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The problem with defending violence, is that you have to defend the underlying grievances that led to violence. Can you blame people who engage in violence if t

The problem with defending violence, is that you have to defend the underlying grievances that led to violence. Can you blame people who engage in violence if they had a sincere belief that they were justified? What if it turns out that actually the election WAS stolen? Would you retroactively excuse them? > In contrast no such extreme perception is present in the BLM movement, some are radicalised sure, but not entire protest mobs. I don't know how you can say that. There's absolutely no shortage of violence in BLM. I would assert that it easily eclipses anything by Trump supporters. Most of the Trump supporters were also peaceful. The reason they rushed the capital without masks is because they spent all summer watching BLM doing it, and they thought it was normal. They didn't understand that they will be held to different standards. I think for every act of violence by someone on the right, you can find something worse by BLM. Where is the outrage about a high ranking BLM organizer engaging in vehicular terrorism? [1] It is dismissed as just another lone wolf, in a cascade of lone wolves. 1: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/917523942/woman-charged-with-attempted-murder-after-driving-into-pro-trump-protesters https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/917523942/woman-charged-with-...

simonh 6y ago
Oh I'm not backing BLM, or Antifa particularly, there are those among them who are very far beyond the pale. I'm not even particularly going to pick sides as to which is more violent. I think it's 9 people that have been killed in BLM protests, although several of them were BLM protesters themselves. There's blood on people's hands on all sides, and I don't think there are even just 2 sides here. The question is really about objectives. The BLM movement isn't fundamentally anti-democratic or revolutionary, it's reformist. Whether Trump explicitly incited violence I think is questionable for example, his incitement was reckless but personally I don't think it was criminal (Giuliani on the other hand...). The core issue IMHO is the democratic process. Trump launched a deliberate, pre-meditated all out attack on the democratic process in America, and overturning that process was the explicit goal of the Capitol attack. He has made zero credible effort at electoral reform, if he can't win democratically he is entirely comfortably with winning undemocratically and so are a very, very large swathe of his supporters. This is the fact that cannot be dismissed withwhataboutist finger pointing.
- apostacy 6y ago
  > The question is really about objectives. The BLM movement isn't fundamentally anti-democratic or revolutionary, it's reformist. I think you are judging Trump supporters by the worst of them, and BLM by the best of them. When I look at BLM, I see black ethnonationalists, people who are eager to use violence, and just generally a lot of dangerous people. Are my eyes lying to me? How can you just dismiss that? It's so easy to point to a peaceful nice subset of BLM, and say that that is all BLM is. Indeed, people even go as far as to say "BLM just means that you think that 'black lives matter'", which is nonsense. I've seen Scientologists say "Scientology is just about helping people, if you agree with that then you agree with us", or "Feminism is just about believing that men and women are equal, if you agree with that sentence, you are a feminist". Of course most people already agree that 'black lives matter', but that is certainly not the same thing as agreeing with 'Black Lives Matter'. I think it is quite a leap to simply call them "reformist". If you can focus only on the reformist elements of BLM, then others are completely justified in doing the same Trump supporters.
  - simonh 6y ago
    Well, as I said there are more than just 2 sides in this. There are multiple groups with multiple agendas. On the BLM side I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement aiming to reform policing and governance. I think they're largely wrong, but they're not a threat to the democratic process and they can be negotiated with or opposed institutionally. In Trumpism I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement that, from the top, tried to overthrow democracy in America. Not in a sub-group, not an extremist sub-set or faction. From the top down.
    - apostacy 6y ago
      > On the BLM side I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement aiming to reform policing and governance. Again, the arson, the vehicular terror attacks, the kidnappings, and the mass shootings are bit too much for me to stomach. And no effort is made to distance themselves from the violence and coercion. It is like trying to say that soup is really good except for the poop in it; 'mostly' peaceful. I don't think there is any evidence that Trumpists wanted to overthrow democracy. The Trump supporters did a BLM-lite style protest of the capital building. They were actually much nicer than BLM usually is. They shuffled around the hallways of an empty building for 45 minutes and then left. A guy had plastic zip-ties, which people theorize that he was going to take hostages or something (but didn't). Their action was clearly symbolic, and the overreaction to it just shows how detached and insincere people are. So no, I'm sorry I just don't see what you are seeing.

simonh 6y ago

Oh I'm not backing BLM, or Antifa particularly, there are those among them who are very far beyond the pale. I'm not even particularly going to pick sides as to which is more violent. I think it's 9 people that have been killed in BLM protests, although several of them were BLM protesters themselves. There's blood on people's hands on all sides, and I don't think there are even just 2 sides here. The question is really about objectives. The BLM movement isn't fundamentally anti-democratic or revolutionary, it's reformist. Whether Trump explicitly incited violence I think is questionable for example, his incitement was reckless but personally I don't think it was criminal (Giuliani on the other hand...). The core issue IMHO is the democratic process. Trump launched a deliberate, pre-meditated all out attack on the democratic process in America, and overturning that process was the explicit goal of the Capitol attack. He has made zero credible effort at electoral reform, if he can't win democratically he is entirely comfortably with winning undemocratically and so are a very, very large swathe of his supporters. This is the fact that cannot be dismissed withwhataboutist finger pointing.

apostacy 6y ago
> The question is really about objectives. The BLM movement isn't fundamentally anti-democratic or revolutionary, it's reformist. I think you are judging Trump supporters by the worst of them, and BLM by the best of them. When I look at BLM, I see black ethnonationalists, people who are eager to use violence, and just generally a lot of dangerous people. Are my eyes lying to me? How can you just dismiss that? It's so easy to point to a peaceful nice subset of BLM, and say that that is all BLM is. Indeed, people even go as far as to say "BLM just means that you think that 'black lives matter'", which is nonsense. I've seen Scientologists say "Scientology is just about helping people, if you agree with that then you agree with us", or "Feminism is just about believing that men and women are equal, if you agree with that sentence, you are a feminist". Of course most people already agree that 'black lives matter', but that is certainly not the same thing as agreeing with 'Black Lives Matter'. I think it is quite a leap to simply call them "reformist". If you can focus only on the reformist elements of BLM, then others are completely justified in doing the same Trump supporters.
- simonh 6y ago
  Well, as I said there are more than just 2 sides in this. There are multiple groups with multiple agendas. On the BLM side I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement aiming to reform policing and governance. I think they're largely wrong, but they're not a threat to the democratic process and they can be negotiated with or opposed institutionally. In Trumpism I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement that, from the top, tried to overthrow democracy in America. Not in a sub-group, not an extremist sub-set or faction. From the top down.
  - apostacy 6y ago
    > On the BLM side I see a subset of violent criminals in a movement aiming to reform policing and governance. Again, the arson, the vehicular terror attacks, the kidnappings, and the mass shootings are bit too much for me to stomach. And no effort is made to distance themselves from the violence and coercion. It is like trying to say that soup is really good except for the poop in it; 'mostly' peaceful. I don't think there is any evidence that Trumpists wanted to overthrow democracy. The Trump supporters did a BLM-lite style protest of the capital building. They were actually much nicer than BLM usually is. They shuffled around the hallways of an empty building for 45 minutes and then left. A guy had plastic zip-ties, which people theorize that he was going to take hostages or something (but didn't). Their action was clearly symbolic, and the overreaction to it just shows how detached and insincere people are. So no, I'm sorry I just don't see what you are seeing.