2020 Protests megathread

[Mr. Reactionary]

Am I the only one that sees an implicit threat when civilians have weapons inside a legislative body?

No more threatening than carrying a Virginia flag or Gadsden flag or Alamo flag. Each flag implicitly threatens violence against government. At the end of the day its only illegal if you go beyond general expressions that the government is fast approaching the line at which it becomes a tyranny subject to overthrow. Promoting that general idea is within the bounds of free speech and has centuries of historical precedent.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Damn.

Got frantic texts from my college roommate who lives in Richmond now. They set the art museum (VMFA) across the street from him on fire for being oppressive and trashed his car for good measure. Fine people.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Oh yes. The fabled 'ivory towers' of 20 something urban progressives living in cramped high rent apartments.

Uhh no, lmao. I'm talking about white progressives that I personally know who reside in the suburbs from well off families who would switch gears if the rioting ever managed to make it to their nice secluded neighborhoods.

Yeah im seeing plenty of my yuppie prog friends on Facebook repeating the stupid lie that acknowledging and condemning the riots is somehow "prioritizing property over life" which is just bs. The murdering cop is in jail and being charged with murder. Riots at this point are condemnable. This isn't some Boston Tea Party. We can walk and chew gum at the same time, so its perfectly acceptable to condemn the cop and the rioters. At this point the riots are the news, as that is where the new violence is newly manifesting. These riots are understandable but not justifiable.

[Mr. Reactionary]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/01/david-mcatee-louisville-business-owner-killed-police-national-guard/5310854002/
Stop giving cops free donuts
those fat idiots can pay for it on their own.

Maybe its part of a stealth protest to make cops fatter and unhealthier.

Also, thank you rioters for giving me a free hour of vacation today. They closed my office early today in anticipation of a mass protest at 5pm. Rumors on Facebook (from pro riot sources) suggest rioters from Greensboro may be driving up to agitate. I removed all the stacks of papers from my windowsill just in case they throw rocks.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Just watching live footage on MSNBC of Mounted Police Officers and others attacking a 100% Peaceful Protest in DC outside the White House.

Its helpful to be near trees and have long banners or volleyball nets when dealing with pony police. Suspend the banners or nets above your head height at horse rider level (basically at standard volleyball height) and then make staggered barricades or scatter debris. The ponies tend to jump and then slide making the riders more prone to falling off.

Seriously though, don't riot or loot. That's just a tip for peaceful protesters.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Why does he look like a fourth grader bsing his way through a book report without having read the book?

This one comment was actually funny and it made me laugh.

Trump's imbecilic and condescending attempts to pretend he's a practicing Christian of any consistent doctrine is probably the thing he does that pisses me off the most. When I drunkenly booed him at a rally in 2016 the thing that really set me off was when he said he "loves the evangels [sic] Christians." Using a church as a prop like this, especially without the church's approval is offensive.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I’m surprised trump hasn’t openly called for the military to fire live ammunition at the protesters yet

Is it time for a whiff of grapeshot?

[Mr. Reactionary]

With zero due respect, if you aren't voting for Biden, shut the hell up about the protests.

You don't care.  You are just a poser.  You are pretending to care for credibility.  But you don't give enough of a damn to sacrifice your precious sanctity, your precious moral purity.  That shows where your priorities truly are.  Selfish sanctimony comes first.  Actually helping the oppressed, somewhere further down.

We live in a democratic republic where individual power is wielded through the election of officials who enact changes on our behalf.  There is exactly ONE way to get real, permanent, meaningful change in this country, and that is to put officials in office who are committed to bringing about that change.  What this means is that there is ONE thing you can do this year to actually help black lives, and that is to vote straight Democrat all the way down your ballot, from Biden on down to dogcatcher.

"But the root of the problem is capitalism!"  I guess the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 accomplished nothing for black people then.  I guess the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964 accomplished nothing.  I guess the election of Barack Obama in 2008 accomplished nothing.  Because none of those presidents dismantled capitalism so electing them was just a waste of time.  Thank you for lecturing black people on what real progress means!  I guess all

If you're voting Green, or voting Lib, or abstaining, or some other masturbatory action, that says everything about you.  You pretend to care about black lives.  You pretend to listen to what they have to say.  But when given the option to actually help them, at the cost of nothing but your precious ego, you proudly say "nope, can't help you with that one chief."

BOOOOOO!

