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Comment by philwelch

5 years ago

Looting private businesses and setting fires isn’t “self-defense”.

It's drawing worldwide attention to the issue of systemic racism across the police force in the USA though, isn't it?

What else do you think might get this kind of attention? Fact is, incidents like this have been happening for a long, long time, yet nothing changes.

  • That’s the rationalization of a terrorist.

    • I think we need to be very careful before throwing around that word - it's something the authorities band around a lot, usually when it fits their political narrative. I don't think we should any further dilute the term.

      I think it's ludicrous to call a spontaneous out-pouring of despair and anger, after being wronged so badly for so long, an act of "terrorism".

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Military theorists disagree.

  • Not to be flippant but, to your point, Civilization has always allowed a profitable "pillage" option if your units are on an enemy title. This is a feature of struggle.

    • And if that’s the answer we’re going with—that looting businesses is part of a general violent insurrection—then Trump’s threat to suppress that insurrection with military force becomes more justifiable, not less.

An organism that is attacked can self defend in impredictible ways, there will be collaterals.

  • That still doesn't make looting self-defense.

    • If you see the community, or the people, as a single organism. Then yes it is reacting in harmful way to an attack. And it is hard to control where the harm is directed.

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  • Sure. If you mistreat a dog for long enough and then let it loose in a playground it may very well react by mauling random children. Usually the end result is the dog getting euthanized because it’s not capable of living peaceably within society anymore, so I’m not sure that’s really the analogy you want to go with here. I would expect grown adult humans to have better judgment.

    • why not? In a lot of authoritarian state this is what happens. Look at Hong Kong.