a winning photo op. And it only appeals to the hopelessly mindless ‘republicans’ who live in a fantasy world that long ago went the way of the dodo bird.

    Plastic Mitt, the Hollywood version ‘Ken’ doll for the old mindless Republicans.

    You may be forced to choose between voting for George Romney or voting for a Democrat. Who would you choose?

    No write ins?

    • #41
  12. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    Goldwaterwoman (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    You may be forced to choose between voting for George Romney or voting for a Democrat. Who would you choose?

    None of the above.

    The Libertarian. 

    • #42
  13. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    We are discussing The Great Ambiguity of our age, which is how I’m tempted to speak about it if ever someone tries to engage me on this subject. As in, ‘Do you believe in it? Will you agree with The Great Ambiguity? Will you kneel* (i.e., before someone of superior moral virtue) to confess your full support of the Great Ambiguity?’ When no one takes the essential next step of declaring the context, there’s really not a lot of significance to any such declarations. Except perhaps for the person who knows he (or she) succeeded in making you admit you believe in nothing, because they have then proven they can get you to say anything. Which is to say, to the compellers, it’s all about power. This is not American. This is like the French Revolution.

    What was that cult leader in the movie Conan going on about? Emptiness, I think it was. It feels like we’re living in the movies. And maybe that’s because so many radical people live their own lives as if actions and choices don’t matter. They are the ones who need to be woken up to reality.

    [*a half-sincere genuflection will suffice — remember, you’re not in church]

    • #43
  14. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Columbo (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Columbo (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    And now Senator Never Trumper Romney has gone full on racist with BLM. Time to defund the junior Senator from Utah.

    So what did you think about Michigan Governor George marching with Martin Luther King in the 1960’s?

    Please note that Senator Romney was marching with a group of evangelicals, and not the more radical elements of “Black Lives Matter.”

    As for myself, after watching George Floyd losing his life, my reaction in my living room was “black lives matter.”

    Here is who Phony Mitt is marching with now.

    Are you saying that every one of your fellow Ricochetti is a member of a lynch mob?

    Nah, just Mitt.

    I don’t see any Ricochetti there.  Just Pelosi, Nadler, Schiff…

    • #44
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