[Mr. Reactionary]

there is ONE thing you can do this year to actually help black lives, and that is to vote straight Democrat all the way down your ballot, from Biden on down to dogcatcher.

BOOOOOO!

Want to share the Republican Party's plan for tackling racism and police brutality in this country?

Was it all the racist officials Trump has pardoned and emboldened?  Was it the KKK and Neo-Nazis teaming up for "Unite The Right"?  Was it Trump calling the protesters "thugs", telling black women to "go back to their countries", accusing Obama of not being an American, and saying a judge's opinion was irrelevant because of his race?  Was it re-electing Jesse Helms five times?  Was it electing Cindy "invite me to a public lynching please" Hyde-Smith?  Is it all the blatant, obvious voter suppression in black neighborhoods?  Is it the party's bold stance defending confederate monuments and the confederate flag?  Was it all the efforts to oppose the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s followed by Richard Nixon literally re-defining the party around opposition to civil rights in the 1970s?  Or do we need to re-elect Trump and only then will we find out your plan to solve racism?

I'm not a Trump voter.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I'm not a Trump voter.

Then what are you booing for?

You literally said the only option to cure racism is vote for only Democrats because Republican bad. That's a false choice. BRTD land hasn't had a pub politician since the 90s and that's where the murder happened after years of festering abuse. Co-opting this into red vs blue is not at all fair. If all the states were colored blue (or Atlas red) on Wikipedia, that wouldn't magically fix anything. 2 party only or else mentality is a cancer.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Military Dictatorship:

Fitting imagery for the Lincoln Memorial.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Neither a riot nor violent (yet) but I've been stuck outside my apartment building for almost an hour trying to deescalate a shouting match between 2 of my neighbors over this crap.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Neither a riot nor violent (yet) but I've been stuck outside my apartment building for almost an hour trying to deescalate a shouting match between 2 of my neighbors over this crap.

Good for you (sincerely).

This, but be careful man.

It's good. Recently lockdown-caused unemployed white ethinc industrial worker in an old glory clad "made in America" shirt apparently got cursed at today at Walmart because his shirt was "racist" and "supports murder". So he decided to come home and yell about the rioters and how we're a laughingstock country and slighty drunk Asian methodist restauranteur didn't agree. So I basically had to chainsmoke for an hr trying to get them to agree to something and then leave. After like the eighth time I reminded them that no one present supports violent rioting or the death of Floyd they finally stopped and left.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Neither a riot nor violent (yet) but I've been stuck outside my apartment building for almost an hour trying to deescalate a shouting match between 2 of my neighbors over this crap.

Good for you (sincerely).

This, but be careful man.

It's good. Recently lockdown-caused unemployed white ethinc industrial worker in an old glory clad "made in America" shirt apparently got cursed at today at Walmart because his shirt was "racist" and "supports murder". So he decided to come home and yell about the rioters and how we're a laughingstock country and slighty drunk Asian methodist restauranteur didn't agree. So I basically had to chainsmoke for an hr trying to get them to agree to something and then leave. After like the eighth time I reminded them that no one present supports violent rioting or the death of Floyd they finally stopped and left.

What were they arguing about, whether the riots were good or not?

Everything. Riots. Protests. Lockdowns. Cops. Trump. Obama. Church and State. Kaepernick. Democrats. Statues. The American flag. Baltimore. How foreign countries view us. Casinos. Guns. Immigration. Women clergy. A few "those people"s.

To paraphrase one of the rioters in a video I saw, a lot if this country  has "been looking for a fight for 6 months".

[Mr. Reactionary]

Ok, this free zone Paris Commune larping needs to end right now. This shouldn't be tolerated.

If these were right wingers declaring a free state we'd all be declaring them traitors and comparing them to the Confederacy.

Remember when some rednecks took over an abandoned hunting cabin in Oregon and Wolverine and other lefties on here were demanding the military use tanks and napalm?

[Mr. Reactionary]

[Mr. Reactionary]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the shooting in Louisville on here yet.

article

Appears a protester fired a gun into a crowd of fellow protesters killing 1 and several smart protesters who were armed fired back. This should be bigger news than its being treated. I can't help but feel that if the shooter was wearing a KKK hood rather than being a fellow protester this would be the only news story in the country.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Article

2 kids shot by Chaz this morning.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Gunman shot driver, then hid weapon and continued to protest, Provo police say