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The poisoned cup
Jan. 7th, 2021 08:39 pmIt is entirely possible I have lost friends over my support of Black Lives Matter. Not my choice, but not something I can stop. This breaks my heart. I still consider friendship more important than politics, but there are some positions I cannot abide and some principles I can't hide.
There have been some attempts to compare last summer's protests to yesterday's attempted coup in Washington. This is breathtakingingly disingenuous, but attempts have been made. How does one deal with such folk?
Possibly it's healthiest not to, but I've always had difficulty letting an imbecile feel he's had the last word. This means that precious hours are lost (in a deadline week no less) in fruitless online arguments, but some responses have to be made lest they think there is no response.
To whit:
When a group gathers to address a grievance, it is not the same as when a group gathers to overthrow the government.
When a brutalized community loses its temper and misbehaves, it is not the same as when a privileged group loses its temper and misbehaves.
Blindly lashing out at property is not the same as deliberately targeting democratic institutions.
Basing your actions and your emotions on verifiable fact is not the same as basing them on personal fantasy.
I could go on. How do you begin to explain to those who choose not to see or pretend not to know?
I do wonder if these are the same folk who insisted that Trumpets would behave themselves following the election, and it was the Left who are inherently violent (even as armed thugs were storming state capitals).
I think Anne Applebaum (hardly a pinko lefty) put it quite eloquently in "The Atlantic".
"Unlike so many other disturbances over the years, the events at the Capitol yesterday did not represent a policy dispute, a disagreement about a foreign war or the behavior of police. They were part of an argument over the validity of democracy itself: A violent mob declared that it should decide who becomes the next president"
Of course, some just don't value democracy. Every dictator has his supporters. Every atrocity has its apologists, and its backers. Every crackdown has its cheerleaders. At times like this you can guess who they are. With a sinking heart, one realizes whom amongst one's friend would, under other circumstances, would have been a brown-shirt or a Stasi informer.
Not fun.
There have been some attempts to compare last summer's protests to yesterday's attempted coup in Washington. This is breathtakingingly disingenuous, but attempts have been made. How does one deal with such folk?
Possibly it's healthiest not to, but I've always had difficulty letting an imbecile feel he's had the last word. This means that precious hours are lost (in a deadline week no less) in fruitless online arguments, but some responses have to be made lest they think there is no response.
To whit:
When a group gathers to address a grievance, it is not the same as when a group gathers to overthrow the government.
When a brutalized community loses its temper and misbehaves, it is not the same as when a privileged group loses its temper and misbehaves.
Blindly lashing out at property is not the same as deliberately targeting democratic institutions.
Basing your actions and your emotions on verifiable fact is not the same as basing them on personal fantasy.
I could go on. How do you begin to explain to those who choose not to see or pretend not to know?
I do wonder if these are the same folk who insisted that Trumpets would behave themselves following the election, and it was the Left who are inherently violent (even as armed thugs were storming state capitals).
I think Anne Applebaum (hardly a pinko lefty) put it quite eloquently in "The Atlantic".
"Unlike so many other disturbances over the years, the events at the Capitol yesterday did not represent a policy dispute, a disagreement about a foreign war or the behavior of police. They were part of an argument over the validity of democracy itself: A violent mob declared that it should decide who becomes the next president"
Of course, some just don't value democracy. Every dictator has his supporters. Every atrocity has its apologists, and its backers. Every crackdown has its cheerleaders. At times like this you can guess who they are. With a sinking heart, one realizes whom amongst one's friend would, under other circumstances, would have been a brown-shirt or a Stasi informer.
Not fun.
