In Reply to: Re: ... before they finally hold you up as a shining example of posted by TheHappyBurgermeister on June 10, 2025 at 11:15:50
and how incidental property damage often becomes the leverage used to downgrade the moral weight of the thing being protested. IOW, it quickly turns into "I am very much opposed to people being sent to gulags, but only until the point where someone sets a trash can on fire or throws a water bottle at a cop in riot gear. Once that happens, I'm out". I'm not saying that's your position, specifically, but this is the kind of ambient reaction that floats in the air whenever there's an unrest.
BTW, I think we need to move away from the MLK question. There is no MLK anymore. Not only do we not have one on the horizon, I'm not sure that it's even possible to have an MLK today. I don't think the MLK of the '60s could have been an MLK today if you had simply plucked him out of his time (with all his built-in reputation intact) and dropped him into any protest happening today. I don't think he had the ability to change the nature of who we are and how we react to authority and the world around us today, as opposed to 60 years ago. We are a different society and this is a different world.