#just look what happened with the ''peaceful'' blm protests
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I know you might not do request but I was listening to Lil Baby song The Bigger Picture and I was thinking about Erik and if he had kids 🤔 I feel like his kids would be smiling as their getting arrested for peaceful protesting and huge when it came to activism. They’d be starting protests at their HBCU
I CAN'T BREATHE.
I CAN'T BREATHE.
I CAN'T BREATHE.
The chants rang through the air piercing the veil of normalcy and forgetfulness. Today was a day when people in the city would be forced to remember. Disrupted was their casual day as usual. Like the lives of so many people of color, specifically black people were interrupted. Those people didn't get a chance to go back to work or pick up their dry cleaning or their kids. They couldn't go to school or to the park or pump gas anymore. Who would be next?
CHANGE!
JUSTICE!
CHANGE!
JUSTICE!
The protest was picked up on MSNBC along with social networking. People not in attendance were staying away from downtown, away from the traffic and the unpredictable police.
"These kids carrying the torch. Some of us done got too old and out of shape," Steve spoke moving the marble rook on the board. He had a cold beer that he sipped. "Remember when it was us out there? Marching with signs."
"I remember the oldheads marching.. then us marching and it not doing a damn thing which is why we still marching today.. I'm sick of marching. We need equality. Equal heads bashed. You take my king, I take yours," I say knocking over his king. "That's the only way shit gets solved."
"That military ain't left you yet? You still talking like Marcus."
"Marcus. That nigga we called Marcus Garvey," I laugh remembering. Too bad he died. "Marcus.. Yeah, he had a point though! Tell me I'm wrong."
"You ain't wrong, you just past your prime. You tried the shit now it's on the youngins to try it. They ain't scared of nothin.. plus we getting old."
"Nigga we in our late 40s. You ain't old, you just fat," I laugh watching him look around like I ain't talking to him. Like he ain't just eat half a pizza alone.
"Look I can't help that I like what I....."
"What," I follow his stare to the TV screen. I can hear my heart beating. Suddenly I don't feel like Chess no more.
"Is that Imani?"
I jump up because hell yeah it's Imani with face paint, a mic stuck in her face, and a BLM shirt talking about the protest her lil ass started on campus. It was the whole Clark Atlanta out that bitch. No wonder they all looked like kids!
"Ah shit, that's Andre," he mutters the same time I see our younger son out there holding a sign next to his big sister.
"Let's go!"
Steve is up with his beer and right behind me halfway out the door.
"ERIK," Shamidi yells from upstairs so loud it's like she's next to me. "GO GET THEM! BRING ME MY BABIES, NOW!!!"
I shut the door and hop in the car with Steve gassin it into the city and toward the school before something bad happens. If she'd have been in a different state I don't know what me or her mother would've done. That's why Shamidi wanted her here and turned out she was right.. Not me.
I'd have had to catch a flight if Imani had gone to Dillard like she originally wanted.
The cops are out and harassing protesters like always. We move through it, me and Steve.
In the thick of the protest we can't go on any further by car if we want to find Imani and Andre. We pullover and take our masks from the backseat, our guns concealed and on us.
The cops are making arrests, grabbing up and throwing kids around with excessive force. We can't stop for every kid though.
Something gets thrown and experience tells us not to fuck around and find out. We don't investigate gas cans and flying objects, we just keep walking following the fearless voice on the megaphone.
In Georgia baby? The south?
Imani was bold that was for sure. I remember when she was little getting bullied by white kids. Too crushed to go to school. Now look at her.
Got Andre grown ass up here too and he ain't none but 16.
"This shit never changes," I tell Steve over my shoulder while we're wedged between protestors yelling
WE CAN'T BREATHE!
WE CAN'T BREATHE!
CHANGE!
JUSTICE!
WE CAN'T BREATHE!
Shit..
We walk a good mile moving up through the people and before we can reach the front we hear a struggle break out.
I take off, pushing people out my way.
"IMANI! IMANI!"
She looks my way as she's detained and getting pat down, eyes growing huge while her wrists are cuffed behind her tightly by an officer, my son beside her still chanting loudly and nonstop as he's pulled along.
"DADDY!"
"Officer.." I stop a few feet away memorizing badges as I approach slowly removing my gas mask. "I'm the father of these two, if you let em go I'll take them home! They kids! College kids just learning about shit!"
"DADDY LOOK WHAT I DID," Imani yells to me, tearing me up inside though she's smiling, genuinely proud of herself.
Andre's still chanting like he think he Braveheart.
"You can pick em up at the city jail," the one holding onto Imani pulls her along roughly without emotion.
"DON'T BE SCARED DADDY, IT'S OKAY!" She's not resisting but they're still aggressive triggering me. "NO," She yells reading my mind as I think of going to jail with them. "THIS IS OUR PROTEST! JUST KEEP MOM FROM FREAKING OUT! WE KNOW OUR RIGHTS!"
"DON'T ANSWER NOTHING, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT TILL I CAN GET TO YOU!"
"WE KNOW," both kids yell.
I sigh, knowing our next move but worrying for my fuckin knucklehead children who are too brave and stubborn for their own good.
"I better not see a SCRATCH on them," I point to the officers left after the other two have scuffled my kids into police cars. They don't know bout me. "Not a SCRATCH."
Their mother ain't gone like this.
#original#erik killmonger#killmonger#erik stevens#erik killmonger fanfiction#erik killmonger imagine#black panther killmonger#black panther fanfiction
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Okay one thing I’m gonna say is: does anyone remember back a couple years ago when the blm protests were happening? And when everyone attacked Tom on the internet for not saying or doing anything related to that and on his birthday he looked the same amount of anxious as his video today? (EVEN THOUGH we don’t know a thing about his stance nor what he was doing cause we don’t know him personally)
Yeah I’m gotta flat out say that we’re all the cause.
Like the discourse on Twitter and Instagram is terrible, from severe tomdaya’s who are crazy about their private relationship, opinions on how he looks for a fucking role, and theories about every single detail in his life for him to see so easily?
Like at least if you’re gonna post shit make sure it’s a site where he doesn’t have an official active account.
Can’t we all just leave the guy in peace and just say the nicer things? (if it’s on Instagram or Twitter) cause he can see your stupid selves there!!!
#I mean if you’re on here at least he’s not on here#just leave him in peace#I’m guilty of this in the past#but at least now I don’t air it out for him to see#Tom holland
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[TikTok video from AjPlus.
The caption: “This young activist (@khahliso.amahle) from South Africa is calling out double standards around support for protests in France vs those across Africa”]
(Transcript Start)
Khahliso Myataza: When Africans protest, we are barbaric. When French people and Europeans protest, it’s like, “Yeah! Let’s do it the way that French people are doing it—they’re doing it right!”
Narrator: This young activist is calling out double standards around support for protests in France vs. those across Africa.
Myataza: Hi, I’m Khahliso. I’m from Johannesburg, South Africa. There were protests in South Africa on the Monday I made that video. And then, in other parts of the continent, there were protests in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Lagos, Nigeria.
Narrator: Around the world, protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform bill have been celebrated as heroic. This wave of protest across France has been understood to form part of a longstanding tradition of French workers rising up to safeguard their rights. But protests in Africa rarely attract similar international attention and sometimes go unnoticed.
Myataza: Necropolitics and neocolonialism are killing us. So there is a certain urgency to our protests or to our struggles, right? And so, when our voices aren’t met with the urgency that we want, it is disheartening.
Narrator: Did you know that in November 2022 a nationwide strike took place in South Africa among unions that represent some 800,000 workers? Or what about the thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Kenya against the cost-of-living crisis in March 2023? Kenyan protesters even defied a government ban on rallies that came in after the protests began.
Narrator: But less coverage and support around protests in Africa isn’t the only thing troubling Myataza. She explains that how Africans and Black people globally are portrayed and perceived when they challenge systems of power is still influenced by violent colonial legacies.
