[dissident]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZJ1OVCXLCs

The mobs of woke zealots led by BLM and their attack on the "bad" old ways and symbols are a new fanatical religion. As with all other religions, the zealots commit all the crimes. Just because there may be some good aspects to a certain set of beliefs does not justify violent suppression of dissent. We see exactly the sort of Talban-like behaviour on Twitter and other social media. Dare not conform to the religion of woke and you and your family will be threatened with physical violence and your employer will be pressured to lay you off.

BLM and the mobs pulling down and defacing statues (e.g. that of Stevie Ray Vaughan) are criminal zealots. If the peaceful part of the population (the silent majority) sits there and does nothing, it will be living under oppression in short order. Don't delude yourself that this is merely some Rodney King style riots.

[Outcast_Searcher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZJ1OVCXLCs

The mobs of woke zealots led by BLM and their attack on the "bad" old ways and symbols are a new fanatical religion. As with all other religions, the zealots commit all the crimes. Just because there may be some good aspects to a certain set of beliefs does not justify violent suppression of dissent. We see exactly the sort of Talban-like behaviour on Twitter and other social media. Dare not conform to the religion of woke and you and your family will be threatened with physical violence and your employer will be pressured to lay you off.

BLM and the mobs pulling down and defacing statues (e.g. that of Stevie Ray Vaughan) are criminal zealots. If the peaceful part of the population (the silent majority) sits there and does nothing, it will be living under oppression in short order. Don't delude yourself that this is merely some Rodney King style riots.

Certainly, over time, both the left and the right try to get away with all they can, when they have political momentum. And sadly, that includes some violence, on both sides.

And of course, both sides tend to point wildly when the other side is doing it, and pretend like their side would never stoop to such things.

Oh, and IMO, for such hotbed issues, NEITHER side is at all good re tolerance to opposing views, which is part of what disgusts me so much about the mock outrage both sides show against even reasonable attempts at discourse on such an issue.

I'm talking specifically about the US here.

Now, how do you fix it? I don't know. Once people stop acting rationally, that's outside my bailiwick.

[Plantagenet]

Now, how do you fix it? I don't know. Once people stop acting rationally, that's outside my bailiwick.

Biden's campaign pledge is that he will bring about "a return to normalcy."

Perhaps electing Biden is now the way to make America great again?

Cheers!

[Outcast_Searcher]

Now, how do you fix it? I don't know. Once people stop acting rationally, that's outside my bailiwick.

Biden's campaign pledge is that he will bring about "a return to normalcy."

Perhaps electing Biden is now the way to make America great again?

Cheers!

Well, that's interesting, re "normalcy". Has he DEFINED normalcy with any detail?

Because in the US, with the history I've lived through for the past, say 50 years, there is going to be a LOT of difference of opinion from a LOT of groups, small and large, re what "normalcy" is, and what it should entail.

When I search on something like "biden defines normalcy", I get lots of opinion and political rhetoric (some from both sides), but nothing clear in terms of a well laid out plan /definition from Biden (unless I missed it).

Given campaign rhetoric vs. what often happens when someone is elected, I'm not surprised.

[jedrider]

Biden's campaign pledge is that he will bring about "a return to normalcy.

I sure hope not. If this is or was normal, I'm going to retreat into my own world even more so.

Right now, things are not normal and I think deserves everyones participation.

[asg70]

I don't think the world has felt "normal" since before 911, or maybe a little further back, before the dot com bust. Late 90s, waning days of the Clinton presidency. I don't think there's any chance of getting back to that. All we can hope for are partial victories.

[Plantagenet]

I was very happy to read today that when the NBA re-opens the players will have various "woke" slogans on the back of their jerseys.

Its the most glorious example of "virtue signaling" I've ever seen.

