Coram Deo asked a good question about why people riot. In general, I presume there are many different reasons. I offered a brief response in the post, but I'm sure it could be expanded and improved.
However, in the case of George Floyd, much of it is due to perceived racism. The kind of thing epitomized in Childish Gambino's "This Is America". George Floyd is coming on the heels of Ahmaud Audrey and Breanna Taylor too.
Yet, perception isn't necessarily reality. Is it only black folks and other minorities targeted by the police? Consider the tragic case of Daniel Shaver only a few years ago. The officer who killed Shaver was found not guilty.
Anyway, there's a lot of pent-up frustration against authorities in general, especially the police, police brutality, the blue wall of silence. A lot of it justified, in my view. There are a lot of corrupt cops. Cops who don't serve and protect. Of course, I'm not suggesting riots are the answer. Not at all. I don't defend the riots.
That said, I want to come to my main point: I think the left is fomenting a lot of the riots. Leftist agitators. Take arguments like this which attempt to justify violent protests. Likewise take how some argue "black rage" is a "spiritual virtue". Take the house that Obama built (e.g. Obama arguably inciting blacks against authorities). Take the fact that "Biden's staff is donating to a group that funds the release of rioters" (source).
It's as if leftists are using Floyd's death as a pretext to push their agenda. It's as if leftists want a second civil war. A revolution.
If so, I suppose that'd be in line with what socialists and communists have always wanted. To build a new world atop the ash heaps of the old world, the world of their fathers. They don't honor their parents, but wish to commit patricide and matricide. They're not their grandfathers' sons, but their grandfathers' slayers. Destroy Amerikkka, arise Utopia.
I don't think the US today can be defeated by external forces (e.g. China), but I think we could defeat ourselves by tearing ourselves apart. Many on the left are like a fifth column in the US.
Update. Andy Ngo, who himself was a victim of Antifa, makes good observations which overlap with mine.
The violence tonight is not about George Floyd.Growing numbers of young Americans have been taught to think of US as an evil empire—a white-supremacist, patriarchal hellscape.The part about the US being the best hope for humankind—a deeply flawed but noble democracy—not taught.
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) June 1, 2020
Thanks for the responses, Hawk. I have no special insights into the subject, which was the reason for my question in the first place, but I think you hit on several things that are correct, and for which there's at least anecdotal evidence.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at world news there are people ostensibly protesting and/or rioting (I distinguish the two) over the Floyd and the other cases you mentioned in England, Germany, and other places around the globe. I think sadly that the Floyd case is being hijacked by other elements for their own purposes. Many of those out in the streets rioting, looting, maiming, and pillaging care nothing for or about George Floyd or the state of race relations in the US, they only care about pushing their sociopolitical agenda, or more crassly just breaking and taking stuff.
In these instances the Floyd case just becomes a convenient excuse.
This is human nature at its basest.
I'm reminded of a powerful testimony I once heard from a cruel, angry, drunkard of a man who rose to some prominence in the Army (you may have heard it, I can't remember his name) who shared that after his father died - also a cruel, hard man - that as a young man he turned quickly to alcohol and became a notorious drunkard and rounder in the town. He said he knew people would excuse his behavior saying things like, "Oh, look how much he loved his daddy", "Oh look how hard he's taking it".
He said he did love his daddy, and he did take his death hard, this much was true, but he also said he was counting on those people to accept his behavior and excuse it, which they did, because he said in his own heart and mind he knew he was doing what he was doing simply because he wanted to. He said it wasn't about his daddy, it was about himself.
I think this is true of the vast majority - if not all - of the rioters and looters today. It's not about George Floyd, he's just a convenient excuse, it's about themselves, and they're counting on people saying, "Oh look how much they lament George Floyd", "Oh look how hard they're taking it" as they do exactly what they want to do in their hearts.
Thanks, CD! Much appreciated. Good points.
DeleteDon't discount the COVID influence. The economic downturn caused by the COVID shutdown increases general unrest. This doesn't cause riots, but it will amplify things.
ReplyDeleteThanks, SRG. Very true.
Delete