This year has left me wondering exactly what we're supposed to admire about 'protesting.' Today it has none of the righteousness of what we saw in South in the 1960's.

These are directionless, emotionally-needy layabouts trying desperately too find kinship with other children of divorce by threatening the safety of police in public settings.

Why are we pretending their "protests" have any end goal whatsoever? In Montgomery in 1965, any of the marchers could have told you what they wanted the instant you asked the question or put the microphone under their chin. ANY of them.

I doubt even one of these Portland Snotweasels could expressed a single animating principle even if you gave them five hours, three reams of blank paper, and a bucket of Bic pens.

They want nothing but to be given boundaries by loving parents.

That's not who they're meeting at these 'protests.'

When did obstructing people in the conduct of their daily lives become a "peaceful" protest? I'm guessing it happened when the "sit-in" became the preferred method of demonstrating collective unrest. The sit-in ensured that no one was able to do anything until they paid attention to the protestors - like a whiny child pitching a temper tantrum in the middle of the grocery store to get and monopolize his mother's attention.

A march eventually dissipates, or goes by, and one can continue on one's way. One can contemplate the message while watching the marchers.

Lying across the street and blocking traffic is a sure method of forcing passersby to look at you, but does it get the message across? Does anyone affected stop to wonder what those idiots lying in the middle of the road want? Or does the anger at being thus obstructed overwhelm the message?

In my own experience, I was delayed in getting home from work several times by protestors in San Francisco who'd blocked BART station access or forced BART Police to lock down the station. Did I reflect on the protest message while walking an additional 10 blocks to the next station in the hopes it was open? Not once in those additional 10 blocks did I consider their message. My BART commute was already over an hour, so the additional delay was infuriating, not illuminating.

Blockages like this are not a protest. They're an infantile demand that everyone pay attention to me.

The early sit in down in the south were people refused service by the store. They came in and took up space until the store served them. Or at least that is what I gather from history books. And that the police would arrest them for trespass.

In that case there were consequences for everyone involved. Today the protest is more of a social thing than anything else. One of my neighbors used to be a school teacher in New York. She fondly remembered protesting every single year. All the teachers would pick a nice day for a picnic and spend the day outside enjoying the weather and some light crafts. Then they got a minimal raise. It had more in common with a company outing than anything else. After all their nominal boss (the principal) was out 'protesting' with them.

The current protests are like that. Note except in the most extreme cases the police never arrest them. Instead the girls get to show off for each other and the guys sometimes get laid. They may as well 'drive the strip'.

Is it wrong if a driver pulls up, pulls up a chair, grabs a "protester", and gives them a vigorous spanking? Driver protests protesters protesting.

Portland Snotweasels

*smiles, has a thought* I give you the Washington Snotweasels of the NFL. They'll have to pay Crid a licensing fee forever, but that's a small price to pay.

They're an infantile demand that everyone pay attention to me.

That's part of it. The totality of message can be summed up as Look at me! I'm so much better than you. I have the Right Thoughts and do the Right Actions and you...are barely human.

Oh come on. You know what they want. These people have staged a three year and eight month tantrum ever since Trump was elected.

If orange man bad would just go away, and we reinstall Omaha as a popular dictator all will be well.

I doubt even one of these Portland Snotweasels could expressed a single animating principle even if you gave them five hours, three reams of blank paper, and a bucket of Bic pens. ~ Crid at July 29, 2020 3:59 AM

If asked, they would give you some bromide about equality and justice, but nothing specific. Their cause is animated by an underlying narrative, not facts.

It is impossible to have a rational discussion of issues with someone whose argument is based on narrative, not facts. Any facts presented in rebuttal will be twisted to fit the narrative or dismissed outright as a competing narrative.

"The Western world, at least since the Enlightenment, was built on evidence-based argument. But in the last quarter of the twentieth century, Enlightenment ideals were undermined by postmodernism, with its shift to “narrative” as the source of meaning — an invitation to fraud." ~ Fred Siegel

"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling." ~ Thomas Sowell

The current protests assume that they are so right that society MUST obey them. A million people march in DC against abortion, and are ignored, but 1000 people take over Portland and they must be obeyed? Portland protesters said "we won't leave till we get what we demand". Likewise, a few dozen people get to decide that a certain statue must come down, not the general public.

I have seen public statements by the Portland and other protesters (and others) about their demands, as well as the signs. They want "justice" and "end racism" --but unlike the 60s freedom marchers who wanted to ride the bus and eat in the Woolworths, these demands cannot be met. How could the mayor "end racism"? Wave a magic wand? The attitudes and actions of police are hard to change. "Defund" is likewise impossible and nonsense. They want to "end capitalism" but replace it with what? Capitalism actually doesn't exist, a free market is a system but "capitalism" is not. Do they want the government to own all the businesses? That IS a system called communism but they avoid talking about that. So these protesters want vague and impossible things, and if they don't get them they will keep burning stuff and throwing stuff.

