Day 36
8/26 '20
Today in let them eat cake, I made wallpaper choices. I am happy with my wallpaper choices. Now I need to buy some paint and hire a crew to install it.
I also talked with a friend who was mad at himself for engaging with right-wing nutjobs arguing "good" civil protesting and "bad" civil unrest. I repeat myself here:
The thing is: folks don't go to a protest with the desire to loot. You don't think "hey! A protest! Great, I can steal some Ferragamos!" So the conversation about looting is irrelevant to the meaning, purpose and morality of protest.
It becomes relevant to the conversation about controlling protest, but you have to start with the question of whether it is a legitimate function of democratic government to control protest at all before you can even assess which means of control are least likely to cause looting or violence.
Protest, and the chaos that can result from crowds, are a normal human response to violence and oppression. We got state violence in spades around here.
Otherwise, I don't feel any better, but for now I don't feel worse.
