It is despicable how tepid the police response to armed rioters storming the Capitol has been compared to the response to BLM protests over the summer.
Other than political viewpoints, I don't really see much difference.
U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
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Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#292I am shocked and horrified that it is taking so long to clear those who have breached the Capitol. There is more police efficiency and aggression in a run of the mill BLM protest. Edit: for example: https://twitter.com/RedR1dngHood/status/1346908557560537091
There is nothing those protestors would like more than a violent response. Imagine the social media response. The leadership is scared of sparking a bigger fire
What'll really spark a bigger fire is if the protesters are given time to do what they say they want, and recruit some congressmembers to declare Trump the election winner.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#293I am shocked and horrified that it is taking so long to clear those who have breached the Capitol. There is more police efficiency and aggression in a run of the mill BLM protest. Edit: for example: https://twitter.com/RedR1dngHood/status/1346908557560537091
BLM took over an entire section of Seattle for weeks.
The cops pulled out before that happened, and it was quite peaceful there while that was going on. It's really not the same situation.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#294Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…
Put simply, I don't know what to believe. As an IT security worker, I have absolutely no faith in the election since voting required the use of hackable electronic voting machines. We need to restore trust in the system. An idiot needs to be able to understand and audit it. Until that happens, there will always be people who think it's rigged, and politicians will always exploit that.
> I have absolutely no faith in the election since voting required the use of hackable electronic voting machines.
This is mostly not true. See https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_methods_and_equipment_by_stat... . Almost every state produces a voter-readable paper trail for all votes.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#295How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?
The people do it to themselves. They believe what they want to believe, hear what they want to hear, see what they want to see. This is still largely a free country where there are multiple independent sources of "news", and individuals voluntarily expose themselves or not to whatever they choose. As far as I know, nobody is tied down in a chair and forced to watch certain TV shows or listen to certain radio shows for hours, days, weeks, months at a time, to the exclusion of all else. Maybe in airport terminals, but again, travel is also voluntary.
I find the "How did we arrive to this point" question interesting, because for most of recorded history, the masses of humanity have not been so different than they are today. If anything, "enlightenment" is a relatively rare occurrence.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#296Boy do I wish there was a place to discuss politics in a dispassionate way. I find these events fascinating from a historical and sociological point of view. It really is history in the making. HN is pretty good at this when it comes to other topics, when when it turns political, everyone pulls out their partisan membership card.
For those of us who have to live in a nation that used to be solidly small-d democratic and seems to be trending in a different direction, it can be hard to be dispassionate about these issues. If you want a forum in which to dryly discuss momentous events, you might be looking for one that contains no one affected by those events.
The curse of politics is that as soon as any place for discussing it gets a reputation as being trustworthy, it becomes a valuable target to take over, sabotage or smear.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#297How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?
All goes back to Reagan's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which gave rise to biased political based news coverage a la Fox News. Since then, political polarization has increased each year until we got to the point we're at where both sides see the other as dangerous and lacking legitimacy. It's a lose-lose downward spiral.
Isnt Fairness Doctrine in direct opposition against free speech?
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#298[deleted]
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#299How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?
I am sure there'd be plenty of pundits soon enough blaming China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria....anything but a deep reflection upon Americans themselves.
Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests
#300How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?
As this is HN, I really believe that this lack of a shared reality is only possible with the Internet. Before the Internet, there were more conservative sources and more liberal sources, but never before could you completely surround yourself with your own version of reality. And more importantly, your version of reality is constantly reinforced by algorithms that are specifically designed to raise your level of rage…
You could do a pretty good job of bubbling yourself up starting in the 90s with talk radio + Fox News... tons of fun vitriol towards Clinton... my parents have been on that train for a while now.