04-08-2017, 01:34 PM
(04-01-2017, 03:36 AM)Kinser79 Wrote:(03-31-2017, 11:58 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(03-31-2017, 04:44 PM)Kinser79 (to Bob Butler) Wrote: There's one problem with your theory. They don't organize peaceful protests. Were it merely that they would merely be annoying. BLM mostly instigates riots and anti-police crime. As for the police themselves statistics indicate that they are prejudiced against shooting blacks in proportion to the rate at which that race commits crimes--particularly violent crime. Remember Blacks are 13% of the population but commit half the murders and robberies.
"Black lives matter"... or we all have a problem. That includes me, someone who could hardly be "whiter". A nasty society in which to live for any large population -- and that includes poor whites, too -- makes life more precarious for us all. Note that I did not say that violent criminals who happen to be black need a "get away from the consequences" card because some of their ancestors were slaves. Pull a gun on a cop and die, especially when the cops have body armor and almost invariably get the second shot with a more lethal aim. One reason for criminal homicides going down is that the cops now survive felonious assaults and those who commit those felonious assaults never make it to jail or the courtroom, let alone the execution chamber.
By the way -- I have a suggestion for solving many of the problems of any oppressed people in America -- more rigorous, effective s[url=http://generational-theory.com/forum/newreply.php?tid=401&replyto=24411][/url]chooling. If it works for middle-class people of every ethnic group in America, then why can't it work for...
Yes, parents must turn off the Idiot Screen and the video games.
The Tee-Vee is a dead medium PBR. As for video games there is no concrete linkage between them and increased violence or sexism--but it is up to parents to set priories until such time as their children are capable of doing that themselves.
For people too poor for anything else, who have no access to anything else because other entertainments are unavailable (as in prison), are too lazy to find something else to do with spare time, or lack the desire for anything better, TV is very much alive and well as a medium. The people who get the most out of TV are paradoxically the people who use it least.
Say what you want about television, but between PBS and pay channels like HBO we are having a renaissance of creativity in drama. The networks have even put live stage performances on television as they once did. But yes, the people whose sole entertainment is television watch lots of crap. I am reminded (I think it was Studs Terkel in Working) that prison inmates watch much TV. Staff recognize TV as a pacifier and time-killer, so it makes administration far easier. Men (he was not referring to women) prefer TV that shows lots of T&A and care little about story line or other intellectual qualities. No Masterpiece Theater, Great Performances, NOVA, or Nature for them!
Quote:As to the matter with the organization known as "Black Lives Matter" (who is whom I'm referring to when I say BLM--unless I indicate otherwise) the problem is that they are calling for the removal of police from the very streets on which black people live. I don't know what you know about crime, but criminals rarely commit said crimes right in front of the police (unless they are stupid) so removing them from our neighborhoods might reduce the extremely small numbers of people shot by police it will increase crime. Crime breeds poverty which breeds more crime.
Wrong. They want bad cops out of black neighborhoods. There are plenty of bad cops. Police work attracts sociopaths because cops get plenty of opportunity to make life miserable for people. (So do some other occupations that give people power, access to cash, and personal authority). I obviously can't speak for black people -- I'd have to doll up like Rachel Dolezal to find out first-hand, and at my age I would not get to find out what life is like for young black men who experience racism at its worst, which is what would count, anyway. Neighborhood policing has been shown to work very well as people get to know the police as human beings.
Most crime is committed by few people -- crooks best described as one-man or one-woman crime waves. Remove the person, and the crime wave comes to an end. Washington State had a problem with seemingly-pointless murders; the causes were in turn Ted Bundy and "Green River Killer" Gary Ridgway. Note that such community organizers as Barack Obama knew well enough to heed signs of sociopathic behavior more likely to cause people to go criminal than poverty alone.
Quote:Quote:Quote:I would also indicate again that the main cause of unnatural death amongst blacks is in fact being killed by other non-police black people. If one wants to save black lives, black people should start by not killing each other. In the words of RuPaul "If you don't love yourself how the hell you gonna love anyone else?". Black on black crime is real and a serious issue but since it doesn't fit the hate the white man narrative BLM isn't interested.
What if I told you that white people use more drugs, use worse drugs, and get away with them longer?
So what? It would seem to indicate to me that whites might have several factors going for them that blacks don't. A greater proportion not actively poor (it is easier for a richer person to maintain an Oxy habit than it is for a poor one to maintain a crack habit--such is the difference between being richer and poorer), a lower propensity to act the fool while on drugs or trying to obtain drugs (I don't subscribe to the anti-scientific notion that evolution stopped below the neck in humans) regardless of class.
But all of that seems to indicate to me that is a failure of the War on Drugs. It seems to me that gangs and so on would have a harder time shooting each other up over the crack spot if one can go down to their local Walgreens and get all the base they need, and at a higher purity and cheaper price. What drives gang violence is the profit to be made over the drugs trade, a trade created by prohibition--amazingly something that hurt the Mafia far more than RICO ever could was the repeal of the 18th amendment.
There are certain drugs that you just do not want out on the street. The British may have the right solution -- addicts get the doses that they need in a clinical setting practically free of charge. A medical professional administers the drug. That takes away any need for street dealing and takes the profit out of street drugs. There are no pushers trying to make addicts out of non-users.
That said, heroin, cocaine, and meth are stilll horrible.
Quote:Quote:OK, whatever one's ethnicity, poverty makes life far harder and personal decisions more difficult. I recall seeing a study in which much murder was over money. Middle-class people burned for $20 simply abandon their losses if they can't get them corrected. For them, $20 is easy to come by. Poor people were more likely to act violently to being burned. Tellingly, middle-class people asked to draw dollar bills drew them at the right size. Poorer people tended to draw them bigger than they really are.
I have no solution to the class problem other than to increase police presence and liberalize the availability of starting businesses. I've told people repeatedly if the black community wants to get out of poverty the solution isn't more welfare, the solution is to get a job, and if you can't find a job to make one up. Of course after that I'm told I'm an Uncle Tom and that I should stop "acting white".
More police presence is appropriate for stopping crime. Much of the heavy police presence in some areas is to reassure out-of-town people that they are safe despite being in a statistically-dangerous place (like Detroit). Sales taxes on people buying souvenirs at Detroit sports teams or paying for parking are a big chunk of local revenue. The cops are there to signal to people from Kalamazoo or Lansing that they are safe at or near the stadium. But I get on the freeway as fast as possible to get out of town, and I am delighted to see a sign that reads "Dearborn city limit". I know what happens in the not-so-touristy parts of Detroit.
Enterprise? That has been a traditional escape from poverty in urban America.
Quote:I would argue that there is an other factor that Blacks have that whites don't. There is the whole "Thug Culture" thing. It literally takes the very worst aspects of a culture and promotes it. I'm going to refer again to Chris Rock's statements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4
It has a perverse appeal... when it is uniformly treated as repugnant, it will vanish.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.