Imagine being enough of a dipshit to say that authoritarianism doesn’t exist.

I mean, sure? Probably even? But this really only emphasizes my point that they’re straight up stupid and beyond incompetent. Even the Romans, for how brutal they were, understood the importance of civic justice in maintaining the continued rule of the state. If the state no longer maintains it’s judiciary responsibility, they’ve basically abdicated their own legitimacy. You can say that the state isn’t abdicating it’s legitimacy if it at least is bound by some of it’s laws, but if the state picks and chooses, is the state not directly questioning it’s own legitimacy? I should point out that it’s hyperbolic for me to say that the state not binding itself to any one law abdicates it’s legitimacy, but there are certain points of judiciary responsibility that will greatly erode the legitimacy of the state if it doesn’t maintain them or at least appear to. A very public murder like this is definitely one of those points. Erosion of state legitimacy brings a fragmentation of those that would maintain it’s power, and I really don’t think they’re considering this factor at all. Those in essential positions within the government will become less inclined to maintain their loyalty to the state and be much more tempted to join those seeking to resist the state’s existence. Setting this precedence sets this administration on a trajectory to an untenable position. The waning loyalty and increasing sentiment of resistance isn’t something that is generally very visible until it VERY much so is. They seem to think they can keep literally and figuratively shooting at us, but it won’t be surprising to those paying attention when more and more of “their own” start shooting back at them.

Uhhh… uh oh. Considering the immediate and widespread outrage response across the country from this very public murder, this is a boldly stupid move. Resentment and distrust of the US government is already at an all time high, and doubling down on an extrajudicial murder like this is only going to not only grow that resentment, but popularize the idea that if the people want justice, they’ll have to do it themselves. This administration has been making some especially stupid moves recently and I don’t think the world is prepared for the consequences. Like yeah, sure, the trump admin has always blahblahblah, no shit. I must emphasize that this particular term of the administration hasn’t even been this stupid until the last few months. They are very much so overplaying their hand right now and they are absolutely not in a position to handle this level of escalation. I’m pretty sure they both think they have way more control than they actually do and have way too much faith in very inadequate contingencies. They’re gonna continue having the appearance of being firmly in control, but at this rate, it’s just a matter of time before it blows up in their face and then no one is in control. I can’t emphasize enough how unprepared we all are for how quickly that will happen when it does.

Sounds like by their logic we should have shot back and should have shot to kill. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Welllllll, once again, this is gonna be on the shitbag corporations building/pushing this shit. With the planned obsolescence, pointless annual “tech refreshes”, aggressive marketing, and ultimately with the overcharged culture of consumerism, this falls back to the big corporations and the irresponsible perpetuation of an economic machine that is never satisfied. To say that people are stupid or shitty for literally buying into said machine I think greatly underestimates the capacity the average human has to be influenced without knowing/understanding it regardless of how intelligent or wise they are. The social dynamics pushed by these corporations are things that generally fly under the radar and faces little scrutiny. I guess there are probably people out there that genuinely are dipshit bootlickers in terms of perpetuating the system from the bottom, but I would compare their influence to getting angry at one leaf on a tree for creating all the damn shade. Our time and energy are wasted on people like that. Ultimately, it’s the system that is to blame. Sure, they participate in the system, but they weren’t the ones to mold the system into what it is.

There’s a reason I specifically pointed the blame at the decision makers at these corporations. Because when we recognize that the cause of all these problems is specifically the system, well then the people who are the real problem become quite clear. Who in power is doubling down on the harmful aspects of the system? That right there is your enemy.

Yeah, using the “proper” mechanisms of change should always be the first resort, because the eventual alternative is very high cost and high risk. Resorting to revolution too soon causes very harsh backfire.

FUCKING YES. Those shitbag corporations will do whatever it takes to take the blame off themselves and push whatever narrative it takes, including the “hUmAn BaD” trope. Specifically board executives of those oil corporations are to blame, not only for the very nature of their business, but the shameless disinformation campaigns they spew everywhere, disingenuous lobbying, straight up bribery, astroturfing, and fomenting fascism worldwide to keep leeching their government handouts for as long as possible. Those energy corporations and the scum that run them in the decision making positions are the fucking enemy of humanity and life on earth.

Yeah, I’m at least personally aware of alternatives, but I’m more commenting on the particular messaging of having the primary focus be on negating action. While it certainly is correct in stating the problem is the police as it exists along with the way the justice systems operates, my problem with the message isn’t “everyone knows, bro” or even the silly “it isn’t nuanced enough, bro”, but more along the lines of "the solution should be baked into the message ". Sure, the message could be police bad, acab, defend the police, etc, but even if we get everyone to hear and accept that message, how can they just not continue to feel helpless when no primary solution is proposed. Agreed there are plenty of solutions out there, but if the primary messaging out there is to say it’s bad, all those solutions are the priority. When everything is a priority, nothing is. I think this is the primary problem in leftist spaces that really muddies the waters as to what we want to do and why things implode under the sheer weight of numerous issues to solve.

A simple solution is to lead with the solution. Community policing is pretty easy to package well to make it fairly bipartisan. If you lead with community policing, you’re already giving an actionable step that helps people see an actual goal that solves an actual problem. The problem of police brutality is secondary in the messaging because that’s the problem we’re trying to solve. When providing the solution as the platform, the problem is apparent, and even highlighted. All the “nuance” is already practically implied. So yes, public perception is important in approaching these issues, but it’s inadequate with out a solution. You can get into the whole debate about why police as they exist is bad, or you could demonstrate the problem by showing why whatever proposed solution you have is a better option.

Hey man, agreed the current police force is bad, sure, but how about an alternative being the leading narrative? A good platform offers solutions as the primary policies rather than soapboxing to the choir.

Three times. In *fucking Atlantic City *.

I kinda figured I wasn’t the only one to think Gollum when I initially saw this, but it’s good to have it confirmed with poetry such as this.

Just like how punk isn’t just some aesthetic for some local shows, this shit is punk as fuck. Think for yourself, fuck the system.