I would vote to acquit any motorist that did not see them or thought they were new Whitmer-approved speed humps.

Intentionally blocking public byways should be made a criminal act, subject to a prison term of 3-5 years. And running someone over who is deliberately doing, while doing one's best to avoid hitting them, should be nothing more than a traffic citation costing $25.

The current protests assume that they are so right that society MUST obey them. ~ cc at July 29, 2020 10:43 AM

Of course they're right. After all, they want "justice" and to "end racism."

What they fail to understand is that simply saying you want these things doesn't mean you're the person to deliver them; or that, just because you said it loudest, other people don't want those things.

What they fail to articulate is an actual plan to get these things; or what milestones will indicate progress toward achieving them. So, they expect that a whole new system of government and economics will deliver these goals wholesale; and they want to tear down the existing systems that have failed to deliver them overnight.

And that fits the fifty-year cycle of violence theory as a sheltered generation (roughly every third one) grows up and, in a fit of childlike naiveté, expects the world to be "fair," becoming irrationally angry when they find out it isn't.

"If orange man bad would just go away, and we reinstall Omaha as a popular dictator all will be well."

But are you sure you'd want Nebraska ruling the nation?

If by "Omaha" you mean Peyton Manning, I'm ok with that.

Omaha montage: https://youtu.be/E1IZdqPYuts

If orange man bad would just go away, and we reinstall Omaha as a popular dictator all will be well."

But are you sure you'd want Nebraska ruling the nation?

Preferable to the DC beltway. But you know what I meant. Typed that post before coffee this morning.

On this issue I believe Red China has the right set of priorities. If you block a highway there, the police will take one look, shoot you, clean up the mess and reopen the highway.

It doesn't matter why you blocked the road: the right of thousands of people to get home unimpeded is more important than your life -- so don't force the police to make that choice.

Many folks on this blog are going to be quite angry for the remainder of their lives because society at large has left them behind.

Many folks on this blog are going to be quite angry for the remainder of their lives because society at large has left them behind.

Good to know that Arty thinks arson and assault are good things.

Many folks on this blog are going to be quite angry for the remainder of their lives because society at large has left them behind.

Artemis at July 30, 2020 9:53 AM

Short, pithy, and to the point, but still conveying a massive case of projection.....

Good job, Artie. I like it.

Ben,

I thought you and I went through this once already with you just making up positions for me that have no resemblance to my actual opinions.

If you need to just make things up out of whole cloth it means your argument is weak or nonexistent.

Isab,

I don't think you live in reality. Whatever community you have curated for yourself is not representative of society at large and it has caused an inability for you to determine future events based on current information.

You are the same person who said the corona virus would be gone by the time it was warm.

How is that working out?

As I have told you before, facts and reality do not care about your feelings or what you wish to be true.

As it stands we have an ongoing pandemic with 150,000 dead Americans, the GDP just tanked, unemployment numbers are through the roof, the federal deficit and debt are enormous and growing... and here you are living in la la land thinking this is exactly what you've always dreamed about.

Jesus, Arty. Shut up.

"Many folks on this blog are going to be quite angry for the remainder of their lives because society at large has left them behind."

The rest of us, as Crid has so aptly pointed out, have kissed a girl, and I'm not sure you've even been outside.

Please return to pointless meandering about what might have been said but doesn't matter because you were involved.

Radwaste,

You are only lashing out because I struck a nerve with facts.

Just to be clear, you are one of the folks here who I suspect is going to end up quite angry and bitter in the coming years... you aren't doing much to disprove my point by telling me to "shut up" simply for making a reference to evident cultural shifts on the horizon.

Facts? Heck Arty all you presented was a vague opinion. But at least you were short and to the point. A trick you appear unable to replicate.

Also thank you for confirming what I inferred from your words was correct. Enjoy the arson and rape you appear to consider a valuable change in the culture.

Ben,

You've become an idiot again.

I've never supported arson or rape... what the hell is wrong with you?

Out of curiosity, in your opinion what should be the punishment for arson and should we as a society be lenient on arsonists?

Give the police water canon so they can clean up this mess.

Enjoy the arson and rape you appear to consider a valuable change in the culture. ~ Ben at July 31, 2020 7:19 AM

Please return to pointless meandering about what might have been said but doesn't matter because you were involved. ~ Radwaste at July 30, 2020 4:55 PM

The coming "evident cultural shifts on the horizon," I believe, refer more to the increasingly acceptable outright discrimination against straight white men than an approval of arson and rape/assault.