I hope the play-by-play announcers actually call the game using by the slogans on the player's back.....so we might hear..."400 years of oppression" is slowly bringing the ball up the court....he passes to "I can't breathe" who take a shot but chokes...."black lives matter" goes up and gets the rebound but then he is fouled hard by "police brutality".....ohmigosh...."police brutality" really clobbered "black lives matter"......a fight starts....."police brutality" is joined by "systematic racism" and they're both pounding on "black lives matter." Where are the ref? Why don't the refs stop the fight? Oh thats right, the NBA players demanded that the refs be defunded.


.....that explains why he chokes in the big games.....

Cheers!

[Plantagenet]

Now the NBA is disappointing me.

They are going to paint "Black Lives Matter" along the SIDES of the basketball court for the finals.

nba-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-sides-of-courts

What kind of racist BS is that.

The entire court should be painted to say BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Just painting the side of the court doesn't show much commitment to change, IMHO. You aren't going to make much progress towards racial justice if you only paint it down the sides.

If the NBA really cared about social justice then the social justice message would be front and center....and that means painted right there across the middle of the whole basketball court, running the whole length of the court from end to end line.

And another thing is the cheerleaders. Normally each team has cheerleaders and they dance and cavort around especially at halftime. No no no. It would be much more effective as a social justice message if the cheerleaders would just march out to center court, with their fists raised in the air, and then just kneel there. Kneel through the whole half time chanting black lives matter and I can't breathe and saying the names of George Floyd and the other martyrs to police brutality over and over again while the payers take a break a halftime.


No no no. Things have changed. No more dancing. Now cheerleaders are going to kneel all through the halftime with their fists up the air and chant "Black Lives Matter" over and over again.

[Newfie]

I don't think the world has felt "normal" since before 911, or maybe a little further back, before the dot com bust. Late 90s, waning days of the Clinton presidency. I don't think there's any chance of getting back to that. All we can hope for are partial victories.

I think our view of “normal” is developed in childhood and is pretty firmly set by the time you reach sexual maturity.

Because things are changing so fast it gives us whiplash.

I really don’t feel at home much of anywhere anymore. Our place in Canada is pretty good, but I can’t get there this year. I miss that, it gives me a sense of place and home.

As it is now we are vagabond with not much place to go.

I sure hope the travel Restrictions ease soon.

[ralfy]

Funded by the rich, which also funds the military industrial complex.

[asg70]

Funded by the rich, which also funds the military industrial complex.

Woke culture came about due to a lot of factors. If you want to boil it down, though, you can say that it's the natural byproduct of any country that has had it too good for too long and starts to redirect its need to crusade towards ever more trivial grievances. The purity-testing and cancel-culture is like an addictive habit. Once you've already burned through the low-hanging-fruit you start straining to find more stuff. In the 50s it was McCarthyism. Now it's on the other end of the spectrum. This also relates to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Once you're core needs are taken care of you start to fixate on wants than needs. Much has been said about "white" or "male" fragility. Woke is really about the left not being emotionally capable of tolerating dissent or really any social friction whatsoever other than that what they themselves project outward. A true melting pot and marketplace of ideas with actual freedom of speech requires a minimum amount of tolerance of opinions that might bother or trigger us. You can't live your life inside a safe-space.

The reason why MeToo and BLM have become such things is they appear to the woke as rare big ticket items and so they feast on it to get their hit. But before long it warps beyond recognition into things like book-burning cultural vandalism, etc...

[jedrider]

Concerning cultural vandalism, I think history ought to be weighed.

We toppled Saddam's Hussein's statute in Iraq. We ought to be able to take our own medicine IMO.

[Tanada]

Concerning cultural vandalism, I think history ought to be weighed.

We toppled Saddam's Hussein's statute in Iraq. We ought to be able to take our own medicine IMO.

I find it ironic that people can not distinguish between toppling the statue of a then still living brutal dictator and pulling down a statue of a historical figure who died at least a century ago and hasn't brutalized anyone now alive even if they were total asshats when they were alive.

[jedrider]

Concerning cultural vandalism, I think history ought to be weighed.

