Police killings-- the only thing you need to consider
All killings committed by police can be evaluated by considering one thing: Was the person who the officer killed currently archating before the police approached him? If not, there was no reason for the police to approach him in the first place. If they chose to do so anyway and it escalated to the person being killed; it is murder.
If I walk up to a person on the street who isn't doing anything obviously wrong and I start molesting them and they shove me away, making me "fear for my life", and I then choke or shoot them, who is the bad guy? Not my victim. It's the same with cops. Badges don't create an exception.
Eric Garner was not archating. He was engaging in consensual trade with willing partners. Cops approached him using the excuse of "tax rules"; he resisted the kidnappers; they murdered him.
George Floyd was not archating. He supposedly passed a counterfeit bill (as most of us have probably unknowlingly done at least once). Cops approached, he refused to cooperate with the molesters; they murdered him.
I see this play out over and over. People criticize what happened after the police approached someone they should never have approached in the first place. They ignore the fact that cops shouldn't have approached the victim to begin with and focus on how the victim reacted to being molested and threatened by gang members. Then they excuse the gang for murdering someone they should have left alone.
I don't criticize police killings when the person who was killed is archating. But that's almost never the case in the killings that get the most publicity. Cops are scum. People who defend and support police are either weak, cowardly, or supportive of evil. Defund, dismantle, and disavow the gang.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