Myataza: Media has the legacy of portraying African people as barbaric, whether it be through our protests [or] through the way that poverty is framed in our countries. And I do think that people need to understand that these come as a product of colonialism. This was how colonialism framed African people to be; It’s not just with Africans on the continent, you know—looking at how Black Lives Matter was framed, looking at how Haitian people are still demonized.
Narrator: How media chooses to cover a story influences public perception on events and people. Here’s one example: vandalism, property damage, and looting received widespread coverage at the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. during summer 2020. But it’s reported that at least 93% of the BLM protests that summer were peaceful. Nonetheless, negative images of violence and looting remain front and center for many—overshadowing the organized calls for an end to police violence in the U.S.
Myataza: French people being the face of resistance is something that angers me because they’re not the only people to have resisted oppressive forces. And as much as we praise the French, we should also be praising communities outside of Europe—people who are doing the same things, for people who are fighting other struggles, right?
Myataza: I’m not dismissing or invalidating the pain that French people have or the vitriol that they might have to their administration, but what they’re doing is not more, or it’s not, like, more special than what is happening on the African continent.
(End Transcript)
I’ve reblogged posts on this topic before, but this is always something that irks me with the hype around the French protests and riots, especially when someone says something along the lines of “Why haven’t Americans done this?” or “Americans are too damn weak. We should protest like the French!” Because, well, WE DID! The BLM protests, especially the few riots that occurred, were a call to action against an oppressive government, police force, and justice system.
They were killing us in the streets and our own homes and when we did the smallest “everyone’s idea of a revolution” shit like breaking a window or spray painting on walls or stealing a tv from Walmart, y’all wanted to switch up on us and tell us that we were going too far and overreacting. No matter how peaceful we are, how much abuse we take, how many of us are killed trying to be peaceful, the media will still paint us as “thugs,” and our murders will continue to be excused in some bullshit way all while we’re thrown scraps of “reform” to make us think we’ve won.
#a part of me has genuinely lost faith in peaceful protests at this point#black lives matter#black lives still matter#blm#africa#African protests#ghana#haiti#south africa#anti fascism#antifascism#anti colonialism
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Seen a very good post regarding the responsibility of _ordinary russian people_, but hence I'm unfortunately blocked by the op, I'll just write my thoughts on the matter.
This is, first of all, for you, dear followers or anyone reading this post from Russia. And don't get defensive, I'm also from there.
Revolutions are not made by soyboys. I'm sorry. I completely understand that no revolution happens without the support of army or a strong opposition that already has power in the official structures. Which, for example, how it worked in Ukraine. But it doesn't happen out of nothing. It's not like you're gonna sit and wait for one of these things to magically happen on itself. No, you need to work for that. I know that we're very small in numbers. Yet this isn't the sole problem. The main problem is that we're weak-willed, apathetic, indifferent, coward and disorganized. This is the hard truth that we have to digest - those guys up there, armed, rich and powerfull, aren't gonna do shit until you pick up a stone jn your hands. If you want a revolution to happen you need to fight. And fighting means you have to be ready to get violent, you have to be strong. I know that unfortunately it happened so that the majority of those who are anti-imperalist and anti-war are pacifists. But much more unfortunately more of them are simply not ready to fight. Cowardness or weakness, or simply lack of understanding. So two years after you accused and bashed BLM protesters for not being peaceful, for riots, here you are, smart experts on how a protest should go.
I've seen some write that one cop was enough to make russian protesters run. And this is not true - no matter how big a protest was, the number of cops was nearly the same as the number of protesters, sometimes even bigger(streets were flooded with cops, as if an army entered the city). Add the fact that the last ones were armed, heavily armed, trained and all. So this proves my point once again - to stand up against these guys - you need people and you need strength. Peaceful protests don't change nothing even in Europe. Riots do. But riots need preparation and organized power.
Look, I know that decades of oppressive government and a number of revolts that eventually ended with bloodshed and devastation had broken our will to do anything about the political life of the country. About OUR life. I used to think the same way. But it's one thing when you choose to remain silent and complicit about your own suffering and what's government doing to you in your country. That's your own life, your own country and your own choice. But when someone else is harmed by your government - that's when you already have no moral right to remain complicit. And, believe me, even if you're poor, even if you have children or someone else to take care of(several people actually don't), even if you don't want to be left with no education and no job(Which I agree, is of no use if our opposition will be if poor people with no education. Even if this education doesn't matter abroad, it's still better than working as a retail store cashier) - there are several remotely safe ways to help, several kinds of work to do to help people from Ukraine or dismantle the regime. Donate money, donate clothes and other necessary things to the refugees, helpful them move, help them find accommodation or leave the country(Russia - they're not safe here), volunteer to help the organizations that protect citizen's rights like OVDinfo. Learn the laws at last. Educate yourself. You'll be armed against the government at least somehow. Organize opposition cells offline, talk to your friends that are already against the war, build connections. I understand that this is a long-term work requires constant effort, much harder than to just go around and tie green ribbons or put posters or graffitis. I understand - you put a ribbon and you already feel like you're a hero and that's all. Your concience is fed. But other than helping other protesters feel that they're not alone, it doesn't change anything.
And let me conclude with this: no one says you're guilty. But it's your responsibility to do something. That's why everyone has trying to tell you. Listen, before getting defensive. Do something. Accumulate strength. Grow.
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It does, but this wasn’t Atticus Finch at the jailhouse door.
Jones says he stood up to the mob by holding a news conference in 2020 at which he threatened to fill the county jail with protesters. But at the time, not even Jones blamed Black Lives Matter for the looting and vandalism that had gone on the night before. And why would he, when that’s just not what happened?
City officials did call in the National Guard, and the protests eventually did go pfft.
Only, it’s a stretch to say Jones “stopped the riots.” And was his family really “terrorized”?
Opinion
BLM protesters did hold a candlelight vigil on the street outside his home in 2016, four years before the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Standing out there in the dark, an activist read a list of “charges” against Jones that included responsibility for the death of Adrienne Ludd, who was fatally shot by the longtime sheriff’s deputies in 2015.
In 2016 and 2018, BLM also “targeted” a park in Jones’ neighborhood, where they handed out flyers and juice.
No one wants to look out the kitchen window and see protesters, no matter how peaceful they are. And they aren’t always peaceful; at one protest at Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s home, there was vandalism, and some demonstrators shouted the names of his children, which is way out of bounds.
Jones, though, paradoxically positions himself as the toughest of tough guys, while also exaggerating threats against him and his — and campaigning on them.
His claims are not original.
Two days before Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley raised his fist in support of actual insurrectionists, he claimed that “Antifa scumbags” had vandalized his Virginia home and threatened his wife and newborn daughter.
“They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door,” he tweeted. “Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence.”
Police did not find any evidence of damage or intimidation. A 50-minute video of this “leftwing violence” showed fewer than two dozen people holding candles and writing in chalk on the sidewalk. The “threats” they screamed were, “Due diligence has been done, Biden-Harris have won!” They also shouted, “Hawley, Hawley, shame on you. Biden-Harris won through and through!” Terrible chants, yes. Intimidating, no.
Last weekend, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also called police after finding this terrifying message written in chalk on the sidewalk in front of her home in Bangor: “Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA,” the Women’s Health Protection Act that would codify and expand abortion rights. That bill failed on Wednesday after Collins and all other Republicans in the Senate voted against it, as did Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
“Susie” didn’t vote no because somebody left a perfectly civil message she didn’t appreciate on her sidewalk.
But why give those who lust after aggrievement exactly what they want by showing up at their houses?
In 2020, what the Associated Press described as “scattered violence in downtown Sacramento,” Sheriff Jones called an “attempted insurrection.”
After the real insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last January, Jones saluted the constitutionally guaranteed right to protest, and defended those of his deputies who’d attended the pre-insurrection festivities.
