Rioting is wrong way to protest
(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 10, 2020)
There's a correct way to protest injustice and there's a wrong way. You may have recently noticed people in several big cities doing it the wrong way. Although, perhaps people pretending to side with the protesters were intentionally making the protesters look bad-- it's hard to know which.
I've been writing about, and opposing, police brutality for years. It's an important topic. When someone commits wrong while using the defense "I was just doing my job", I'm among the first to reject the excuse. Don't hide your contempt for human life behind your job. A badge can't grant extra rights and shouldn't shield bad guys from consequences.
Fighting against a wrongful kidnapping-- whether by a freelance kidnapper or by someone committing the ritual euphemistically called an "arrest"-- is not a legitimate reason to be killed. Any protest triggered by such a death is justified.
However, if your protest targets the wrong people by violating the life, liberty, and property of people who weren't the problem, you are behaving no differently than those you protest.
Rioting is the wrong way to protest. Looting, arson, and vandalism are even worse. Blocking traffic will also turn opinion against you. At that point, you're no longer on the side of justice and I want nothing to do with you. I might agree with every point you are protesting, but I will stand against any rioting or looting. You'll lose your chance to have another person on your side. Multiply this effect by thousands and you might see why it's a bad idea to treat everyone as your enemy.
Don't harm your own cause. Don't drive people away if you want them to agree with you.
You'll also risk wasting your life by forcing people to defend themselves and their property from you.
Your life matters. Act like it matters to you. To be treated as though your life doesn't matter is wrong, whether or not your treatment is recognized as a crime.
Other people's lives matter, too. For someone to take a life when the death wasn't necessary to defend the life, liberty, or property of innocent victims is wrong even if your job allows it or you believe your cause justifies it.
I have no love for police, but they are no worse than the rioters, vandals, and looters. I won't choose sides in that battle but will stand with those who refuse to violate other people in any way. It's the right thing to do.
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 ...
