Is it difficult to go through life unable to detect sarcasm?
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Generally because when people say all lives matter, they are actively trying to shut down the discussion that black lives matter is bringing to the table, which is that black lives are more often in danger from police than white lives. When people say black lives matter, they are saying letâs talk about this specific thing, which needs to be addressed.
This.
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You watch Fox news? I find that hard to believe.
Bullshit. itâs also those that are simply tone deaf to the implications.
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Well, he didnât exactly point out anything.
You just pointed out something, not specifically which assumptions but at least that you do not agree with the post, thatâs fair enough,
He wrote this as a response to a post that tries to answer his question, heâs only dismissed the response, he hasnât engaged in conversation, heâs only attempted to derail it.
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OhâŚTHATâS what the problem is! Well, great then, letâs change some words around and then there will be no more racial prejudice. That was so easy. why didnât we think of it before?
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[quote=âlllllAlaskaJack, post:3, topic:62217â]
This is indeed a âwonderful and useful responseâ ⌠if you already accept all the premises assumed. If you donât, youâre probably not likely to be all that impressed.
Just more disastrously misguided apologetics. Progressives would be far smarter, in fact, to co-opt the catchphrase âALL lives matter.â But instead theyâll resort to this type of Progsplaining that ultimately persuades no one.[/quote]
It appears to have persuaded a whole fuckload of people in the actual Reddit thread.
Which assumed premises do you reject, specifically?
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Not often⌠Back when my father in law was still alive, thatâs what he had it tuned to, all the time - as do several other relatives. Iâve also hatewatched enough clips online⌠So, Iâve seen enough of it to know what theyâre generally nattering on about. I also only occasionally watch MSNBC, and rarely see The Daily ShowâŚ
Same with local news. I also know that my relatives who do watch the local news are indeed sacred of âurban youthsâ when they come to town⌠so yeah.
The only people who have a problem with the slogan âBlack Lives Matterâ are the ones who are willfully misconstruing it as something it isnât. They are basically the same kind of people who would have complained about âVotes for Womenâ as anti-men a century ago. Basically, not the kind of people you should allow to hijack the national discussion.
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I donât understand, are you saying that my answer does not account for all people who are wrongly derailing blacklivesmatter or do you mean that there are some implications that render racists unable to derail the conversation while making it about them?
Iâll grant some misguided people might believe that they arenât actually derailing the goals of blacklivesmatters, that theyâre patting themselves on the back for pedantically insisting that all lives matter as if anyone was saying otherwise. But they are.
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You are making the same mistake that the article did, offering one pre-digested interpretation. It can be a call to action. If it is being used deceitfully, then I would prefer examples, rather than be told how everybody should interpret this.
Great, I would tend to agree. But there must surely be better ways to explain this to people than to state that âall lives matterâ is an invalid and disrespectful sentiment. I think it sounds like a call to action for the same reason, because I see that some lives do tend to be favored.
I am not going to go out on the limb of speaking for Malcolm X. But I would guess that he would have thought that trying to petition the police establishment to recognize them and their worth as people would itself be a weak move. Instead of hoping to be recognized by someone because you think they have power over you, you assert the power of your own people directly by standing up and taking control of the situation.
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Aww⌠What a tease!
It was a derailment in a thread about derailment, and I knew I couldnât resist carrying on if I didnât delete it.
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I saw it as more an aside than a derailment. But people often do turn comments I make in passing into huge diversions, so perhaps just as well!
If it wasnât obvious, âChristâ wasnât the holy name I meant!
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Sigh. That has to be the worst thing about our improved communication and the culture that came with it. Yes, there is a poor black crime problem, but it is still a very small segment even in the worst regions. The black on white crime (and vice versa) is exceedingly rare. And if your family is middle class or better, it is even rarer still.
I donât watch news per se - but if something is happening I learn about it. I hate cable news. It is 100% worthless in my eyes. It has so little substance except for the rare exception they make a decent hour long special. When I visit my folks I will watch the local CBS/NBC/ABC news. Crime isnât too prevalent where they are, but it gets some casual mention. Not really any sort of substance.
My ex is just loony about the prospect of my kid being abducted. Another extremely rare thing - especially by strangers. But we hear about every missing kid - even have an Amber alert now. And then the one time there is an abduction or attempted one, it just re-enforces it.
So I agree it doesnât help to see a sort of lop sided crime review, combined with tropes on TV, and even the sort of glamorization of crime in some games, music, etc. But are we just numb to it? There are some very hot spots for crime, and maybe they are covered on their local level more, but like Chicagoâs horrible death rate in the last several years hasnât warranted serious national attention.
Of course this is a separate issue than cops killing people too damn often, and I wouldnât have brought it up except it is mentioned in the article. But I also think all of this is connected. Cops are people too. Priming can have a big affect on how you perceived a situation and how you react. If cops are constantly bombarded by black crime reports, anecdotes, and personal experiences, it is going to prime them and reaffirm their biases - even those not openly racists. When you are primed a dark object becomes a gun, a flinch becomes a lunge, and you treat people on the assumption they are up to something. And all of that is a feedback loop that is getting worse.
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Hereâs an example, pretty out of context, but perhaps, slightly relevant here:
Iâm adopted. Usually when I tell people this, they almost universally ask me possibly the most offensive question Iâve ever been asked in my entire life. This happens nearly every single time.
They ask: âDo you know your real parents?â
Now, you tell me why thatâs incredibly hurtful and offensive to me.
Actually, Iâll tell you. It implies that the people who raised me from a baby are somehow imposters, and less valuable than a couple of gene donors I donât really know at all. Sure I have their phone numbers and talk with them occasionally, but all four of my parents are in fact real, and to ask if I know my âreal parentsâ is a fucking not-even-wrong question, and likely the fastest way to get me to dislike you.
I do not mean to derail, nor am I saying my situation is similar in magnitude to the situation of interpretation with #blacklivesmatter
But perhaps you can relate to the idea that words indeed have a lot of power, and peopleâs multiple interpretations have some kind of bearing on how a phrase may be dismissive and hurtful.
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Poeâs Law and all.
Because they either have it in their minds that they are saying in response to âblack lives matterâ or, sadly, they really do not believe all peoplesâ lives matter. I agree with your questions, and simply, literally see âAll lives matterâ to mean just that, as you said. It is the fucked up politics of it all that has people seeing differently and people may be saying it as a response to âblack lives matter.â Hopefully later generations of people wonât have to live in this society of hate and ignorance, and people will literally know that all peoplesâ lives do matter. But people only want to see what they want with narrow minds.
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Yeah, this. Even if meant with the best of intentions, it takes the issue sideways.
@Brainspore nailed it with the suffragettes. How absolutely ludicrous would an âall votes matterâ campaign sound when demonstrably, that wasnât the case?
You canât solve injustice by sweeping it under the rug of togetherness.
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You know, I read this article and, bless me, I didnât see how it could be at all controversial. Off I went to the comment thread to see some solidarity and common sense.
Fuck Iâm naive sometimes.
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