If Jones, who is running for the new Third Congressional District seat against his fellow Republican Kevin Kiley and Democrats Kermit Jones and David Peterson, thinks that insurrections only involve those he doesn’t like, then how tough on crime is that?
“A riot is the language of the unheard,” Martin Luther King Jr. told us.
The unheard include many people who not only would never have marched with MLK, but came to love him only as an often misrepresented ghost.
But these days, a riot is also the language of those who only imagine themselves to be threatened and unheard. And the more of us who speak riot fluently, the worse off we all are.
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Daily Wire Responds To; January 6th
Well folks, I am a believer that history can give context to things we see today. This includes the Daily Wire. Now, while we haven't talked extensively about January 6th yet, I did mention that I believe that Matt Walsh ran cover for insurrectionists. I still hold this belief, and I believe the same for the entire team at the Daily Wire. However, I feel that given the fact that we definitely haven't seen the last of the Daily Wire's January 6th apologia, it is worthwhile to take a look at their coverage on the day after to see how the world of the Daily Wire reacted to the insurrection on January 6th.
Matt Walsh;
There's this thing called a mirror that might help you answer that question (Image via Matt Walsh at the Daily Wire)
At this point in the history of the Daily Wire, Candace Owens wasn't around, so she still has yet to make her debut on the blog. Instead, we get to talk about the episode that Matt Walsh released on January 7, 2021, entitled "How We Got Here." Surely Matt will recognize the role that right-wing media like his show played in enflaming the rioters and issue an apology….right?
2:03: "It is being demanded that we view yesterday's events in DC as if they occurred without precedent. Nothing of importance or relevance preceding them."
Apparently not. So, it seems like Matt's argument here is that while the rioting was bad, the government pushed these people into doing it (and also, look at BLM!).
2:42: "We don't need to widen the lens very much to see that the rioting and violence on Capitol Hill this week happened to occur after many months of violent riots across the nation"
The BLM protests don't excuse the Capitol rioters. Even if Matt is right (which he isn't, but we'll get to that in a little bit) and all the BLM protests that occurred in 2020 were all violent riots, how does that make turning around and doing the same thing OK? Violent riots are a bad thing, period, and just because one side does them doesn't make it okay for the other side to do them as well.
Also, according to the NGO ACLED, 93% of the BLM protests were peaceful. Looking into them, they don't appear to be a left-wing organization, which means they don't have any skin in the game to say if they were more violent or peaceful.
In other words, the entire premise of Matt's argument here is built on the lie that there were riots all across the country when, in reality, there were very few riots overall. Let's keep that in mind as we continue to watch this.
2:56: "Now, I'll be accused of whataboutism for refusing to pretend that this particular bit of chaos erupted in a void"
Because that's literally what you're doing. In pointing the finger at BLM protesters, Matt is shifting the story away from the Capitol rioters and making it a story about BLM.
The reason Matt is playing this whataboutist game is because he doesn't want to acknowledge the role that he and the Daily Wire played in the insurrection. Matt churns out a new video about why the left's policies are leading to the literal collapse of society every single weekday. Odds are that at least one person saw these videos and thought that the only way to prevent the literal collapse of society was to take up arms.
I'm not saying that Matt was the sole cause of the insurrection, but he sure as hell played a role in it.
3:10: "The simple fact is that left-wing radicals spent the entire summer and much of the fall wreaking havoc on our cities and leaving burned out buildings, looting stores, dead bodies in their wake"
He just can't help but fearmonger can he? But I found that comment about "dead bodies" interesting. How many people DID die as a result of the BLM protests?
As it turns out, 25 but it is really difficult to squarely place the deaths on the shoulders of BLM and the left. For instance, two of those deaths could probably be attributed to Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Whether or not you agree with the verdict that it was in self-defense or not, it is clear that he is not on the left.
That's just one example of how some of the deaths can be chalked up to people on the right and some can be chalked up to bad-faith actors with no political affiliation who went to the protests just to sow chaos.
How this is different from January 6th is that there is no proof that left wing groups had any involvement in the planning and or execution of the riots on January 6th. However many people on the right like Enrique Tarrio and Charlie Kirk (who tweeted the day before the riot that his organization was sending more than 80 "buses of patriots to D.C. to fight for this president") had direct roles in what happened.
4:01: "Now, I'm not convinced that any rioters, whether the ones this summer or the ones in the capitol yesterday, are actually motivated by anything other than a savage desire to destroy purely for the thrill of destruction. That's why I oppose rioting in all its forms, all the time"
What Matt is doing here is pretty interesting if you're like me and you want to study how people like Matt Walsh form bad faith arguments.
On the surface, Matt is doing a good thing. He is denouncing the Capitol rioters, which is what he should be doing. But what he is also doing is absolving himself and his right-wing cohorts of responsibility while also furthering his narrative that protestors on the left are "savage."
If the Capitol rioters were only motivated by a savage desire to destroy purely for the thrill of destruction, then Matt doesn't bear any responsibility for pushing the kinds of conspiracy theories that led the rioters to the point where they believed that the only way to prevent society from collapsing was by taking up arms against the government.
Plus, it continues to paint BLM protestors as savages for protesting the unacceptable amount of police brutality (which is any by the way) in the United States.
This is the kind of thing I would urge people who listen to guys like Matt Walsh to watch out for.
Matt Walsh spends the rest of the episode talking about the BLM protests and shifting the blame onto the left while not really talking about what happened. This episode is just the same "what about BLM" thing over, and over, and over again. Since we already covered Matt's main points, we don't really need to talk more at length about his episode. Although I did notice comments saying that Ben Shapiro's episode was more "leftist" than Matt Walsh's and Michael Knowles. I find that super hard to believe but let's give it a look.
Ben Shapiro:
So I am kind of surprised here, yet kind of not. Ben is really not a fan of the rioters, something that me and him agree with! But it makes sense; like I said the last time we took a look at Ben Shapiro, he is the face of the company and, as a result, has the most eyes on him. Ben has to be against the Capitol rioters because he's legally liable if he isn't. So with that in mind, lets observe this quote from the first minute of his show on the 7th.
1:29: "So yesterday was, no, bar none the most horrifying thing that I have seen in American politics in my lifetime.
See, me and Ben are in agreement on this. However, saying that doesn't excuse his role in what happened. On the day of January 6th, Ben posted this on YouTube and the Daily Wire.
So, how fucked are we Ben? Surely a guy as disgusted by the rioters on January 6th wouldn't also spread the narratives that led to the capitol riots in the first place....right?
1:35: "So, yup, things suck all the way around! So, Republicans had two extraordinarily winnable races in Georgia last night. They proceeded to apparently lose both. So Raphael Warnock, who is a Marxist radical, who hates the American founding, who believes America is inherently racist; who has praised Fidel Castro, Jeremiah Wright, and Louis Farrakhan in no particular order, is going to take the seat in the United States senate."
Wow, Ben is really going hard on portraying Mr. Warnock as dangerous. Surely a guy who has praised Fidel Castro and is a radical Marxist is himself a fascist!
By the way, regarding the Castro thing, that is a half-truth. A church where Warnock was a youth pastor, not the main pastor, mind you, a youth pastor, invited Fidel Castro to speak in the 1990's. Warnock certainly has never praised Castro; at least I couldn't find an instance of it, but I'd gladly invite Ben to show me where he did.
In spreading these lies, all Ben Shapiro is doing is creating fear. And fear can very easily lead to violence. Was Ben disgusted by January 6, like he claimed the day after? I don't know, maybe. But he can't pretend his rhetoric did not play a role in what happened. Anyway, let's keep watching.
2:37: "So, let's talk about what this means for the republic. So, obviously Joe Biden has unified control of the government. Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th and the senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, will be in charge of the senate, and Nancy Pelosi will be the speaker of the house, and the Democrats will have the power to do pretty much anything they want."
