love that guy. Great write.
For those who have a different view (if that's allowed)
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/obama-administration-...
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
31–40 of 430 posts
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#32Local politics have the most impact on people, but get the least attention. Shouldn't it be easier to engage folks on a local level via social media, electronic voting, campaigns, etc?
The article agrees that local is where we can do things about these issues:
> Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#33META: Not sure why this was flagged/dead? I just vouched for it. Is it because it's political and not strictly about tech/hacker news? I'd argue that current events have a direct impact on all of us and this absolutely warrants discussion. Furthermore, I'm not sure I know of any instance where a President has disseminated writing like this. It's an interesting change, since it means that former Presidents can continu…
I think political content is discouraged here because of an assumption that politics is inherently unreasonable and trollish. But politics, government, society/culture are as much a system with dynamics as anything else, and we should be able to discuss that here. And as systems-thinkers, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of thought and discourse.
I really appreciate this way of articulating it. There are responsible and constructive ways that we can discuss politics in this forum and I hope that adopting a systems mentality can help us sidestep tribalism and put problem-solving at the center of the discussion. There are obviously still questions to be resolved outside of a systems discussion, like values and the proper ends for politics, but I often find that if you dig into those with humility and curiosity, there's more commonality than most people realize.
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#34> So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. Taboos around violence for political are one of the crucial building blocks for a functioning democracy. If those taboos are broken, even for a good cause, you set a precedence that violence works. And the next cause won’t be as good. One only has to look at the lessons of the Roman Revolution that started with the murder of Grachus, and ended w…
I cannot condone violence nor encourage it, but you have to admit that the first few protests and property damage drastically influenced the quick arrest of an officer that may not have been arrested or even fired if it didn't happen. The non-violent protests of Colin Kaepernick were mocked and used to rally the other side and just weren't effective. The problem here is not the violence, but a policing system that is…
> I cannot condone violence nor encourage it, but you have to admit that the first few protests and property damage drastically influenced the quick arrest of an officer that may not have been arrested or even fired if it didn't happen.
I don't think this is a good thing. The office involved should be charged or arrested based on the circumstances and evidence, not to appease angry protesters and to attempt to quell riots.
In this case, it appears overwhelmingly clear that the office should be charged; but arresting people because their actions have inspired protests or riots is very dangerous.
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#35"I’ve heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. The point of protest is to raise public awareness... But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands."
Laws are just a consequence of an actual cultural change, and can only succeed (and not precede) the conversion of hearts and minds. Voting and democracy should not become a device to placate the dissatisfied masses into silence, make them lineup for ballot, to choose a lesser evil who, in most likelihood, will turn out to be a egotistical power-seeker. We shouldn't conflate voting with "will of the people."
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#36> So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. Taboos around violence for political are one of the crucial building blocks for a functioning democracy. If those taboos are broken, even for a good cause, you set a precedence that violence works. And the next cause won’t be as good. One only has to look at the lessons of the Roman Revolution that started with the murder of Grachus, and ended w…
I cannot condone violence nor encourage it, but you have to admit that the first few protests and property damage drastically influenced the quick arrest of an officer that may not have been arrested or even fired if it didn't happen. The non-violent protests of Colin Kaepernick were mocked and used to rally the other side and just weren't effective. The problem here is not the violence, but a policing system that is…
>I cannot condone violence nor encourage it, but you have to admit that the first few protests and property damage drastically influenced the quick arrest of an officer that may not have been arrested or even fired if it didn't happen.
But it's not clear that the violence/property damage component was worth it. Nationwide protests and all of the public outcry could have been enough. Hard to tell at this point.
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#37Obama presided over the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and so many other black victims of police violence which sparked very similar protests/riots and birthed the Black Lives Matter movement. Then, as now, he had the same blanket denunciations of civilian violent resistance, support for militarized police crackdowns, and anodyne advice to vote your killers away.
Those responses clearly produced no real change from those turning-point moments. Why would we hope they will in this one?
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#38If you haven’t learned about the US Civil War and Reconstruction, it’s required context for everything around this topic. I’d particularly recommend the recent Chernow biography on Grant and the Blight biography on Frederick Douglass. The civil war & reconstruction are the single most defining events in US history. They’re extremely relevant to today’s politics, racial justice, and identity based partisanship.
In short I think it’s crucial to get an accurate (not “lost cause of the valiant confederacy”) appreciation for how bloody it was and the real stakes (slavery, not “states rights”). How progress was made politically. How there were a few years of positive change before the US backslid into racial patterns of old due to moral exhaustion fighting the south.
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#39> So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. Taboos around violence for political are one of the crucial building blocks for a functioning democracy. If those taboos are broken, even for a good cause, you set a precedence that violence works. And the next cause won’t be as good. One only has to look at the lessons of the Roman Revolution that started with the murder of Grachus, and ended w…
I don't condone violence, but at the same time you have to acknowledge that modern American democracy was built on the foundation of political violence. It worked for us.
>I don't condone violence, but at the same time you have to acknowledge that modern American democracy was built on the foundation of political violence.
This is incoherent. You can't claim to not condone violence and in the same sentence say but actually it works.
Re: How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
#40> So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. Taboos around violence for political are one of the crucial building blocks for a functioning democracy. If those taboos are broken, even for a good cause, you set a precedence that violence works. And the next cause won’t be as good. One only has to look at the lessons of the Roman Revolution that started with the murder of Grachus, and ended w…
I cannot condone violence nor encourage it, but you have to admit that the first few protests and property damage drastically influenced the quick arrest of an officer that may not have been arrested or even fired if it didn't happen. The non-violent protests of Colin Kaepernick were mocked and used to rally the other side and just weren't effective. The problem here is not the violence, but a policing system that is…
Not an American. Can you share one or two reforms that you would like implemented. It is hard to grasp what is really going on from a distance.