> But anyways, I can relate a little. My sister has never been an activist type, never said anything about racial justice, until a week ago when she started posting BLM content on Facebook with a demand that anyone who disagrees should go ahead and unfriend her now. It was a shockingly abrupt change.
Count me in. And I'm not even in the US.
The thing is, the currently unfolding events are about Black Lives and the systemic discrimination and criminalization of black people in the US. But are about democracy too, and by a lot. And this is important considering how much influent the USA are on other nations.
Over the last two weeks we started seeing the US military (police corps and national guards) open fire agains its own military, repressing dissent and targeting journalists specifically. We have seen racial discrimination in clear sight, police brutality and police representatives unable to admit fault even with footage. We've seen cops planting bricks to charge protestors. We've seen police telling white dudes armed but not protesting to stay inside so that it doesn't look like they're playing favourites.
We've seen the police shoot the medics: that's war crime, for christ's sake.
As an italian, this reminds me A FUCKING LOT of the history pages about the rising of fascism in Italy.
I genuinely believe that the USA are becoming a fascist country, and that the outcome of these protests and the election in november will definitively declare what kind of nation the USA are.
I'm not asking people to unfriend me because I'm not on facebook. But I feel a lot more the need to do something instead of the usual nothing about world politics.
TL;DR: the current events are crazier than have ever been, and immensely scary.
The rise of the far right, and the ambivalence of so many people in my community towards this rise, leaves me in a permanent state of anger/despair. There's many more lines in the sand for me now, and much less charity towards my fellow man. I'm glad that I have close friends and family with whom I can have more nuanced discussions, since there's a baseline of trust and empathy in those relationships — but I'm not sure what I would do if they suddenly started spouting Fox News bulletpoints. It all sucks.
I'm constantly censuring myself already, and only speak when I know what I'm talking about. Someone said talk is cheap but that's not true for everybody.
Words might be cheap, but getting them out...that's expensive if you happen to be
an introvert.
The problem is people who disagree with you can also make a long list of scary events they've seen that lead to the opposite conclusions.
For instance the riots have now killed more people than unarmed blacks killed by the US police last year. They've been attacking statues of Abraham Lincoln, who fought a war to end slavery. That doesn't look like the work of anti-racists.
So whose lists of talking points wins?
BTW "if Trump wins we're a fascist dictatorship" was a talking point tried in the last election too. He won and so far he's been rather the model of federalism, surprisingly so given the hype. For a supposed fascist he's remarkably content to delegate power to regional governors.
Count me in. And I'm not even in the US.
The thing is, the currently unfolding events are about Black Lives and the systemic discrimination and criminalization of black people in the US. But are about democracy too, and by a lot. And this is important considering how much influent the USA are on other nations.
Over the last two weeks we started seeing the US military (police corps and national guards) open fire agains its own military, repressing dissent and targeting journalists specifically. We have seen racial discrimination in clear sight, police brutality and police representatives unable to admit fault even with footage. We've seen cops planting bricks to charge protestors. We've seen police telling white dudes armed but not protesting to stay inside so that it doesn't look like they're playing favourites.
We've seen the police shoot the medics: that's war crime, for christ's sake.
As an italian, this reminds me A FUCKING LOT of the history pages about the rising of fascism in Italy.
I genuinely believe that the USA are becoming a fascist country, and that the outcome of these protests and the election in november will definitively declare what kind of nation the USA are.
I'm not asking people to unfriend me because I'm not on facebook. But I feel a lot more the need to do something instead of the usual nothing about world politics.
TL;DR: the current events are crazier than have ever been, and immensely scary.