Taking for granted that most of the body politic is house-owning straight married parents who will vote for law and order is dangerous, these days. The country has a large bloc of people who, frustrated with student loans, a slow (to them) pace of career advancement, and low rates of house-ownership, are voting for anyone who promises to "transform America," with little concern for what might result from that transformation; little knowledge of the disastrous history of such transformations.

Unlike previous generations, once these generations acquire a house and have children, they are less likely to become straight law and order voters, having embraced the "diversity" rhetoric with which they were inculcated as children.

"Freedom" to this bloc is not freedom from government interference, but freedom from prejudice, which they've been taught is baked into the traditional norms of Western society; that includes freedom from damaging words, attitudes, and mores. You must immediately accept the new mores, or be labelled prejudiced.

That they're replacing racism with racism, bias with bias, and hate with hate has not occurred to them, and likely will not. If it does, they dismiss it as social justice. They see reverse racism as a just comeuppance for generations of what they see as white supremacy, even if the specific offense is from generations long since gone: "...bias can go both ways. This is 2020 speaking."

It will take decades of chaos and fear to instill an appreciation of the rule of law into the minds of the SJWs. Even then, they're unlikely to see how they invited and created that atmosphere of chaos and fear. That lack of self-awareness is what invites authoritarianism as collectivist totalitarians and their supporters usually delude themselves into thinking they're "saving" their countries, not ruining them.

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

Damn, I was wrong. You were able to write something short again Arty. Oh well.

Conan, when you've got the city government actively aiding those who torch buildings that is quite the cultural shift that has already happened in part of the nation. A trend they are eager to export to the rest of us. When you have 'autonomous' districts popping up you really have local warlords taking over.

As for the discrimination against white men, you are 20 years behind the times on that. And to an extent it has peaked. That is why I knew all the sophist arguments about 'the master's tools'. I went to college with those people. I had to fill that retarded junk into tests to get my grade.

Just remember, the most vocal aren't the most numerous or the most influential in our nation. They are just the loudest.

Just remember, the most vocal aren't the most numerous or the most influential in our nation. They are just the loudest.

I actually had a comment about that in my original post, but deleted it for brevity.

Ben,

You are wrong about a great many things... why on earth should that surprise you at this point?

In any case, you failed to provide an answer to the following question, so I shall ask again:

"Out of curiosity, in your opinion what should be the punishment for arson and should we as a society be lenient on arsonists?"

There is an important reason I am asking this question and should you refuse to answer I will go ahead and assume that you don't actually care much for arson except when it is useful to you as a political prop.

Conan,

You haven't really grasped the evident cultural shifts on the horizon I am referring to either.

At the very least you aren't foolish enough to conclude I am in favor of arson and rape as some kind of cultural zeitgeist bound to emerge across the nation.

In order to really understand the cultural shifts soon to emerge one must simultaneously understand the technological changes soon to take place coupled with a comprehension of the future needs of generations not your own.

I have not seen that kind of technological understanding or empathy on this board.

People are going to be caught by surprise and pissed off because they are going to be left behind and not understand what is going on or why.

Sure, Artie, sure. It seems amazing that only you have the foresight and empathy to see this Great Shift coming and to prepare for it.

"Bye, Felicia."

Conan,

Not "only me"... however when chatting with folks about social changes that are looming over the horizon and all they can offer up are the following interpretations:

1 - That the changes I am referring to must imply that I support things like arson and other heinous crimes.

2 - That the changes I am referring to must have something to do with "discrimination against white men"

It suggests the folks I am chatting with haven't the slightest grasp on what I am actually talking about... or what the future holds.

You guys are just extremists who live in a fantasy world because you've been fed a constant diet of propaganda and nonsense.

Reality has been beyond your grasp for quite some time.

It suggests the folks I am chatting with haven't the slightest grasp on what I am actually talking about... or what the future holds. ~ Artemis at August 3, 2020 10:30 AM

That's because you're not actually talking about anything. What's more, you don't "chat" with anyone here. You harangue, insult, preach, and demean, but you don't "chat." You say cryptic things and when people don't immediately agree with you, you declare them ignorant or monstrous.

All you've said so far is "a big change is coming and you guys are gonna regret it. It's cultural and technological. If you guys could only see it coming, like I do...."

If you want people to admire your prescience, you have to actually predict something.

In all the years you've been here and all the names you've posted under, I've yet to see anyone take you seriously. Given your reluctance to meet people halfway, I suspect no one ever will.