Remember that in the minds of Ben's audience, the Democratic Party are the bad guys who are responsible for most (if not all) of society's ills. Ben is essentially scaring his audience about the Democrats winning which in my opinion contributed to people feeling like they needed to take up arms.
Later in the show (you don't miss much, Ben talks about how Trump wrecked the Georgia Republican candidates chance of winning, a doorbell ad, and about the Byrd Rule (which is spelled incorrectly as "The Bird Rule" in the timestamps). Ben then goes on to tell us the "problem with Democrats".
22:26: "The real problem with Democrats having unified control of the government is going to be everything else. It's gonna be executive action - most of what Joe Biden, on an executive basis, is going to be extraordinarily dangerous."
Again, scaring your audience = violence. Ben should not have been surprised that the sixth happened. So overall my point is that it doesn't really matter how much Ben acts like he is disgusted by the January 6 Insurrection, he played a role in causing it.
Michael Knowles:
Third banana time! On our previous installment of Michael Knowles deranged show, we talked about how he posted an entire episode defending blackface which is about as stupid as it sounds. Now we get to see Michael's brilliant take which is that COVID Lockdowns are what caused the insurrection at January 6th.
It appears that his video on the 7th was taken down from YouTube, either by the moderators or by Ben Shapiro for being too embarrassing for even the Daily Wire, and I don't want to pay for a Daily Wire Plus subscription to watch it there. Luckily, it is still up on Soundcloud in podcast form. Now lets take a look at the title and see why this isn't on YouTube:
Golly, I wonder why I couldn't find this on Michael's YouTube Channel (Image Via Michael Knowles at the Daily Wire)
Before we cover this, uh, I guess you can loosely define this as a "take", allow me to present the titles of the episodes on the sixth and the fourth without comment.
Yeah, probably regretting those ones huh? (Images via Michael Knowles at the Daily Wire)
2:11: "I said this six months ago during the BLM riots, which everyone seems to have just miraculously forgotten about". It was true then and it's just at true today, this is about the lockdowns"
I've got to hand it to Michael; that's a take I genuinely wasn't expecting nor have I ever heard before. We already talked about BLM in the Matt Walsh segments, so we don't need to talk about it here.
But we can't judge too quickly; let's hear the man out. What is his explanation for how COVID lockdowns led to insurrection?
2:52: "You cannot lock people away from their jobs, lock them away from their families, from their kids, from their loved ones. Lock them away from just regular socialization, go to a restaurant, go to a bar, put them in their apartment and tell them that the minute you go outside your gonna die. And you can't keep them away from their church, and you can't keep them away from their civil rights, and you can't do that for nine or ten months and expect that everything's gonna be perfectly fine."
Let's go through this, shall we? Now, the lockdowns were obviously the result of a deadly virus that, at the time, was spreading like wildfire throughout the population. In America, 1,183,924 people have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic started. If we didn't have lockdowns, way more people would have died.
And what the hell is Michael talking about when he says, "lock them away from their kids?" Does he think that family units had to all be isolated in separate buildings or something? Yeah, families couldn't see more vulnerable members of their family. Do you know why? Because that would put them at risk of death!
Also, lockdowns still don't justify TRYING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT!
3:45: "Not excusing rioting in the Capitol but the longer you keep society shut down, it's like a powder keg, it's obviously gonna blow"
First of all, the sentence "Not excusing rioting in the capitol" should never be followed up with "but". Second of all, say ANYTHING that shifts the blame away from far-right rhetoric.
3:59: "Everybody seems to be at each others throat, more than they were before, which was already pretty intense"
So if it was "already pretty intense" before, how come nobody tried overthrowing the government back then?!
Man, I'm starting to think the Daily Wire took this off of the channel. At the very least they should be thankful it is gone now because this is embarrassing.
4:17: "And there have been riots before. Why did they all of a sudden start torching city after city week after week in 2020, huh?"
I know I said we weren't going to BLM again but this argument is so stupid that it needs to be addressed. It's because seeing such a violent display of police brutality like the killing of George Floyd being spread all across social media was unprecedented before 2020. And it bears repeating, 93% of the BLM protests were peaceful!
Well, that's all the Michael Knowles I can handle at the moment and really all the Daily Wire I can handle as well. Have a lovely day and I'll see you in the next one!
#alt right#journalism#right wing bullshit#conservative bullshit#conservatives#fact checking#daily wire#trump#trump is a threat to democracy#january 6#michael knowles#ben shapiro#matt walsh#fuck the alt right#wired#the daily wire is disinformation!
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Trump Gets CORPORATE DEATH PENALTY, Democrat Judge DISSOLVES Company WITH NO TRIAL In SHOCKING Move
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This is fascist levels of corruption. If they can do this to him, they can do it to you.
Judge: "Trump overvalued his properties!" Also judge: (undervaluing his properties by 8300%).
This judge needs to get his legal licenses pulled, and quick. This is straight fucking absurd. This is on the level of the New Mexico Governor banning guns.
A New York Judge has no business even talking about, let alone, using florida property to determine an issue in New York. That alone is wrong... (
Monday- Trump is up by 10 points on Biden Tuesday- Trumps property de-valued and all companies dissolved Totally not coordinated..
From the people who scream that Trump is a Fascist: We don't need a trial where you can defend yourself, we have declared you are guilty. That you happen to be our main political rival is purely coincidental.
yeah trump never did anything like this he never persecuted any political rivals on bogus accusations like they are trying to do to him with the jan 6 hearings or the attempts to paint him contesting the election as defrauding people
or acting like calling for a peaceful protest is somehow inciting violence when its not trump is not responsible for what happened on jan 6 and he told them to leave.
while they actively incite violence and provide comfort to those antifa/blm terrorists like helping them get out of jail
or talking about how there should be more uprisings/if they dont get the verdict they want use violence etc
The fact they are attacking this man with everything they can throw at him makes me want to vote for him even more in 2024. The swamp needs to be drained, they aren't even hiding their corruption anymore, it's all out in the open for the world to see.
The judge can't deny a trail the defendant has the legal right to present there testimony and documents. This judge needs to be fired from the bench this is corruption.
This is amazing what they have done. If you look up the Mar-A-Largo property on Zillow, the history is completely gone. They replaced the history with a starting value of 8.2M in Feb 2020 with a straight line to 24M today, no up or down, just a steady incline. Moreover, they have the buy price in 1995 at 12M. This is incredible. The amount of corruption in this country by the Democrats is just plain scary as all hell.
The outrageous but funny thing to me is, a new York judge crushed trumps billion dollar business based on what some $40k/year barely qualified government assessor employee said mar-a-lago is worth after 20 minutes of research between coffee breaks.. Assessed value does not mean market value.
Kyle is a horrible human being. Panic mode is in full affect. They won't stop even if Trump is out of the picture.
Why aren't Republican prosecutors not bringing charges against these insane activist judges who are clearly abusing their power, or trying to?
I have built houses for years. You can't just write down your own sq. footage, it has to be apraised by county or city aproved officials only. The only person that can do that is an appraiser that does that paperwork, and turns it in at the county/city level. It is divided up the way it is by city officials, housing and businesses are so over regulated there is now way for him to pull this off without being found out immediately. It would flag the system and would be found out. The way it is now is probably the only legal way of having a "club" legally, to not let the general public in. The judge has no power to appraise anything, has no idea what hes talking about, and would only need to send city officials down there to get the answers he wants. This is targeted government courruption at its finest. They create the insane regulations/Law we all have to follow, Trump uses the law as citizens and the rich do They just know the best way of handling businesses withing regulations and taxes. Otherwise they would pay more than whats even made annually each time.Show less
Why is NY allowed to even go through with this case when none of the lenders are even claiming that they were defrauded? How do they have the standing to do that? They aren't even a victim of the supposed "crime".
