Quote from: Shasarak;1131979My impression was that after the murder of George everyone was taking it seriously and then all the riots happened and now suddenly all of the anti-police sentiment has swung 180 and people are actually calling for a crack down by the police.

That's possible. I wasn't following it that closely; initially, to me, it was just another random US black man killed by police, which has basically no bearing on my existence. It's unfortunate that we only get to do history once, so there's no way to confirm where an alternative path would have taken us. All we can do is assess the ultimate consequences of the path that was taken.

Quote from: Brad;1131982You're advocating for rioting and violence, so I think pretty much any response you make cannot be anything other than retarded as fuck.

I'm stating it's an inevitable consequence of a fucked up system that there has been no serious desire to fix. Not taking it seriously andworking to fix it before it gets to this point is far more retarded.

I've never supported D&D BEYOND and now I never will.

Fuck their moralist bullshit.

No Lives Matter.

There, I said it.

We're all humans at the end of the day, and humans are some of the sickest and most vile creatures no matter the race or ethnicity.

There's a reason why we're the dominant species, and it's not just because of sapience, pose-able thumbs, or tool working.

It's all that combined with the fact we're some of the most sicko motherfuckers in the wild.

Quote from: trechriron;1131944I support the riots because they're working.

They're certainly working to get black owned buisnesses burned to the ground. Their homes are on fire. Their communities will be decades rebuilding. And they're adding to the body count.

I have yet to hear a single person defend Derek Chauvin or what he did. I have heard George Floyd's family condemn the riots.

I'm not a gun guy, but this past weekend I seriously considered buying a shotgun in case the looting spread to my neighborhood. That's all the riots mean to me. Am I going to have the balls to shoot another human being if I have to?

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1131967I don't have answers, and I'm not in the right country for my opinion to matter. I generally have no interest in engaging in political debate online. I was just shocked to see the general conensus in these threads being that the only problem is the rioting, and that anyone who thinks that maybe something should be done about the underlying issues is far left virtue-signalling freak (and, for the record, I do believe virtue signalling is a very real thing that serves no purpose other than to make the signaller feel good about themselves, usually while it actually undermines the cause they claim to be supporting).

I've seen this knee on the subject manuver by police on people of all races. White, hispanic, black. It's a terrible tactic and somebody was going to get killed.

I've heard lots of different assertations. That the riots are being instigated by Antifa. That the riots are being instigated by the Klan to frame the protesters. That it's being enabled by the police in order to create fear and approval of harsher policing.
That's it's people taking advantage of the situation to go on a looting spree.
I'm sitting that one out until there's a lot more information. I tend to think all could possibly be true at the same time.

It's hard to come up with a solution when we don't even really know what the problem is yet. Police violence by this individual officer, certainly is a problem, but past that, it's a whirlwind of craziness out there right now.

This is a weird thing to get mad over. Someone got strangled to death over 10 minutes and you're upset about BLM getting a shoutout?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1131993This is a weird thing to get mad over. Someone got strangled to death over 10 minutes and you're upset about BLM getting a shoutout?

I'm mad at everyone.

George Floyd was violently murdered by thugs wearing badges, and then a separate group of thugs decided to use that grave injustice to go looting and rioting.

And then commie punk thugs decided to exploit Floyd's murder to spread looting and rioting across the entire country, making it worse.

Get ready because it's probably gonna get worse before it gets better, assuming it'll get better at all.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1131987I'm not a gun guy, but this past weekend I seriously considered buying a shotgun in case the looting spread to my neighborhood. That's all the riots mean to me. Am I going to have the balls to shoot another human being if I have to?

Gun sales are booming. Once the 'stay in place' orders began, gun stores started a brisk business. Then it started to die down a  bit, and then Congress okayed the $1200 checks. Folks at two gun stores nearby told me that people were spending their checks on guns. Some area gun stores had to shut down for a short time, not for safety of employees, but because they were running out of stock and had to do fresh inventories of loads of new guns. I am sure there will be a fresh mad rush this week.

