Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/01/hacked-2015-democratic-memo-te.html
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Not surprised at all. This explains literally every interaction between BLM and Hillary Clinton that I have seen thus far.
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To be clear, this is a memo from one single staffer, last year. It’s not an official DNC position, it’s not from Hillary, it’s not even how they’re working with BLM these days.
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I think they meant “concerns”, not tactics.
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Now now… this is BoingBoing… let’s not allow rationale and facts to get in the way of our torches and pitchforks. How else are we to get our concern trolling on?
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It’s disappointing but not surprising considering how coy the national campaigns have been.
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Except that, as advice to the candidates this is probably actually pretty solid. If you read it as, “don’t wing this one, just listen and let the campaign figure out how to make a mature policy response” it’s actually pretty sensible, given how out of touch the candidates themselves can be, and how important it is to get this right…
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Replace this hashtag with any policy group. It’s the same. Don’t promise concrete positions (because we can’t guarantee they will be met), and don’t use the words of the opposition.
On the plus side, it’s good to know that they want everyone to be aware that “all lives matter” and “black on black crime” are the ENEMY and that democrats should not casually lapse into using those phrases. It at least indicates that there’s a sense that democrats support the movement in spirit.
On the bad side, such memos clearly indicate that, as the movement leaders say, this is just “handling” them and offers no advice towards actually understanding the movement, people, policy positions, and so forth.
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Last year, the Minnesota State Fair entrance was blocked by protesters from BLM. This year, they have a booth inside. While I feel civil disobedience is necessary for change, it’s good to have a place for civil dialogue as well.
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Honestly, I don’t have a problem with this. It sounds like the person that wrote it is suggesting readers (DNC politicians) adhere to Proverbs 17:28.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
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I think that this particular phrasing is due to someone else, the biblical version seems to usually be translated a bit differently: Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.
Same basic idea though.
/pedantry
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Well that tears it, I’ma votin’ for Trump!
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I can see why BLM would be sad that there was language in there directing people not to offer support for specific positions, that’s honestly the best thing approach for a campaign; you can’t have some rank-and-file agreeing to some moonshot.
At the same time, this is probably a much better level of discourse than what takes place at the RNC, which is probably something like, “we do not negotiate with terrorist organizations.”
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To that I quote Proverbs 18:2.
Pedantry is for fools.
(In all seriousness, I’m glad someone actually took the time to look it up)
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Careful there, you’re bordering on thoughtcrime now.
Well, actually the quote from Proverbs is generally translated as something like “Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to hear their own opinions.”
Which I think that is like totally correct.
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To add to that, given the national mood at the moment, being seen as associated with Black Lives Matter can be political poison, as terrible as that sounds. People like to take the more extreme views of some groups, such as
I see the police as part of the state and part of state sanctioned violence against our people, and so for me, I’m not concerned about blue lives, I’m concerned about black lives. In fact, I want the police to be abolished. I think we should be pushing the police out of our community. I think that we should be defunding the police. I think that we should be demilitarizing the police and finally dismantling the police.
And right-wingers take this quote from California State University professor Nana Gyamfi, who associates with BLM, and say, “Look, the Black Lives Matter want to get rid of the police! Senator Hufflepuff supports Black Lives Matter. He wants anarchy!”
And I mean, look at this hed and the response to it. It’s a memo from a single staffer. The same thing’s being done here that the right-wing whackadoodles do all the time to BLM.
It’s pretty solid advice even if it sounds terrible on the surface.
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- Trump 2016!
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Fools have no interest in hearing the truth, they only want to read aloud stories about snakes.
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Sounds like this isn’t policy, but i sure hope they have a policy. Even Democrats, winging it, will come out with offensive trash occasionally. At this time of year, it’s important to stay on message. The media is desperate to find a reason to say “both sides do it equally!”
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