Floyd Protests
2020-06-03
It took me two hours to write the section below titled "The bottom line".
I was trying to write this for a private work slack group - as an (honestly) anguished attempt to figure out what the fuck to do during this week and next. It took two hours because the audience would be all leftists, and I wanted to condense it and try to write it so that they would actually read it.
That notion got thrown out the window when I realized I’d spent two fucking hours on it. When I talk to conservative people, of any stripe, I can just say what I’m thinking and have a conversation. About virtually any topic. I get honest answers, and have a meaningful back-and-forth. I don’t have to spend two hours copy-editing my thoughts so that they listen. And sure, everyone corrects mistakes and is resistant to hearing things they don’t like - but they won’t try to retaliate against you for making them uncomfortable.
So I stopped. I’m here, after spending hours on this, and looking at current events, and I’m tired of it. The section that follows is what took me so long.
The bottom line
I want to support police accountability, stand against the murder of Floyd (and others, like McAtee) by government forces, and go out and be in the crowd with the stance that regardless of heritage, all lives matter. An attack on any rights is an attack on all rights. It is self-evident that we are created equal. Free people lose their freedom by being divided and conquered, by saying "didn’t need that safeguard anyway".
But I lived in Seattle for 2 years, worked on 2nd ave between 2014-2018. Went to a dozen or so protests in that time, saw dozens more. I’ve had close friends who were in the scene. And I’ve experienced nothing but hostility from that crowd. I’ve had people put their hands on me, try to take my backpack, because I didn’t chant a slogan. Protesters have blocked and surrounded me with screaming people on my walk home from work, just because I stopped to silently watch without joining. If all they did was yell the usual slurs at me, I wouldn’t be so wrapped up about it. But the impression I’ve had in those four years of being there, living it, was that Seattle has a "if you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists" mindset. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror if i supported that, and they don’t want me to support it.
I know a mob isn’t the place for thoughtful conversations. But there’s so much ignorance, dehumanization, and hate from these protests that I can’t bring myself to go out there and support them. They’re trying to find catharsis, they’re not living in reality. They’re not serious about change. They have no concrete demands, they have no leaders who the city/precinct can invite to a negotiating table, and nothing that could possibly satisfy them. They have no pressure to put against anyone - no taxes to hold from the city, no labor that matters if it halts for a few months, no way to say "i won’t help the city until X happens". I can see no other possible outcome than that people get bored and stop protesting after a while, and some empty and inoffensive statements get made by officials.
What are you going to do?
I don’t know.
I probably have next week (the week of the 7th) off. If not, I’ll be taking some meaningful time off. But I don’t know how to spend it.
It doesn’t matter what one person thinks. For years the leftists have not cared to accept support from the more libertarian side of the political aisle. This won’t change now. Moreover, the general gist of trying to figure this out leads to the tired "this isn’t about you". Yeah, that’s the point - it’s about you.
