Please don't take HN threads further into political flamewar. Just because we're already in a circle of hell is no reason to walk into a deeper circle. It's a reason to walk the opposite way.
We ban accounts that set flames like this, regardless of what color the flames are. No more of this please.
This is a false assumption, the vast majority of Americans across the political spectrum have condemned the BLM riots and looting and largely find it unacceptable. Curious how you came to the conclusion that "everyone is okay" with it.
"While the summer of 2020 experienced 100 days of violence and destruction in cities, according to the the U.S Department of Homeland Security, the most recent CCC study of 7,305 separate events in May and June suggests that 96.3% of events involved no property damage or police injuries"
So 270 violent protests in that 2 month span then? Not trivial.
There's a distinction between "violent protest" and "protest at which at least one (potentially minor) incident of violence and/or vandalism occurred" - the latter seems to be what those statistics are counting.
If 10,000 people march through a city and one of the 10,000 sprays graffiti on a single store or breaks one window, most would not call that on the whole a "violent protest." How many were in that category and how many had truly widespread violence or more severe destruction? I'd love to see a source capturing that. Anecdotally though, in online discussion I often see people treating it as a given that BLM protests laid waste to whole neighborhoods in multiple cities, which seems more like flat-out misinformation...
Centuries of oppression, racism, disenfranchisement and extrajudicial killings by police causing riots versus seditious white grievance LARPers following orders from the President of the United States to interrupt the transfer of power... wow
The problem with this argument is that plenty of white communities in the US have suffered from deep generational poverty and exploitation too. Take a drive though an old Kentucky mining town or poor white communities in Alabama and Georgia. Ask these people if they’re larping and why they support Trump. Dismissing them as “Grievance larpers” is utterly counterproductive.
Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. Comments like this and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25693147 are abusive regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are.
There's another form of abuse, too: your comment history looks like you're using HN primarily for political and ideological battle. That's not ok—it's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for, so we ban accounts that do that. If you want more explanation of why, you can find many via https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme....
what culture? literally all these people care about is demanding blind devotion to their leader and buying Q merchandise to wear at their demagogue circuses. it's time to stop treating them like they're anything other than a deluded, dangerous, cultish mob
I'm not going to argue about which other demonstrations have "burned down cities", nor about whether everyone is OK with violent protests.
But yes, there is a large and qualitative difference between a riot with property damage and attempting a full on coup d'etat. The latter is a crime against the very heart of society.
To be clear, if the Trump supporters had stood outside Capitol and protested, even violently, it would not have been such a momentuous thing. Crossing the Rubicon indeed.
How was this an attempted coup? Some agitators attempted to enter congressional chambers with no real plans or demands with what to do. Seems like your standard societal unrest to me.
The President pressured the VP and Congress to overturn the election results. The President also told people to rally in Washington to pressure Congress into overturning the election.
Then the President told the crowd at the rally to march with him to the capitol to pressure Congress into overturning the election results.
People then marched down to the capitol, broke into it, killed a police officer, and forced congress to evacuate. When asked why, rioters stated they were trying to prevent Congress from certifying the results.
It was a failed attempt at a coup, and a very bad attempt at a coup. It was still an attempt though.
Subsets of the mob seemed to have much more concrete plans than others. Video footage shows one group chanting "hang Mike Pence!" while pushing into the building, and others specifically searching for Schumer and Pelosi. Photographs show people with zip-tie handcuffs and tasers. Some brought maps of the Congressional offices within the building. Parler threads ahead of the attack discussed likely escape routes members of Congress might use.
Aside from all those frightening cases, it seems clear that there was a broadly shared goal was to "stop the steal" by preventing Congress from making progress in the peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration. Maybe most of them had few concrete ideas how they'd accomplish that aim once inside the building, but they nonetheless were aiming to overturn an election and block Biden from becoming President - and if successful that absolutely is a coup.
Fair enough, If your intention was not whataboutism, I would suggest choosing a more refined way to present your point. Currently the comment is structured such that it seems like you are attempting to justify the insurrection on Capitol Hill.
> it seems like you are attempting to justify the insurrection on Capitol Hill
What mental gymnastics led you to this conclusion? It's obvious that the comment was pointing out the double standard and hypocrisy that pervades this discussion.
Attacking other users like that will get you banned here, regardless of how wrong they are and how right you are, or you feel they are, or you feel you are. No more of this on HN, please.
Edit: your comment history is unfortunately replete with this kind of abuse. We already asked you to stop [1], and you've clearly been using HN primarily for political and ideological battle, which is another thing we ban accounts for [2], regardless of which ideology they're battling for. So I've banned this account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
Destroying the commons like this is profoundly not ok. It does no good and helps no one. Having this place descend into the hell realms is not in your interest either.
Yes, shouting at elected officials totally compares to forcing your way into the Capitol, making congresspeople flee for their lives, looting their offices, and killing a cop.
According to Capitol police, the rioters "actively attacked United States Capitol Police Officers and other uniformed law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers."