My sister just sold her house for $160.000.00 thousand dollars, the county assessor appraised it at $90.000.00 thousand dollars. Trump should take this to a high court, that people cannot allow this kind of abuse in our court system.
They are extremely desperate. My anger is towards my fellow citizens that are blissfully ignorant of the extreme corruption
I first found out about this situation via these twitter posts
the property is worth alot on top even besides the business parts
a nearby home that is 10xsmaller is worth 100 million
and found a timcast tweet above that relates to it after I found out about the vid
I found out about the case via this tweet
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Democrats Go FULL COMMUNIST, Kyle Kulinski CELEBRATES Rule BY DECREE Against Political Rivals
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Trump SLAMS Rogue Judge WHO LIED About Mar-A-Lago To Justify DISSOLVING Trump Org As Trial BEGINS
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MICROAGRESSION
Microaggression - a statement or action made as an indirect or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority.
I chose this picture because it’s a perfect example of how a black women can change their hair to whatever they’d like it to be without being asked is their hair real. There are some black people today, with long, straight or curly hair and people will still ask if its theirs just because they are black.
2. WHITE SUPREMACY
White supremacy - the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to exclude of other racial and ethnic groups.
This picture I chose happened on Jan 6, 2021, where a lot of white rioters raided the white house just on the simple fact that they couldn’t accept the election results, despite all evidence that Trump lost. Outside and inside the white house, there was a lot of symbols and banners representing white supremacy. Storming the white house alone was an act of white supremacy, officers were even there to riot with the protestors. There were barely injuries and deaths compared to the peaceful protesting during the BLM movement.
3. RACE & RACISM
Racism - Individuals' thoughts and actions and institutional patterns and policies that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities based on imagined differences among groups.
I chose this cartoon because it depicts racism in simpler terms. They placed all white rabbits in one room, then randomly started turning the rabbits blue one by one. After a rabbit turned blue, the white rabbits would make fun of them or be mean to the rabbit just because he turned blue and looked different from the usual white rabbits. After being kicked out of the group for being blue, the other blue rabbits started forming a friendship.
4. INDIVIDUAL RASCISM
Institutional racism - distinguished from the explicit attitudes or racial bias of individuals by existence of systematic policies or laws and practices that provide differential access to goods.
I chose this scene because the white teacher is always inflicting racism or saying racist comments to the one black student in the classroom. She clearly believes every black person is in some tribe from Africa. She is teaching a lesson on Africa, then turns to Chris and asks him what Tribe he was from. In other scenes, I noticed her character is used to show microaggression towards Chris and no other student.
5. COLONIALSIM
Colonialism - a practice or policy of having a full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers and exploiting is economically.
I chose this picture because colonialism is evident in the workplace. People have been brainwashed to think that looking, talking, or acting white just automatically makes you smarter than what you really are. Today, Nigeria is still affected by the effects of colonialism in their courtroom, wearing white curly wigs when they attend. They also sell the wigs outside of the courtroom. This takes away from tackling the problems head on and look at it from their perspective as their true self and roleplaying as a white man to make decisions.
6. RACIAL IDEOLOGY
Racial Ideology - Set of popular ideas about race that allows the discriminatory behaviors of individuals and institutions to seem normal.
I chose this scene in Family Guy because it shows us Peter and Cleveland walking under a cop simulation that supposed to put handcuffs on the suspect. Peter walks through and he breaks away free, but then Cleveland walks through and the simulation goes off saying “minority suspect” and starts beating him. This happens all the time with cops and black citizens. Being pulled over for something silly or simple can lead to being incarcerated or even killed if you are a poc. Cops will find any reason to shoot or arrest a poc more than certain for the reason being they are racist or scared. People who try to speak out against this are either arrested or fined or beaten. You rarely hear of a cop killing a white person doing an arrest or being pulled over; even if that person has a weapon on them, the cop will hesitate to pull theirs out on them
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❍ “Reminder that in 2020, the first two weeks of rebellion were not led by Leftist orgs/milieus. Leftists joined the fray late and largely engaged through a range of tactics, from support for the militants to general agitation + conscientization. Others moved counterinsurgent tho. These, alongside the regular old conservative political guard, typical pacifist liberals, radlibs looking for photo ops, the buy black and black business crowd, the fascists and sinophobic anti-vaxxers, the pigs, & these companies all worked in different ways to coopt the energy. Alot of what we are seeing rn re: Tyre Nichols are strategies that I didn't see prior to summer 2020. They are also all culminations of strategies that have been being worked out against Black Rebellion for decades, most especially from the late 20th century onward.”
❍ “the idea that its only “white anarchists” who are militants when it comes to anti-police movements should be discredited by now. the idea that the only legitimate multi-racial organizing or activity is that happening in orgs that focus on policy should also be discredited by now.”
❍ “I think some wise activists have rightly pointed out that some actions have become liberal parades and serve no purpose. For whatever APTP is or will be, it does seem clear the organization and its leadership embraced NGO money and the org is now part of the system. We can’t achieve our goals by embracing liberalism and incrementalism. Rolling down the street behind a truck, standing around and then dispersing is the very definition of a liberal parade. That’s their choice and their type of action. Perhaps they will achieve some good with their NGO cash. That said, real change comes from the actions of people that fight and resist by all and any means. That much we know.”
❍ “we need ungovernable Black communities—not just from the State, but all extensions, functionally or by proxy, of it, including the NPIC and orgs/groups which prioritize hierarchy above all else. this is by far one of the most direct ways to reach the margins because these ungovernable communities are by definition distant from the structures and institutions that create that marginalization such as the police. they are where we are most safe.”
❍ “ppl who aren’t in the bay & have little to no experience with street movements in the bay, please read this. aptp leadership has been actively working against militancy in anti-police street movements before aptp was even a thing—only now they have a lot more $$$ thanks to their associations with the Tides (Foundation) Network and Cullors’s BLM™️. ppl unfamiliar with their history boosting them isn’t helping this worsening situation.”
❍ “imagine the amount of lost time and resources wasted by the NPIC and shitty "socialist" orgs that when not being antiBlack, they protect abusers and sexual assaulters.”
❍ “another way of saying that “you can’t reform this” is to say “you can’t defund this. you have to abolish it or it goes on.” ppl trying to “defund” literally got their messaging turned against them by both the gop & dems after the riots of 2020. you rlly can’t reform this… you cannot trick the state into slowly but surely disarming itself so that you can then take it down, too.”
❍ “so annoyed with the ppl bragging about how peaceful the protests are. it doesn't matter, fascists will not suddenly grow a conscience because you protest peacefully. you either destroy fascism or it will destroy you.”
❍ “this swift condemnation of Black cops has more to do with the fact that they’re Black and therefore can be scapegoated to pretend that reform is occurring, than it does with literally anything else, including the murder itself.”
❍ “anyone calling for more funding of police and military in this country is a fascist. it's someone who is condoning ongoing genocides. i don't care what party they claim.”
❍ “i'm so upset "defend the p*lice” ever came from the mouths of "abolitionists". it should've been defund or nothing.
❍ “the c*ps were gloating and bragging to each other over beating Tyre Nichols to death because that's what policing is about—the brutal lynching of Black people.”
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[REPOST, 2021] - "Kyle Rittenhouse as a symptom, not a cause"
(This was originally posted to my WordPress blog "Thoughts of the Free" in November 2021.)
Alright, overly long Steam break over. Let’s get the ball rolling on this blog.
