This one goes out to anyone dismissing the non-peaceful parts of the protests who wants to live in civilized society.
To be clear, while it is not the point of this post, I do believe we should apply the same reasoning to police violence we do to civilians and for my part, I think we should be more stringent with police. They are, after all, empowered thugs for the state and are essentially allowed to do things civilians can’t.
One such challenge with the police situation is that the courts have ruled that police departments can have a cap on IQ (you read that correctly: intellectual discrimination is allowed) and thus only hire people stupider than a particular IQ level. I find that to be challenging: how can we expect the cops to think holistically and in a manner that outsmarts criminals if they are relegated to a lower level of intelligence?
Alas, that’s not the point here though I thought it would be useful to compare my thoughts in that direction as well lest people mistakenly think I’m making excuses for cop misbehavior when I’m not.
I believe we the people intend to operate in what I like to call a civilized society by which I mean one where we all agree — explicitly or implicitly through our participation in it — to use the law as a common standard by which we manage and regulate our actions such that we can get along with each other in relatively peaceful coexistence. The rules and adherence to this idea of civilized society are, in fact, the cornerstone of what I believe allows us to feel some sense of safety in the predictability and stability of the world around us.
If people aren’t willing to honor the law they have proven to me to be uncivilized. Yes, this also goes for cops as well although I think there’s other issues with cops like qualified immunity that allow them to do things that actually are legal for them that wouldn’t be for civilians. Again, not the point of this post, but worthy of note lest readers misunderstand my position.
The truth is, uncivilized persons can not be trusted.
Full stop.
This is, to my thinking, especially true for women, children, the elderly, the infirm, those lacking mental capacity, and those who are not sufficiently able bodied to defend their persons and property. One might call them the vulnerable, but it turns out, statistically speaking, it’s more than the majority of society that especially can’t trust the uncivilized.
To clarify further what makes one uncivilized, the moment you show me you don’t care about the mutually “agreed” upon rule of law and you don’t care about other people’s persons and property rights, you have demonstrated to me there’s no place for us to coexist because you can and will violate anyone’s person and/or property rights at any point in time for reasons you feel are worthy. Let’s be honest though: we can’t play a game with someone who is changing the rules willy nilly because those who choose to engage that way are cheaters. No one wants to play with a cheater. It’s neither fun nor fair and honor surely doesn’t factor into it either.
Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly if your goal is to elicit change in the world, when you’re uncivilized and a cheater, it’s clear there’s no negotiating with people like you. This is why you can’t negotiate with terrorists. There’s no trusting them. There’s no place for working with them because they are inherently untrustworthy and have opted out of civilized society.
Here’s the point I think many progressives aren’t understanding right now.
When civilized people don’t differentiate themselves from uncivilized people — clearly and firmly — they are putting their lot in with those whom are cheaters and untrustworthy. A failure to condemn their actions firmly and forcefully amounts to tacit support of their position to those of us who have no way of differentiating civilized society from the uncivilized terrorists. And a failure to make that clear has others suspect you — for good reason. If we can have such mass suspicions for cops when such a small percent of cop interactions result in problems, shouldn’t we have the same suspicion of citizens as well when 5-7% of protests have been shown to be non-peaceful?
If you want me to stand with you, I need to know you stand on the right side of civilized society. Otherwise, I’m the fool to back the uncivilized cheater.
Irrespective of what I think of any religion, cause, or words you say that aren’t inciting riots, I will defend your right to exercise your first amendment liberties I believe with my dying breath. It is, for me, the foundation of what makes this country one worth living in and no other nation on the planet affords these 5 liberties to its citizens. It is the cornerstone of this sometimes broken/oftentimes astonishingly beautiful Republic.
Equally so, I can not and will not stand with you when you make excuses for, stand with, or in other ways justify behavior that fundamentally makes me feel unsafe because you are throwing your lot in with criminals.
It all boils down to this:
And this is why I think it’s imperative for you to distance yourself from the uncivilized so those of who who are liberty lovers will stand with you because we simply cannot when you don’t differentiate yourself from those terrorists.