3 ms·

> That's one aspect of it, but from another perspective, this is a simple power play. I would characterize it more as a threat display with collateral damage.

> That's one aspect of it, but from another perspective, this is a simple power play. I would characterize it more as a threat display with collateral damage. A power play implies that the thing you're using the power play on is the direct goal, but here it's more a signal to show that anyone can be taken down. Sort of like when the overlord kills a randomly chosen subjugant to send a message. I do think there is an aspect of this to it, yes. I don't personally attribute any large scale organized (organized who?) intention behind. More that the emergent properties of our culture have left this new shiny machine gun laying on the floor and some people, for various reasons, are firing off a couple of shots. We're living in a tumultuous time where power structures are changing. That tends to temporarily leave a lot of destructive toys around and people are going to scrabble for them and do a lot of harm before things settle back down. I hope that when they do we find that the power in the US has been distributed more equitably than it has in the past.

lupire 6y ago
It's a shibboleth. A weapon that an underprivileged class (black people) can weild against any unsuspecting non-black-enough person who accidentally walks into the trap. The justification is that suffering arbitrary harm is Black History, and this is their chance to inflict the same on the mainstream.
- emsy 6y ago
  That's what it started out as, but these days it's used as a cheap status display. Effectively, the so called empowerment of under-priviliged groups is what holds them down and that's deliberate. Otherwise there would be no groups to protect and hence no cheap status display.
- anoncake 6y ago
  I believe the technical term is "revenge".
- munificent 6y ago
  > It's a shibboleth. That's definitely not the original definition of and metaphorical use of "shibboleth". Modern shibboleths would be things like whether or not you capitalize "Black", using "democrat" as a noun instead of "democratic ___", "right-winger", and "leftist" (mostly). It's a word that when you use it, it reveals something about which group you are a member of. > A weapon that an underprivileged class (black people) can weild against any unsuspecting non-black-enough person who accidentally walks into the trap. No, the sociological forces in play here are more complex than that. In the linked article, as far as I know, all of the students that complained are themselves also white and rich. This is a group of people in the exact same racial and socio-economic group as the person being attacked.

lupire 6y ago

It's a shibboleth. A weapon that an underprivileged class (black people) can weild against any unsuspecting non-black-enough person who accidentally walks into the trap. The justification is that suffering arbitrary harm is Black History, and this is their chance to inflict the same on the mainstream.

emsy 6y ago
That's what it started out as, but these days it's used as a cheap status display. Effectively, the so called empowerment of under-priviliged groups is what holds them down and that's deliberate. Otherwise there would be no groups to protect and hence no cheap status display.
anoncake 6y ago
I believe the technical term is "revenge".
munificent 6y ago
> It's a shibboleth. That's definitely not the original definition of and metaphorical use of "shibboleth". Modern shibboleths would be things like whether or not you capitalize "Black", using "democrat" as a noun instead of "democratic ___", "right-winger", and "leftist" (mostly). It's a word that when you use it, it reveals something about which group you are a member of. > A weapon that an underprivileged class (black people) can weild against any unsuspecting non-black-enough person who accidentally walks into the trap. No, the sociological forces in play here are more complex than that. In the linked article, as far as I know, all of the students that complained are themselves also white and rich. This is a group of people in the exact same racial and socio-economic group as the person being attacked.