Black lives matter?
I confess I am somewhat bemused by this “Black Lives Matter” lark.
In my humble opinion, all lives matter so is it not implicitly racist to distinguish one race from the rest? Are they saying that white lives are of no consequence? That would be distinctly racist, but as I say, it’s just my opinion.
What really bemuses me though is what all these demonstrators hope to achieve? I can understand the Mercans getting worried as their cities burn and the population goes into full Rambo mode, but do they really give a shit about marches in Ireland or anywhere else for that matter? Is the ambassador going to phone the White House to tell Trump that he is shitting his pants and could Trump please do something about it? I can imagine the response [on Twitter, of course] – “Grow a pair of BALLS” [Trump cares not for gender or CAPSLOCK]. Naturally Trump would immediately fire the ambassador as that appears to be a standard response to anything he doesn’t like.
So I won’t be joining any marches. I will only be going down on one knee to search for something else Herself has dropped under her bed. I don’t go for virtue signalling, if I even understand what virtue signalling is.
It’s all pretty pointless.
The whole of th e country is not burning nor up in arms. There is a very small percentage of people rioting in large cities. In smaller cities there are a few people peacefully gathering to protest police brutality. The police in general treat the average person with contempt. Blacks see it as a racial thing but everyone gets treated poorly by the cops. We need to get away from the militarization of the police forces. I don't know about the Garda there but here the police treat you as guilty of something, anything until you prove yourself innocent. There are better ways of causing change than demonstrations and rioting. Try voting for one.
Just a drop of literary/poetic licence there!
I agree about the militarization of the police. It gives some of them an over inflated sense of superiority. Here in general the police are unarmed but have armed units on call should they be required. However, as criminals have easy access to weapons [which are illegal here] then I can understand their fear.
One aspect of policing Over There that I always had a small problem with is the concept of a police chief being locally elected. Surely that has to lead to a situation where the chief will demand arrests and convictions [right or wrong] just to boost his or her popularity and to prove a "tough stance on crime"?
Virtue signaling is a manner of confirming to the rest of the world that you are an utter twat.
Pretty much what I thought. I kneel to your superior knowledge. Or maybe I don't.
Coming from Somerset, I was delighted to see Colston’s statue ending up in the Avon. No-one would have tolerated the statue of a child abuser or murderer for five minutes, so there was no justification for the retention of the statue of a man whose wealth was built on suffering and death.
We can only be allowed to erect statues of people who were perfect in every way? I can only think of one, but I might be accused of islamophobia.
Who said perfect? There is a world of difference between statues of people like Winston Churchill and people like Colston who was a man who thrived on human misery. Like the statues of the Communist leaders that were felled after the collapse of the Societ bloc and the destruction of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, it was right that it was destroyed.
I hope you didn't leave any fingerprints on it?
I went down on one knee today. Bloody fixing screws in the bottom corners of the new shower cubicle were a bastard to get at!
Should we destroy the city of Bath 'cause the romans had slaves? Where does the stupidity end?
History happened, you can't erase it, the best you can do is learn from it. It is not possible to evaluate long-ago historical events or people through the lens of 21st century eyes – they did what they did when they did it, not now. Any old sins cannot be unsinned, they happened (but not to you), get over it.
Our challenge now is to progress as a society for all our mutual benefit, re-igniting historical situations simply in order to provoke does nothing positive towards that aim.