Ever since I first heard the Kyle Rittenhouse trial was underway, I’ve been going out of my way to laboriously avoid any of the discourse surrounding it. That includes the fact that I also haven’t watched the trial at all. Now, why is this? Because, right after the Rittenhouse case first hit the news, I looked into the details of the killings, and figured that he had a strong enough case for self-defense to get off from at least those charges – I knew the outcome of this trial would, more or less, be a foregone conclusion. He ended up getting off on all of them, of course, but my overall take on him remains unchanged. This is for one simple reason:
The legal part of this case is a discussion I find to be extremely uninteresting. Whether Rittenhouse was too young to legally own a gun, broke state crossing laws, or met the legal threshold for self-defense, I don’t care. So, for everyone on both sides of the discourse who apparently went to law school and passed the bar exam in the last year since his killings, save your opinions about the court case for someone who actually gives a damn. (I will just stonewall you if you try to go there anyway.)
No, folks, the ideological part of this discourse is what really clicks with me. What happens to one Kyle Rittenhouse is effectively irrelevant to me, but since he’s the center of attention, let’s use him as the symbol of a larger issue, and dig in.
To start off, let’s get one very clear, but often-ignored fact out of the way: 93% of the BLM protests, by all measurements, have been peaceful. The fact that this known statistic has been out there for more than a year now, while the “common knowledge” of the right-wing mythology remains that “BLM and Antifa” are “burning American cities to the ground” as we speak, is a testament to how detached from reality one already has to be to think traveling to another city to “defend property” with armed force is a solid idea. There has never been a mass protest movement in the entire history of the world that didn’t involve some degree of violence (see: the 60s Civil Rights Movement and the many race riots associated with it, a la the “long, hot summer” of 1967; or, for analogues to Antifa: the Black Panthers or Deacons for Defense & Justice), meaning that anyone willing to give justification to armed opposition to BLM will also have to explain why they would justify brandishing guns against those civil rights protesters of days past. If you actually do want to be the one to defend the anti-protest actions of both Kyle Rittenhouse and the Klan in the same argument, though, be my guest.
Anyway, let’s keep riding this train of thought. What have we heard from Kyle Rittenhouse’s fans ever since he had his episode in Kenosha? That the people he killed deserved to die anyway, that “angels guided his bullets” (yes, that’s an actual quote from The Hake Report), that he’s a precious boy who deserves to be shielded from the media, that this case is so clear-cut that it shouldn’t even have gone to trial (that’s not how the legal system works), and so on. In more blunt words, for putting himself in a position to harm members of the political group that they don’t like, the American right-wing is celebrating this kid as a national hero, just as they have before with, among others, convicted killer Derek Chauvin (who, might I remind everyone at home, was so unambiguously in the wrong that he was a cop who managed to be convicted of murder) and the many rioters who attempted to overthrow the government at the Capitol at the start of this year.
Now, really, tell it to me straight: what does this all-consuming bloodlust say about the state of affairs of the Republican Party and company? Because I can tell you the message it broadcasts to me.
The common mantra about political discussions is that it’s alright to have disagreements of opinions as long as you both agree on what’s true, but here, we face another problem entirely: the American right-wing disagrees with the facts, andreality itself.What’s true, let alone what’s a correct belief, is only secondary to crushing what the divisive media has told them is their opposition (“owning the libs”, as it were in internet parlance), even if they have to spin a narrative to create the opposition themselves. So, naturally, if you take it all the way and kill your political opponents, who cares, as long as you’re convinced that you’ve just done good in the process?
The easiest way to get more Kyle Rittenhouses is to stay locked in this perpetual cycle of consuming rage piece after rage piece. For years, my dad would tell me to never listen to the media, because they’re out to divide us… and yet, he lets them do it. So many people, just like him, say they believe in looking beyond the media to the truth, only to gladly let their favorite TV host, online/alt media personality, Facebook influencer, or what-have-you get them stuck in a confirmation bias-laden, one-sided information silo.
So, to bring this meandering piece to a close, I want to ask a direct question to Kyle Rittenhouse’s fans: why, exactly, are you defending him? Is it on your own initiative, or is it because you’ve been told by your favorite source of confirmation that it’s the righteous thing to do? Once you’ve answered, I want you to ask yourself the same question about any other topic you may be focused on at the moment. Vaccines/COVID might be a good one to start. Be honest with yourself when you do.
This message goes for everyone reading as well. When you find yourself making a point, try to ask yourself the big question: “How did I learn this?” I know from experience that it can be hard to apply this rule to yourself on a regular basis, but trust me, it’ll make for a much healthier participation in politics, a field that’s already diseased enough as it is, both figuratively and literally.
…Oof, it’s now 2:25AM. I think that’s my cue to end this here. That’s all from me here.
PS: If you think Rittenhouse and his family are going to be able to launch an entire legal counter-campaign against the media for “slander”, I advise you to look into how hard it is to actually prove slander under the law.
PPS: Rittenhouse’s verdict wasn’t the only one that came out today. A disgraced Kansas City cop wasalso convicted todayfor the blatantly-unjust 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb. Just a little positive news on which to end this post of exasperation.
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So they don't just demonize #BLM, they demonize anyone who doesn't accept their right wing theological authoritarianism being force upon them no matter what race or class..."What is it going to take for respectable white people to understand that the Republicans, their paramilitaries and their justices on the Supreme Court are ensnaring whole classes of people in expanding rings of social control? It began with immigrants. It’s going to end with – I don’t know. But when states enact laws regulating marital sex, respectable white people will ask: “How the fuck did this happen?”
The moment they stop going along is the moment they stop giving the rightwing the benefit of the doubt. The best part? It’s easy.
I’m thinking specifically of their reaction to a handful of protests over the weekend outside the homes of Republican justices of the Supreme Court. Last week, a draft opinion leaked showing a court standing ready to strike down Roe, thus voiding the constitutional right to privacy, equal social standing, individual liberty and abortion.
So some Americans did what Americans do in such times.
They raised hell.
A quiet, lawful and very white hell.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh lives in a suburb of Washington, where the well-scrubbed children of the capital’s white upper-middle class romp and play – and where the unwritten social code is civility. The most dangerous thing you can expect from these people, who are the most insulated from the consequences of partisan politics, is discourtesy.
But unmannerliness was too much for some. On Monday, an unsigned editorial in the Post titled “Leave the justices alone at home” said:
The right to assemble and speak freely is essential to democracy. Erasing any distinction between the public square and private life is essential to totalitarianism. It is crucial, therefore, to protect robust demonstrations of political dissent while preventing them from turning into harassment or intimidation (italics mine).
Allow me to rephrase.
A member of the Post’s editorial board, a singular voice in American public affairs, looked at these protests by mostly upper-middle class white people, for whom the consequences of politics are almost never felt, and who were demonstrating peacefully in public spaces with permission and police escort, and said this sure looks like the erasure of any distinction between the public square and private life.
The thinking seems to be that without a firm line separating public and private, without a singular voice in public affairs defending that line, totalitarianism looms. So this weekend’s protests, featuring tens of dozens of polite white people, are akin to harassment and intimidation.
Got that?
I’m used to America’s respectable white people, who vacillate cynically between the parties, seeing left-liberal agitators for freedom and justice as extreme. That’s what the rightwing alleges. Respectable white people typically give the rightwing the benefit of the doubt.
I get that. They’re wrong. But I get that.
What I don’t get is this.
Isn’t the Post’s editorial writer extreme for accusing peaceful and lawful protesters of intimidation? Isn’t US Senator Susan Collins of Maine extreme for describing a pro-Roe message written in chalk on a sidewalk near her home as the “defacement of public property”?
Isn’t it extreme for the Senate to hurry up and pass, according to NBC News’ Frank Thorp, a bill extending protections from the Supreme Court Police to the immediate family members of Supreme Court justices,” as if these middle-aged protesters were a present peril?"