I am on the outskirts of Portlandia, too. A lot of my liberal leaning neighbors are quietly stocking up on ammo and extra firearms. Our state governor apparently refused the mayor of Portlandia twice to call in the National Guard, and just a few hours ago gave the okay for just 50. I imagine those shop owners that had their shops looted will be visiting their local gun dealers as well.

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1131978I just love the ad hominems that come out the very first time I have anything political to say on this site. You honestly believe the fact that I think the US has massively fucked up race relations, and that riots are an inevitable consequence of their fucked up race relations, makes me a virtual signalling communist NPC?

Part of the problem is that police brutality has become highly politicized and polarized in the US, with the media stoking racial tensions to the point where people on one side have become fed up or apathetic, while people on the other have become increasingly violent and unhinged. People from other races get killed by the police as well, but the media almost never reports on it. But every time a black guy gets killed they report on it 24/7 because outrage brings clicks, and few things generate as much outrage as implying that the reason black people get killed by the police is specifically because of racism (ignore all the white people who also get killed by the police), rather than maybe because the US has an issue with police brutality and accountability in general (which I agree is an issue, and it's bound to continue to escalate if not resolved).

Matters ain't helped by activists who spread misinformation, like the now debunked "Hands up, don't shoot!" of Mike Brown from Ferguson, or peddle selective statistics, like the idea that black people are only 13% of the US population but 30% of those killed by the police, but ignore that black people also commit around 50% of the violent crimes (including attacks on police and homicides), which might explain why they have more encounters with the police. And all of this just adds to the polarization to the point where neither side wants to hear the other side. One side comes with the premade assumption that the other side are a bunch of racists who want to see black people killed, and the other side comes with the premade assumption that the other side are lying race hustlers.

Quote from: VisionStorm;1132003Part of the problem is that police brutality has become highly politicized and polarized in the US, with the media stoking racial tensions to the point where people on one side have become fed up or apathetic, while people on the other have become increasingly violent and unhinged. People from other races get killed by the police as well, but the media almost never reports on it. But every time a black guy gets killed they report on it 24/7 because outrage brings clicks, and few things generate as much outrage as implying that the reason black people get killed by the police is specifically because of racism (ignore all the white people who also get killed by the police), rather than maybe because the US has an issue with police brutality and accountability in general (which I agree is an issue, and it's bound to continue to escalate if not resolved).

Matters ain't helped by activists who spread misinformation, like the now debunked "Hands up, don't shoot!" of Mike Brown from Ferguson, or peddle selective statistics, like the idea that black people are only 13% of the US population but 30% of those killed by the police, but ignore that black people also commit around 50% of the violent crimes (including attacks on police and homicides), which might explain why they have more encounters with the police. And all of this just adds to the polarization to the point where neither side wants to hear the other side. One side comes with the premade assumption that the other side are a bunch of racists who want to see black people killed, and the other side comes with the premade assumption that the other side are lying race hustlers.

I certainly agree that, once people can agree that there is a problem, this kind of nuanced perspective is going to be required of all sides before some kind of solution can be found.

While I'm not personally invested in the specifics of what's going on the US at the emoment, I am concerned that both the US and UK seem to be slowly falling apart due to internal divisions, and it's not in my best interests for the Anglo hegemony of the past centuries to collapse. Australia sure as hell won't be stepping into any power vacuum.

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1131955I'm not sure if I can say I support the riots, but I also can't blame people for rioting. Anyone who wants to deny that race relations in the US are completely fucked up is either incredibly stupid or just trolling.

Race relations aren't completely fucked in the USA. The media is desperate to portray that at every moment, but its not actually true for most people in their daily lives. The media does want a race war and loves to stoke racial division, but most Americans tolerate each other. Some even like each other. Unfortunately, race relations have been harmed by the media and the rise of social media has been a bane for so many social issues, of which race relations is just one.

And now, the riots will cause far greater damage to race relations. But not how the media and the Left would like. Latinos are not happy with the violent cops either, but riots destroying family businesses are unacceptable. I won't be surprised if Latinos secure Trump's 2nd term based on the riots.