We toppled Saddam's Hussein's statute in Iraq. We ought to be able to take our own medicine IMO.

I find it ironic that people can not distinguish between toppling the statue of a then still living brutal dictator and pulling down a statue of a historical figure who died at least a century ago and hasn't brutalized anyone now alive even if they were total asshats when they were alive.

We get to choose our historical narrative and not let the past choose it for us.

[asg70]

We get to choose our historical narrative and not let the past choose it for us.

I find myself sort of ambivalent about the confederate statues and flag in particular. I am more concerned about the book-burning aspect, i.e. Gone with the Wind, Splash Mountain, etc... There is a slippery-slope, though. The statue thing bleeding over to Teddy Roosevelt and even Lincoln. Art always winds up offending someone. Think the woke tearing down statues are the same type who would defend Robert Mapplethorpe's piss-christ against the religious who felt offended. The cost of freedom of speech is that we all must tolerate being offended. It's just that what offends me isn't what offends you. Remember that the UCLA at one point even defended neo-nazis marching in Skokie. The left has largely abandoned its commitment to freedom of speech in the interests of social-engineering through censorship in much the same way the religious right tried to tamp down on what it saw as immorality in the 80s heavy metal days, you know, back when Frank Zappa testified before congress. The reason why this started to flare up from 2016 onward is that when the democrats lost the white house it sought to exert power through all other means than elective office. It's OK to be offended and clutch pearls but in the end you have to be willing to defend the other person's ability to upset you because that's the only way you'll maintain your own rights to offend others. It's the same reason why the Geneva Convention is a thing, not so much to protect enemy troops but ours. It's impossible to see that sort of mirror symmetry in a polarized climate. Instead it's all one flavor of my way or the highway or another.

[jedrider]

If I were a Black person (or African-American), I wouldn't want to have to walk pass statutes of Confederate Generals or Presidents.

I say down with them. I would make a choice on history.

No need to destroy them necessarily. There should be a slave museum. Put it there where it belongs.

[jedrider]

Christopher Columbus. Put him in a Colonization Museum where he belongs. Show the 'Indians' being scalped.

[asg70]

Christopher Columbus. Put him in a Colonization Museum where he belongs. Show the 'Indians' being scalped.

There are scant few figures in history for whom you can't find some dirt on. Like if we get rid of Columbus Day should we also get rid of MLK day because of this?

https://theconversation.com/im-an-mlk-s ... ght-118015

[jedrider]

Christopher Columbus. Put him in a Colonization Museum where he belongs. Show the 'Indians' being scalped.

There are scant few figures in history for whom you can't find some dirt on. Like if we get rid of Columbus Day should we also get rid of MLK day because of this?

https://theconversation.com/im-an-mlk-s ... ght-118015

That's why I said

I think history ought to be weighed

MLK stays. Columbus, I don't really care about. He can stay, too.

Do we still celebrate Columbus Day anywhere? I think that can REALLY go, like gone.

[Plantagenet]

Now that Richmond is taking down all its giant statues of confederate leaders, the question arises of what to put up in their place. The plinths...the bases..of the statues are huge. It seems a shame to just have the grafitti smeared platforms still there with no statues on them.

I've got an idea.

Why not replace each of the giant statues of Confederate leaders with a statue of one the black martyrs killed by police brutality and systemic racism....

In place of Gen. Stonewall Jackson....a giant statue of Trayvon Martin.

And in the next spot.....a statue of Breona Tayor.

And so on....

Until in the place of honor, the biggest statue of all......

Replace Robert E. Lee with a 100 foot tall statue of GEORGE FLOYD!!!!


This is a photo of the base of the Robert E. Lee statue with George Floyds face projected on it. Imagine how much more fitting and epic it would be to have a 100 foot tall statue of Robert Floyd put up right in Robert E. Lee's place. What better way to honor the man and his life!!!!

Cheers!