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It’s unfortunate to have stories like this of outright Hate, Bigotry, Racism, Evil and of Sin in this day and age but junk like this or what happened the Trayvon Martin or the Charleston 9 are the Legitimate Reasons illegitimate junk like Sin Sick Lying Liberal Leftist Marxist BLM Stupidity rise and platform with Equal Hate, Bigotry, Racism, Evil and Sin Mixed with Rage, Revenge and Violence to Destructive and Deadly Riots by Bombing or Burning, Looting and Murdering against Everyone and Everything that looks like what had caused them or others like them unmerited pain even when sometimes the details are murky and innocence or complicity seems just. But what they like most fail to realize is that what’s needed is not a mob of thugs shooting up junk, creating autonomous sections of communities or even Boycotts and Peaceful Protests by one group of folks or party but just a few good Christian Americans from every facet of life, Color or Creed to stand up for GOD, His Truth, our Constitution, Justice, Liberty, Equality and for What Is Right in the sight of GOD…That’s what worked for the Civil Rights Movement’s Accomplishments, not just a people but The People of these United States that are more Concerned for what’s happening in rural towns, hurting communities and deplorable cities above and beyond whatever is happening in other nations❗️ 🧐🙏🇺🇸 #REBTD😇
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Has peaceful protest been effective in the past 50 years/more? I guess I just don’t understand why politicians would look at a group of people holding signs saying WE ARE DISPLEASED and feel motivated to change, unless those people were somehow a physical or political threat. Since the way we vote doesn’t effect who wins elections, and since who wins elections has very little effect on our standard of living, I don’t see how we *could* be a threat politically. So really unless protests are doing some kind of damage, like costing the government money, I don’t see how they’re an effective way to advocate for social change in the modern era. Corporate bribery is literally legal, so why would anyone be swayed by a group of people chanting?
Then we look at violent protests, like the BLM riots in NYC, and how the police lost 1 billion dollars of funding. I think a lot of senseless shit happened, like small businesses and black owned businesses being looted, and I definitely think certain people took things too far, but the perpetrators were generally fed tf up, and I know some of the more serious destruction or attempted destruction of property will be paid for with years of people’s lives in what boils down to political imprisonment. But I’m not gonna say it was ineffective. I wasn’t involved in any of the riots but I also can’t say that I’m upset that they turned violent. I don’t think that a bunch of people chanting and stating that they’re unhappy would have had the same effect. In fact I wish it would happen again on a larger scale and lead to the breakdown of society. 🙃
Side note I also think that a lot of people are under the impression that the protests during the civil rights movement were strictly nonviolent and I’d like to remind everyone that they weren’t. Not to mention how destructive and violent the suffragettes were. But when I say that women should take to the streets and riot I’m “crazy” and “need therapy.” Sorry, no. If you think men are gonna start treating us nicely simply because we ask nicely, you’re the crazy one.
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So the most vocal and willing to break the law citizens should be listened to? So do you support the BLM riots since they were citizens demanding something of their government? Anti gun activists in the states are quite vocal as well. I have also seen counter protesters to the protesters so should the government listen to them since they are out on the streets as well?
Did you completely miss the part where I said the government should listen to the people demanding their rights not be violated and not listen to the ones who are demanding more violation of rights? Or did you get so excited because you thought you got me with the incredibly obvious trap you were setting that you skipped over the part where I already avoided that trap?
For those who didn't see the asks last night and don't know what I'm talking about, here's a basic refresher about rights and protests and why some protests should be ignored and some shouldn't. Rights are universal and inalienable. That means everyone has them, and no one can take them away. A government exists solely to do three things: Protect the country's border, maintain some sort of armed forces, preferably but not exclusively for defensive purposes, and protect the rights of its citizens. Those things are, morally, the only job a government should have. The moment a government goes beyond that or drops one of those responsibilities, it's no longer a valid, legitimate government. That kind of government should be protested. And if protests don't work, then the government should be resisted. In practice, that rarely happens. Things almost always stop at protests, partly because protests work, and partly because most people have convinced themselves that relative peace is worth a few rights being lessened or violated. But just because one group of protesters have a legitimate grievance, doesn't mean all of them do. BLM had a decent point about police brutality, but they immediately sabotaged their own point by making it a race issue, then pretending that only one political party was to blame. Spoilers: It wasn't the political party that has been in control of the cities they held their protests in for the last 50 years. BLM was a bought and paid for election influencing tool. It was not a legitimate protest, even though some of the things they were protesting should be looked at, at the least. It also promotes racial supremacy and hate, along with communism and a whole bunch of other crazy, evil shit. The freedom convoy wants the freedom to opt out of medical procedures and to be left alone to do their jobs in peace. These are two very different protests.
And one last thing, just because you mentioned "breaking the law", the law is not the arbiter of morality. Just because something is a law, doesn't mean its moral. If that was the case, then slavery and segregation would both have been moral until the moment they were no longer laws. Part of the responsibility of the citizen of a constitutional republic, the social contract, if you will, is to monitor what laws the government is passing and, if they start passing immoral laws, to act accordingly, either by voting them out of office, or removing them by other means if the voting process is corrupt or completely breaks down.
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“Taliban fighters used whips and sticks against a group of women protesting in Kabul,” CNN reported September 9th. “The fighters also beat a number of journalists covering the demonstration, according to witnesses.”
This is terrible. Violent suppression of peaceful protests should be covered and widely circulated, as was as the story—although it’s not hardly surprising that a brand-new revolutionary government might not be terribly tolerant of criticism less than two weeks after seizing power. The same goes for the brutal mistreatment of reporters.
Compared with the terrifying arsenal of devices wielded by the police and other officials against peaceful marchers who dare to protest the policies of the two-centuries-old United States of America, those Afghan women got off easy. Weapons deployed by U.S. authorities against peaceful Black Lives Matters marchers include pepper spray, pepper balls, blast balls, paintballs, tear gas, sting-ball and flashbang grenades, sponge rounds, rubber and wooden bullets and beanbag rounds, tasers, and Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), a.k.a. sound cannons.
“Horrible, nauseating pain hit my body,” journalist Cory Choy, who was covering the 2014 BLM protests when he was attacked by a sonic weapon deployed by the NYPD, told Popular Mechanics,“and then I realized it was sound. At first you just think, ‘What’s happening to me?’ Your body goes into complete pain and panic mode. It’s the sound equivalent of looking into the sun.”
In 2020 Buffalo police gratuitously shoved a 75-year-old attending a BLM protest to the ground, leaving the man unconscious and bleeding from his ear, without calling an ambulance. That same year mounted police in Houston used horses to trample demonstrators. I would rather face sticks and whips than a weaponized horse.
The fact that American cops treat protesters more viciously and more violently than the Taliban in no way excuses the brutality of the Taliban. But news consumers need and deserve context. In this example, beatings of the Kabuli women should probably have run under the headline “Compared to Americans, Taliban Response to Protests is Restrained.”
Western media outlets responded with similarly context-free outrage to the Taliban’s announcement that demonstrators would have to apply for a permit before they were allowed to protest on streets in Afghanistan. “The interior ministry of the new Taliban government is seeking to end protests in Afghanistan after days of demonstrations that have brought heavy-handed assaults on protesters,” reported the Associated Press. But their lede was belied by the second sentence of their coverage: “The minister has issued an order to end all protests in the country—unless demonstrators get prior permission, including approval of slogans and banners.” You can protest. But you need permission.
Which is appalling. The right to peacefully petition the government over grievances goes back thousands of years and has been honored by absolute monarchs. No one, anywhere, should have to apply for a protest permit.
As everyone who has ever been involved in street activism knows, however, Americans do not enjoy significantly more rights than the people of Afghanistan when they decide to pick up signs and march down a public street. Like the Taliban, American cops require that you file for a protest permit. If you ignore the requirement, they crush you like a bug.