Artie, I think you'll find people on this forum to be much smarter, much more worldly, and much more adaptable than you give them credit for being. If you'd only demonstrate a little of that empathy and insight you claim to have, you might realize that.

Some of the folks on this forum have survived a lot more than you have; a lot more than you are willing to give them credit for. History didn't start when you were born, no matter how much you wish it did.

Some of the people on this forum have lived through and adapted to more cultural and technological shifts than you'll ever know.

Conan Says:

"That's because you're not actually talking about anything."

For someone not actually talking about anything it certainly seems to be that you and Ben like just making up what I am talking about:

"The coming "evident cultural shifts on the horizon," I believe, refer more to the increasingly acceptable outright discrimination against straight white men than an approval of arson and rape/assault."

I am the one who was talking about evident cultural shifts on the horizon.

Ben somehow interpreted that to mean approval of arson and rape/assault... and you somehow interpreted that to mean "outright discrimination against straight white men".

I never made mention of either of those things... and yet both of you went completely off the rails in your interpretations of my words.

Certainly I must have been talking about *something* for both of you to let your imaginations run wild.

"If you want people to admire your prescience, you have to actually predict something."

I don't care if anyone here "admires" me... as for predictions... I made one right here:

"Many folks on this blog are going to be quite angry for the remainder of their lives because society at large has left them behind."

That is a prediction. One that I am sure no one will "admire" me about even if it turns out I am completely correct.

What do you imagine is going on in my mind?... that I will predict a bunch of far right extremists on an internet blog are going to be really pissed when society moves on without them and after years of anger and bitterness they are going to start raining praise on me for the accuracy of my prediction?

Let's get one thing straight... if someone predicted prior to the passage of the 13th amendment that many really racists folks would be extremely bitter about it until the day they died... do you honestly think that anyone anywhere who was bitter for decades "admired" them for pointing that out to them?

"In all the years you've been here and all the names you've posted under, I've yet to see anyone take you seriously."

You just keep saying this nonsense any time someone shows up who isn't a far right extremist who posts here.

You have accused me of being all kinds of people who I am not.

That is your own irrationality, not anything established in fact.

But folks like you live in a fantasy land, always have, and always will.

"Artie, I think you'll find people on this forum to be much smarter, much more worldly, and much more adaptable than you give them credit for being."

I have given folks here the benefit of the doubt for quite some time to demonstrate evidence of intelligent thought... I'll continue to keep an eye out and recognize it when it shows up.

Lots of words there, Artie, but nothing actually said.

"Cultural shift coming - you'll be pissed." Um, yeah.

Since all you've done is make vague predictions with no substance and you seem upset that no one is taking you seriously, this is your chance to put something concrete down and prove your prescience. Or you could just keep talking about how you see "it" coming and no one else does.

Your call, Artie.

Conan,

I've made several concrete predictions on this board many times over.

The issue is that folks like you conveniently "forget" the predictions that are likely to be true or have already come to pass.

Just a few examples, when chatting with Isab about 5 months ago regarding the Corona pandemic she insisted it would be gone with the warm weather.

I told her in no uncertain terms that was untrue and heat would do nothing to stop the pandemic... and here we are in August with close to 160,000 deaths and counting.

It seems to me I was pretty spot on... I wish I wasn't, but I was just following the evidence.

I also predicted Susan Collins would lose her seat in November after her weak showing of principles in the impeachment hearing.

We'll see how that one turns out, but it certainly looks like I am going to be correct there too based on recent polling.

So how about you Conan... care to put any concrete predictions on the board so I can take you seriously?

Conan,

Here is the link by the way to my explicit prediction about Collins:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2020/01/impeachment-may.html

"My prediction is as follows:

If Susan Collins votes in opposition to collecting relevant witness testimony (i.e., witnesses that can speak to the facts related directly to the articles of impeachment) she will lose her senate seat in the next election."

That prediction was made about 8 months ago and it certainly appears as if I am on track to have this prediction validated.

The point is that you don't really care about concrete predictions as a criteria for being taken seriously... I've made many over the years and you just pretend they don't exist anyway.

Conan,

I am amused how you make up lies indicating that I don't make "concrete" predictions... I demonstrate with evidence that I have made some this very year and challenge you to do the same... and suddenly you have nothing to say.

It is behavior like this which is why I regard you as fundamentally dishonest.

At the very least an honest communicator would acknowledge that they were wrong.

I'll use this opportunity to go ahead and make another prediction though.

This won't be the last time you dishonestly indicate that I fail to make concrete predictions based on evidence.

This is an interesting one because the next time you pull this nonsense I'll just link back to here and demonstrate that I accurately predicted something entirely within your control.