Well, I can’t say what the author meant, but personally I share the concerns of BLM yet find their tactics to be counterproductive and their strategy nonexistent.
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Throw in a plane and you’ve got me
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Who from BLM responded?
I think they have the same problem OWS had with the media. No concrete demands, and no visible leader.
All they are portaryed in the media is for baltimore ritots and that stuff.
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So. . . is the GOP reacting to this as "See? Democrats hate BLM! " , or are they reacting to it as “Democrats are placating a terrorist organization!” (which is how they always refer to BLM)?
Because I don’t see anything in here that is explicitly anti-BLM, more just trying to do a balancing act for issues that are so deeply ingrained in the American zeitgeist we’re still dealing with them 40 years after the Civil Rights Act.
In other words, I don’t know what any politician can promise BLM when roughly half our population is ready to support a guy who makes white supremacists wet their pants in ecstasy. Are empty promises better than nothing?
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They have this:
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I’m not sure everyone in here read the memo, so to speak.
The memo succinctly summarizes the key concerns of BLM.
The “What to say to media/activists” section of the memo actually speaks to the DOJ Ferguson report and systemic racism. The memo also notes that BLM is cautious about being co-opted by the Democratic party which puts staff in a position to take great care in choosing their words and follow up suggestions.
On the thing the memo could have done better: advise staff to read in greater detail BLM’s Guiding Principles and demands, for a more thorough prep before meeting with them. The fact that I had to go to two sites to find these suggests a current or future split. I hope it won’t be something that makes them collectively less effective.
Edit: Yes, they branded BLM as radical. That one leaves a bad taste. But it shouldn’t, because the root of the word radical is the same as the word “root”. Radicals address root causes.
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I don’t consider this derogatory… but I strongly suspect the drafters do.
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Sure, because snark and disdain totally equate to a literal lynch mob.
And of course, Boing Boing is the only site on the entirety of the internet where some posts tend to have click bait titles and some folks have knee-jerk reactions to incendiary topics.
That never happens on sites like Reddit… or 4Chan… or Twitter, or…
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Marconi plays the mamba!
I refuse to believe the party of Jefferson Davis would do such a thing! 
Um? and…? I mean sounds like legitimate advice. Not sure who the audience is but probably not people responsible for policy. I don’t see anything newsworthy in there.
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They BLM movement really should have used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatterToo to avoid some of the bullshit responses.
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I suspect that no matter what terminology they’d use, they’d be the subject of controversy. Pretty much ever single civil rights movement in American history comes up against opposition, no matter how polite, civil, and righteous their cause.
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I’m afraid you’re right.
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Fair enough, but their slogan means “Black Lives Matter, Too” and it would simplify things quite a lot if they said it like that. Because, as it happens, there are forgotten lives of all origins. Native Americans are even more likely to be shot, for instance, and it leaves a very bad taste to erase their suffering via imprecise wording.
As for the original story I am not surprised one iota. On the subject of ratcheting up the police state, both parties have acted roughly the same, i.e. terribly, and their conduct, domestically and abroad, has shown with forensic precision that, to them, #livesdon’tmatter.
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This is advice to staffers. Lessons one through five of Staffing 101 focus entirely on “How and Why to Avoid Expressing Support for Concrete Positions, with Ninety-Seven Cautionary Tales.” And you don’t graduate without completing a 73-month practicum in “Making Constituents Feel Heard while Preventing them from Noticing that You Have Made No Actual Promises.”
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“Listen to their concerns,” it continues. “Don’t offer support for concrete policy positions.”
I would like to see an actual memo leaked that had this same quote, but was aimed at corporate lobbyists.
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Oh sure, but corporate lobbyists have money. You just flip the terms for them.
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