- Joined
- Jul 3, 2019
- Messages
- 38,388
- Reaction score
- 30,185
- Location
- Ohio
- Gender
- Female
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
I have a question for those here on this forum who self-identify as political left-wing or left-leaning and who either find nothing to condemn about property destruction, vandalism, and/or looting, or find it even acceptable or laudable:
Why are you okay or even happy with it?
Is it because property destruction, looting and vandalism are crimes that you cannot summon moral outrage for because it is far less terrible when compared to unjustified police killings and abuse?
Is it because you cannot see the havoc it wreaks on the lives of those whose property is ruined (presuming it is private property) versus those of people who have been killed on video? Perhaps you presume that the property owners have adequate insurance coverage which will pay cover and make good their losses?
Or is it for less emotive and more ideological reasons? Is it because the property owners, whatever their ancestry or the means of their attainment of property, are the conscious or unconscious beneficiaries of a system that has oppressed black Americans and/or exploits workers and the landless, and thus they deserve the destruction visited upon their property? Perhaps you would hope that this destruction spurs systemic change as those with economic power plead with those in political power to better the situation of the permanent underclass in order to avoid further unrest which threatens their property?
All of the above? None of the above? Are there other reasons?
Keep in mind, this is not a "gotcha" or my opportunity to heap abuse on top of you. I genuinely want to know your reasoning and hopefully I or other members on this forum, left, right, center or non-aligned can have a civil discussion with you.
DISCLAIMER: Before anyone rushes to answer, please keep in mind that this question is NOT aimed at self-identified left-wing or left-leaning members of this forum who are against property destruction, looting and vandalism. Only for those who are not.
Have you eve heard of the Boston Tea Party? There are many times when only a few million people in the streets for a month or more destroying and protesting is the way that social and political changes happen. Look at the French. They will take to the streets and protest at the drop of a croissant and their have one of the freest and most progressive societies in the world.
Violent public protests are the reason we have voting rights, a 5 day week, unions, and workers rights, ended wars and minority rights for various groups. The damage is ultimately minor and insured, but the change that happens is often permanent.
The Berlin wall and the iron curtain didn't fall because of people writing angry op-ed letters. It fell in 1991 because millions of people in Poland, East Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other countries took to the streets and didn't go home until walls and dictators fell and were often publicly executed.