How does the World view America these days?

Guys. You are two of my favorite WATMMers. Stop fighting.

not sure if this is legit, wouldn't surprise me in the least if so

^i laughed my ass off at that guy on the LA call 

this was good to see too: after the bullshit outside the White House yesterday evening even more people showed up tonight, instead of being deterred

RE: the rock thrown tweet

It's not worth nitpicking these specific often baffling slices of chaos and forcing people to pin their entire ideological and political views on how they react to it.  I think the original tweet's take is about all that can be said about it. It's a flash point of public vulnerability and risk with private privilege and protection. It highlights that there's so much complacency, apathy, and minimal "solidarity" among many people. The guy saying "we're on your side" does epitomize the casual privileged liberal trope. 

I feel like the point of the clip was highlighting just how fucking nuanced and multi-layered this shit is. It's a window into the fact that between the police state and the protesters in the street there's a plethora of people completely detached from this and they are reacting in various ways including tuning it out for the most part. 

I stand with the protests and accept the riots and looting as a reality that comes with substantive changes. The 1968 Civil Rights Act wasn't passed until after MLK was assassinated the country erupted in riots and mayhem. RFK was killed after. Opponents of it - segregationists, racists elite, etc. pulled the same bullshit rhetoric they're pulling now.

Progress and change isn't just gradual and hard to achieve but it's extremely bloody and upsetting. Part of picking a side is reconciling the fact that you are going to have to side with violence and anger expressed by others. It's not a fucking game. It's not an idealized fictional story. Even the "good wars" and the movements of "peace" involved side acts of violence that were morally hard pills to swallow.

if those beer pong frat bros were on their side theyd be down there protesting, not doing thumbs up while filming themselves in the window

https://twitter.com/stephtseo/status/1267680737915924480

  On 6/3/2020 at 1:23 AM, marf said:

He's doing the same thing the cops do. Take everything at face value. You don't know anything about those people. I used to party like that when I was in college. My Dad was grampa Joe from willy Wonka basically. Poor as dirt but I was in school and trying to make the best of it. 

did you sit around and party like that when you were in college while a literal protest was right outside your window which you didn't bother joining and instead filmed yourself for social media?

  On 6/3/2020 at 3:44 AM, Zeffolia said:

if those beer pong frat bros were on their side theyd be down there protesting, not doing thumbs up while filming themselves in the window

A lot of people still want to avoid the rona. 

yeah, man... people are being simultaneously asked to stay home during a pandemic to prevent unnecessary mass death, and to go out in large crowds to protest horrible unjust death. either choice arguably makes you responsible for the potential suffering of innocent people. it's such a fucked choice. a deadly dual spectre of brutality and pestilence. no matter your political standing, staying home makes you a turncoat to someone. 2020 can go straight to hell. 

  On 6/3/2020 at 4:16 AM, luke viia said:

yeah, man... people are being simultaneously asked to stay home during a pandemic to prevent unnecessary mass death, and to go out in large crowds to protest horrible unjust death. either choice arguably makes you responsible for the potential suffering of innocent people. it's such a fucked choice. a deadly dual spectre of brutality and pestilence. no matter your political standing, staying home makes you a turncoat to someone. 2020 can go straight to hell. 

I don't think I articulated it earlier but this was what I was getting at. There's a lot of people in-between: between those with little to lose by taking out their anger in the streets - the poor, those unemployed, those from the various godawful socioeconomic conditions this country maintains, etc. and between the truly elite out of touch privileged folks who also largely control this government. 

Some examples of people who stand in solidarity with this but can't participate: doctors, nurses, EMS staff, state workers and bureaucrats in non-law enforcement agencies, lawyers and defense attorneys, public transit workers, day laborers, factory workers, working undocumented residents with kids, etc. Some are essential workers. Some would face immediate and dire blowback in the form of being fired and/or blackballed in their career. I know a lot of liberal and leftist state workers who perpetually hold their tongue and work hard to push whatever legislation they can through (and do so with little if any appreciation) who can't say anything remotely raw and honest online or in public without losing their jobs and the time and effort they've invested as civil servants. 

Are there people being hypocrites and paying lip service? Of course. But there's a lot of people who are quiet or silent who want to get involved but can't because it's not their time, it's not the most pragmatic move they can make, or it's not worth the consequences to their personal life...or a combination of all of those things. 

