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BLM Organizer Says Reparations Are Theft
Another news story about another riot in another major city: “Black Lives Matter members in Chicago held a rally on Monday to support the more than 100 arrested last night following widespread looting and rioting that caused at least $60 million in property damage and saw 13 police officers injured, according to a report.”
But this next passage in the article caught my eye – a quote from a Black Lives Matter organizer named Ariel Atkins: “I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats. That makes sure that person has clothes. That is reparations. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
Ok, so Black Lives Matter acknowledges that reparations are theft. Simple, straightforward theft. Based on the ethics underlying the Black Lives Matter movement, theft is apparently acceptable – even admirable – in this setting. I find that concerning, but not as concerning as this: I wonder how many Democrat voters would agree with this point? I wonder how many Democrat leaders and politicians would agree with this point? I wonder how many university professors and media personalities would agree with this point? I don’t know, of course. But I suspect that the answer to those questions would depress me.
I could write an essay about this. But I won’t. It’s too depressing.
Published in General
Not really about theft, but…
UW-Madison off-campus student housing has a somewhat unusual feature in that essentially all of the leases expire on Aug 15. So everybody moves on the same weekend. Lots of furniture and stuff just gets piled on the curbs, and many people refurnish their “new” apartments with castoffs they find in the street.
Back in the ’80s I had a co-worker who would spend the weekend running around to all the houses and apartment buildings and collect abandoned/broken bicycles. He also bought a big-ass bolt cutter and made a deal with several landlords that he could go in and cut the locks/cables of abandoned bikes that people would leave on their balconies/porches or just somewhere on the premises. He told me it was amazing how many really expensive bikes he would find just left behind.
Anyway, he’d take all the broken bikes, repair and/or strip them for parts and reassemble them into as many “good” bikes as he could, then sell them second hand. Made himself a fair amount of money.
Technically, the person says that looting is reparations, therefore the title should be “Looting isn’t theft”.
Therefore, the OP title could be changed to “Looting is merely decentralized taxation”.
Incidentally, the Left’s unironic argument in favour of unconcealed double-standards (of which this quip about looting is merely a recent example) goes at least as far back as Trotsky, when he “explained” why it was moral to kill the Czar’s children but not for Stalin to kill Trotsky’s children.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/morals/morals.htm
I don’t know, but I am sure that my estimate will be too low.
By the same reasoning that tells them you can’t be racist against white people because white people supposedly hold all power and privilege, you also can’t steal from rich people or business owners (not the same thing) because the fact that they have property at all is evidence that they are guilty of theft themselves. “Property is theft” is a huge part of Marxism, and these little radicals are certainly living up to the label.
Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
That is the next thing to go.
Obviously: Who else could afford to be a substitute teacher?
And then we’ll have to try to educate those idiots that it’s not because of racism that stores and other businesses in their neighborhoods cannot buy insurance.
“But this next passage in the article caught my eye – a quote from a Black Lives Matter organizer named Ariel Atkins: “I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats. That makes sure that person has clothes. That is reparations. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
This person is going to be Treasury Secretary in the Biden administration. S/he has a very good Leftist grasp of economics.
This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered the idea that looting is okay “because they have insurance.” The same excuse was heard in Minneapolis regarding burning down businesses. Even black-owned businesses. “They have insurance!” was the defense. And if you cared about your business burning down, it just showed you didn’t care about people.
My Uncle Fred would have a lot to say about that…
And some of them did not have insurance.
What bothered me the most was black business owners agreeing that it was okay to have their businesses damaged or destroyed by the rioters because the cause was so important. The Marxists colonized their minds to the point that they came to endorse their own oppression.
Well now, isn’t that their own fault? /sarcasm
To make an obvious, (though perhaps not obvious to Marxists) the company will not be able to hire more workers are raise the workers wages because of the increase in insurance premiums. Last I checked there were lots of black and brown people in Chicago who could use a job.
As the Dr. noted, check out what his uncle Fred had to say about the useless destruction of windows.
The Dems: A Detroit-making machine.
So can we also count our blessings on the number of expats who have renounced their US citizenship. I just read there is a giant increase.
My instinct is to say good riddance.
I don’t know. If all those left coast folk that said they were going to leave if Trump won or if Bush won actually did so I, too, would say “good riddance”. But if a body could do better elsewhere, didn’t have family or similar ties here, and was anticipating the breakdown of society in the near future regardless of anything they could possibly do, don’t know as I could blame them.
I agree with the title statement: Reparations are theft! They would steal from the innocent to atone for what long-dead people did to other long-dead people.
Not a new phenomenon. The businesses either simply don’t reopen, or they reopen somewhere with lower premiums.
But their BLM buddies are popping the lids on all these big box stores so they don’t need none of the Man’s humiliating “jobs”!
Here, let’s break this man’s legs, he has insurance!
Here, let’s crack this truck driver’s skull with a cinder block, he has insurance!
In this case, “remarkable” means insane.
It took me a while to get it. If theft is reparations, then reparations is theft. Ipso facto.
No doubt she assumes that somebody — White people? The Democratic Party? — will take care of the problem.
Now you’re getting into the swing of things.
This, of course, is the Democrats’ platform.
I watched this video to find out what was being said by the police as opposed to what was being said by the Chicago Mayor.
At the 2:49 minute mark, the film goes to a Chicago street scene in which thugs are carrying iron pipes and mercilessly beating the African American people who are out shopping in their neighborhood on what moments before had been a pleasant summer afternoon. I made the mistake of watching through this, and like the day the newspapers showed the photo of the little Vietnamese girl burned by napalm, the images are now burned into my soul.
To see a man who has been beaten by these thugs, who raises himself up to a semi seated position, and then begins to wail, not so much in physical agony, but in abject grief, for there is a stricken and unmoving body lying right behind him, and possibly it is that of his wife?
Meanwhile the predators stand above him, their adrenal rush demanding further feeding. Their iron pipes remained raised above him, although the man no longer sees them or cares. But the man’s sobs are so overwhelmingly pain-filled that even these killers turn away and leave him alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNIDbF0mpVo
Here is a new article up and out there, concerning the BLM group that has gone into a gentrified neighborhood and demanded the white residents hand their homes over to them, for the matter of reparations due. Decent article and if you scroll down, a short video that captures the energy of the angry and hate filled mob:
https://videos.whatfinger.com/2020/08/17/major-stories-media-ignoring-black-lives-matter-mob-demands-white-people-move-out-of-neighborhood-many-more/?fbclid=IwAR0BU1wR5WQy1vAuC2qsX7Jxkuzj4UwfxUmynFqNVqVOp-1pkMDhTDzrYDQ