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1131955Apparently numerous members of the therpgsite believe that any company that sees a problem is merely virtue signalling. Deny the problem, stick your head in the sand, ridicule or ignore those who try to encourage change.

The companies supporting BLM are only virtue signalling because BLM seeks to achieve nothing but racial division. If companies wanted to affect change, they would support inner city education programs, hiring of ex-convicts, education and retraining of ex-convicts, daycare support for single parents returning to school, or inner city business investment programs. Those actions would matter to black lives.

That's why I posted about DonorsChoose.org. Anyone can find a classroom project they support in a school they support and help them directly. Want to fight injustice? Do something directly positive for the life of a child.

Quote from: trechriron;1131944This is some of the most entitled racist shit I've ever read here on the site.

You're welcome!

Now please explain how what I posted was either "entitled" or "racist".

Quote from: trechriron;1131944I support Black Lives Matters. I support the riots because they're working.

How much will the riots be "working" if BLM's finest hold a "peaceful protest" in your neighborhood?

But let's talk about race riots. What do you think is really going to be the long term outcome?

The 1992 LA riots achieved nothing positive for the black community. The riots left burnt out stores which lead to abandoned strip malls which were left fallow for a decade or more. That was economically devastating for the black community. The middle class flight from LA might have been good for realtors, but nobody else. Race relations in LA were severely damaged, except everybody developed respect for LA's Korean Americans.

Maybe the 2020 outcome will be vastly different, but I doubt it.

Quote from: trechriron;1131944Obviously tweaked a nice knot in your panties heh?

When I see business owners (of any flavor) weeping over the loss of their family's livelihood, that "nice knot" in my gut reminds me why Malcolm X warned black Americans to never trust the white liberal. Not your hero Talcum X. The real X.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1132022If companies wanted to affect change, they would support inner city education programs, hiring of ex-convicts, education and retraining of ex-convicts, daycare support for single parents returning to school, or inner city business investment programs. Those actions would matter to black lives.

I agree with this. What needs to be done to motivate people to do this? If there were easy answers, I guess it would have been done.

Maybe I'm wrong and race relations aren't fucked over there. But from an outside perspective, the whole slavery thing seems to hang over so much of American culture, and the effect it has taints the attitudes of both sides, albeit in different ways.

I do find the stark breakdown of society into two extremely loud fringe minorities seems to be a large part of the current problem. RPG.net has thrown their lot in with one extreme fringe, and I've gradually come to accept it's a lost cause as a site. TheRPGSite leans heavily towards the other side but, as is frequently pointed out, at least it's not closed to dissenting views.

I was just shocked to see two threads castigating companies for having what I considered a fairly non-controversial opinion -- that police violence against blacks in the US is a problem. But maybe it's just a police violence problem in general. The siege mentality and the fact the cops seem afraid in the first place is something that needs to be looked at and changed. The fact that a simple traffic stop seems to typically be treated as a life threatening situation is a sign that something is fundamentally broken somewhere (I'm not saying US Police Departments are wrong for treating traffic stops that way, just that, one way or another, that fact that they do is a sign of a fundamental problem somewhere, that needs to be addressed).

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1132029I was just shocked to see two threads castigating companies for having what I considered a fairly non-controversial opinion -- that police violence against blacks in the US is a problem.

You're confusing a movement with an opinion.

every year almost all american companies go through the routine flag-waving veterans' day hyper-patriotic drill. i have been bombed and shot at by american military. near city that i live american planes dropped cluster bombs (weapons shunned by most countries in the world) on hospital. in other town shrapnel tore priests head off - target was local bridge used almost exclusively by civilians. children were burned to death in their homes and in trains, trucks and cars. yet i game with americans and buy american products. why not? it is not about me agreeing with some company going through jingoistic motions. it is about my own beliefs and what i know to be right and, on the other hand, about me having some fun.

this histrionics about support for BLM is entitled snowflake-ishens of epic proportions. but i agree up to a point: they should have donated to black panthers.