  On 6/3/2020 at 3:20 AM, ignatius said:

 

 

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I bet at least one of those goons was at this or something similar.

Yep, essential worker here who couldn’t protest, or call out of work because someone I work with is getting tested for Covid and we are shorthanded. 
 

I’ve gone to at least a couple others in the past few years, but not this time. I’ll catch the next one in three months or whatever. 

Can we rescript the Romanov reboot to include this Prince niBBA & Devos?  This whole episode of 'muricah (my life to now) has been a gradual erosion of what constitutes basic ethical behavior in our society, and good people standing by doing nothing, because they're tethered by trappings of modern capitalism or fear that a "something" would be arguably worse.  The latter being completely valid since whatever something it is, it's immediately denounced by the bootlicking soothsayers as even more egregious than thing.

I'm non-religious and yet I see this very well as an inflection point in struggle between good and evil.  The BFP is that for every reality there's only one truth for every billion or so falsehoods, and the forces of evil exploit this informational entropy with great enthusiasm and effectiveness.

  On 6/2/2020 at 11:40 PM, Lada Laika said:

"we're on your side!" yelled the white trust fundie from his beer pong table as people die in the streets

Are you judging people for playing beer pong while you post on WATMM?

Are you at Capitol Hill in Seattle right now?

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:20 AM, chenGOD said:

Are you judging people for playing beer pong while you post on WATMM?

Are you at Capitol Hill in Seattle right now?

no i’m self-isolating because i was out there the last three days. we’re going in shifts out of pandemic mindfulness and passing out masks, gloves, and water. those of us now at home are supplying the funds for those things as well as bail money for those arrested and coordinating further action.

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:22 AM, Lada Laika said:

no i’m self-isolating because i was out there the last three days

What - how does this make sense? So you're going to stay at home now for the next 14 days?

Like good for you being out there protesting, but how do you know the "frat bros" weren't doing the same thing?

  On 6/3/2020 at 4:12 AM, Candiru said:

A lot of people still want to avoid the rona. 

very correct, but if you are saying that's the frat bro explanation then I very much doubt it.  "I was just joking bro, it was just a joke" once they get their shit told, if you haven't seen that response before from people like that then I have no response

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:28 AM, chenGOD said:

What - how does this make sense? So you're going to stay at home now for the next 14 days?

Like good for you being out there protesting, but how do you know the "frat bros" weren't doing the same thing?

stereotypes, body language, and other measures that are relatively accurate when it comes to scoping out fucks like them.  have you even been to one of these protests? let's just say keg guzzling losers like them aren't exactly people having solidarity with the cause

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:29 AM, Zeffolia said:

stereotypes, body language, and other measures that are relatively accurate...

So no clue then. I expected about as much.

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:33 AM, chenGOD said:

So no clue then. I expected about as much.

youre civility trolling

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:28 AM, chenGOD said:

What - how does this make sense? So you're going to stay at home now for the next 14 days?

Like good for you being out there protesting, but how do you know the "frat bros" weren't doing the same thing?

beer pong is uhhh not the most sanitary drinking game in the world

also I'm planning on getting tested in the next week and will probably assume a slightly more socially distant role going forward while still being present

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:36 AM, Zeffolia said:

youre civility trolling

My dude - when you use stereotypes as the first go to for IDing someone, you're the one who's trolling. Imagine your reaction if the reason the cops gave for kneeling on Floyd's neck was "stereotypes".

Everyone played beer pong in college, even the fuckin nerds.  
 

this happened just a couple of blocks from my work. the symbotic relationship betwix looter and law enforcer comes together well in this study titled 'LAPD officers foot chase after looting in hollywood'

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:39 AM, chenGOD said:

My dude - when you use stereotypes as the first go to for IDing someone, you're the one who's trolling. Imagine your reaction if the reason the cops gave for kneeling on Floyd's neck was "stereotypes".

imagine comparing killing a black man to breaking a window

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:38 AM, Lada Laika said:

beer pong is uhhh not the most sanitary drinking game in the world

also I'm planning on getting tested in the next week and will probably assume a slightly more socially distant role going forward while still being present

Maybe they've all been in isolation together for 2 weeks so they know they're safe? Maybe not - whatever, you don't know their situation so why so quick to judge?

  On 6/3/2020 at 5:43 AM, Zeffolia said:

imagining comparing killing a black man to breaking a window

You're the only one doing that here man. you do you though.