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Keeping the Peace
Writer: JHsgf82
Prompt 45: Peeta works security (peacekeeper? police?), Katniss is a protester (rebellion? BLM?) or a civilian (rebel?) or a local translator in her village. Do they know each other at all? Work together? Fight on opposite sides or meet at common ground? What threatens them? Are their feelings real? [submitted by @567inpanem]
Rating: T
Author Note: Due to lack of time (and taking on too much, lol), this will only be snippets of the fic, a sneak peek. I do plan on continuing, though, and I’ve really enjoyed developing this and writing what I have of it. I hope you’ll enjoy it and that you’ll continue to read it when I post the rest on A03 in the near future. Will be alternating First Person POV, Peeta and Katniss. Edit by @mrspeetamellark. Thank you!
Peeta
“You got a girl, Peet?” Darius asks from his usual spot beside me in the mess hall.
“No.” I smile a little and shake my head.
“Why not? Every woman loves a man in uniform, right?”
I glance down at my snow-white fatigues, then to my helmet beside me on the bench. “Not around here, D.” I don’t say it with bitterness, just matter-of-factly.
Darius slaps me on the back. “Hey, they may act like they hate us, but it’s only because we enforce the law. They don’t like it, but they respect us for it.”
I’m not so sure about that. I think my good friend is a little deluded.
I’ve been a Peacekeeper for going-on-three years now, stationed in good ole’ District 12. I got into it to protect the people and keep them safe, and of course, to keep the peace, but more often than not, it seems like I’m just ordering them around. Or worse.
And now, with the riots happening and the new commander, Commander Thread, in place, the district only seems to be deteriorating further. The residents are frequently whipped in the square, for one. I’ve never had to do it, thankfully, but I know others who have. Even stricter rules are being enforced, tariffs and quotas on every little thing, and we’ve shut down their Hob. The people, at least those from the Seam, have even started moving out of town, into the woods, forming their own little community of sorts. We break them up and force them back sometimes, peacefully as we can.
I hope to God they don’t reinstitute hangings.
I don’t like the way things are, but I can’t leave. I’m sworn in. I belong to Snow and his Peacekeeper organization. I’m literally branded. Still, I refuse to be a piece in whatever game he’s playing. And I’m guessing I’m still hoping I can make a difference, somehow.
Darius talks about women a lot, wanting to fall in love, get married. As for me, I’ve never really considered marriage. I was always married to the job. After the way I grew up, I was so glad to have an important job, something that mattered, but more and more, my thinking’s been changing…
***
The first time I see her, she’s standing calf-deep in the lake. She’s wearing a green, threadbare slip of a dress, and her long, dark hair is braided down her back. Her skin is a flawless olive, shimmering in the sunlight. She bends down and digs up some sort of plant growing on top of the water; it has white flowers, green leaves, and long roots with tubers hanging from it. The bottom of her dress, her legs, and now her hands are covered in mud, but she just looks down at the plant, and she smiles.
As for me, I’m frozen, staring hard with probably the goofiest grin on my face. She’s just so…ethereal. I definitely need to paint her later, at least get a quick sketch down before I forget what she looks like. Nah, I’ll never forget. She’s too unique. Too…mesmerizing.
Her ears seem to prick, and she catches sight of me. And although it’s hard to tell from this distance, I swear her eyes are silver. Stupid and enraptured as I am, I wave. She merely tugs up the strap of her dress, which has slipped a little, and stares at me.
My god, she’s stunning.
Who is she? This silver-eyed, braided vision before me. Is she real, or some kind of earth goddess? Hell, I might consider marriage, if I could be married to her.
Wait, what am I saying? She’s a local. Most likely a Seam girl. We’re from two different worlds; it’d never work. Mainly because she probably hates my guts.
***
A couple weeks later, there’s a ruckus just outside of town that I’m called to, a small dispute of sorts. When I get there, three of our guys are surrounding a local man and…the girl from the lake! I rush over.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Right away, I’m told by my superior officer to fall in line. Darius is there, too. He quietly explains the situation while we look on from a few feet away.
“She’s been hoarding goat’s milk rather than turning in her quota!” exclaims the man, spitting a little when he says it. He must have been the one who turned her in.
For crying out loud. I groan. All this over a little goat’s milk.
“You’re just hoping they take Lady away from us, so you can have her back free of charge!” the girl from the lake growls.
I don’t know what comes over me, but all of a sudden, I’m stepping up to stand between the girl and her goat and the rest of the men.
“Let the girl keep her goat,” I demand.
“Peeta, what are you doing?” asks Darius, concerned.
“Just…go on, D. I got this.”
“Look, there’s no use crying over spilled goat’s milk.” I joke. Darius turns to me, and I can tell the face he’s making beneath his helmet.
“What the hell are you babbling about?” my superior officer snarls.
I don’t even know. Really I’m just trying to distract him and get him to forget about the girl and let her go. I’ll persuade my superior, and the local man, because that’s what I’m good at.
But that doesn’t happen. Things get out of hand when the girl tries to sneak off with her goat while we’re talking, and all but Darius and me point guns at her. I lose my cool and shove the two guns away from her. “Hey! Back off!"
…
***
“Where’s Lady?” the girl from the lake demands.
“Who?”
“The goat. My goat, dammit!” She starts rapidly firing off words in a native tongue, probably cursing me out. “She’s my sister’s goat! She was a gift; she’s important, and I need her!”
“Okay, okay, calm down. I saved the goat. Sent it back to the village with my most trusted friend.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to escort you back home.”
She eyes me skeptically.
“I haven’t been ordered to or anything. It’s just, you took quite a blow, and I want to make sure you’re okay.”
She studies me a moment; then, apparently, she decides she believes me because she nods.
I smile. “So, you’ll allow it?”
“I’ll allow it."
***
I wake up in a cave, not knowing how I came to be here. All I remember is the riot getting out of hand, me taking off my helmet and something bashing me in the back of the head, and…the girl!
I turn to my right with a groan, and I see her beside me.
I try to sit up, but she tells me to lie back down. It’s just as well, for the entire cave is spinning. She takes a cloth out of a small, brown bowl of water, rings it out, and places it on my forehead, partially obscuring my eyes. I move it so I can see her better.
I moan a little when the pain hits.
“Shh, you’re alright. Just a nasty gash. But you’ll live. I’m sorry that I’m not a healer, but my mother is, and I’ve picked up a thing or two.”
“You. What’s your name?” I need to know.
“Katniss.”
“Oh. Pretty name. What does it mean?”
She seems amused by this, probably thinks I’m off my head from delirium.
“It’s a plant. An edible water plant with white flowers and tubers.”
“Oh, like the ones you dug up from the lake that one time?”
Shit. Now she knows it was me watching her.
“Yeah, like those ones.” Her pretty lips upturn slightly.
I study her a moment. “Uh, so I assume you knew I was watching you the whole time.”
“Yeah, I knew. I have…heightened senses, let’s just say.”
I nod. “And how did you know it was me back there?"
“I saw your tattoo,” she replies plainly, “and your face.”
“You know about my tattoo?” I quirk a brow.
“Yeah. It means you’re a Peacekeeper, right?”
I nod.
"Why are you doing this, then?” I murmur.
She presses her lips into a thin smile and says, “Because you helped me once.”
***
“If you’re gonna blend in and be one of us, Peeta, you have to pass the initiation,” says Katniss.
“Oh yeah?” I cock my head to the side. At this point, I’m ready for anything. “And what’s that?”
She grins. “Milk Lady.”
Except that.
Katniss is screwing with me, surely. She wants me to milk a goat? No way. I can’t milk a goat. And yet, I also can’t resist those eyes or that sexy little smirk-smile of hers, so I poke out my chest and clap my hands together. “Alright, lead the way.”
“Really?”
"Absolutely. Lady is practically famous. I’m ready to get up close and personal with her.”
Katniss laughs so hard she snorts. “Um, I think maybe you’re not quite healed from that head injury.” She raises her hand to touch the spot, stopping just short. I catch her wrist and place it on the side of my face, and I hear her breath hitch.
“I’m fine, Katniss. But thank you for being concerned about me.”
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