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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by s3th on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @07:54PM (#25665613)
The police officers responsible for the murders of countless innocent Black people.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by haram_masala on Thursday January 07, 2021 @01:37AM (#25667954)
They are anything but countless. There’s a specific number of unarmed Black people who are killed each year by police. That number is typically less than 30.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by 3131s on Thursday January 07, 2021 @01:55AM (#25668039)
OP said innocent, not unarmed.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by machello13 on Thursday January 07, 2021 @04:36PM (#25677863)
So we can quantify how many innocent unarmed people the government is allowed to kill each year, and I guess it's more than 30?
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Wednesday January 06, 2021 @08:31PM (#25666046)
You're implying that destroying innocent people's property and starting riots that lead to deaths, including 18 murders in Chicago alone on May 31st, is a justified response to an act of injustice, which is an absolutely irresponsible moral outlook, exhibiting morally elitist entitlement.

In fact, it would be the 'incitement to riot' that the parent comment is referring to, that an impartial application of the proposed rule would identify as worthy of banning.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by dang on Sunday January 10, 2021 @03:43PM (#25719524)
Please stop taking HN threads further into flamewar, as you did repeatedly in this thread and are doing repeatedly on the site elsewhere. Comments like e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25526385 are unacceptable, for reasons which will be obvious to you once you review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

If you keep posting like that we will ban you. I'm not going to ban you right now because you've also posted some ok comments within recent memory, but the not-ok comments are seriously not ok. No more of this, please.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Sunday January 10, 2021 @06:40PM (#25721697)
Sorry, I'll try to not incite flame wars. In my defense, anything related to these kinds of issues is highly likely to rouse emotions. The only way these topics can even brought up without a flame war is if every one agrees, and no one expresses a dissenting viewpoint. Just Food for Thought.

But yes I could certainly have been less provocative.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by dang on Monday January 11, 2021 @01:32AM (#25725412)
> anything related to these kinds of issues is highly likely to rouse emotions.

You can say that again! And yet the seemingly innocuous mandate of this site—gratification of intellectual curiosity—actually requires us all to work hard at not succumbing to that dynamic. If you think about it (well, when I think about it), two odd things follow from that: (1) this is a rather larger project than it seems; (2) it's actually doable.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Monday January 11, 2021 @09:18AM (#25729090)
Yes it is doable. I made a mistake in how I dealt with inflammatory comments, in responding in kind instead of reporting it. I wrongly assumed moderation was more lax, and the forum was more of a free-for-all, than they are.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by andrewzah on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:35AM (#25668293)
Equating protests with riots is a bit nonsensical. We should consider how the police has treated black people for the last 100+ years, to start. Protests like these have been long overdue.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:46AM (#25668379)
I don't understand your point. There were widespread riots across the US during the summer of BLM, with many police forces standing down in the face of them.

And your point about black people in no way justifies the indiscriminate violence perpetrated by the rioters.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by sosborn on Thursday January 07, 2021 @01:41AM (#25667971)
One act of injustice, or centuries of injustice?
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:18AM (#25668178)
At what point does brutalizing innocent people become a justified response to injustice?

The answer is at no point.

Any way, from what I recall 350,000 white men died fighting for the Union, in a civil war to end an institution that had existed since the beginning of human culture, and that continued to be practiced all around the world into the 20th century until imperialist powers ended it.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by sosborn on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:34AM (#25668284)
I’m not justifying anything. I’m simply pointing out the absurd false equivalence.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:43AM (#25668352)
I thought the riots were about the abuse inflicted upon George Floyd. Sorry for not being adequately sensitive. I think you're over-reacting a bit and it shows misplaced priorities.
Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by bluntfang on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:45AM (#25671584)
>I thought the riots were about the abuse inflicted upon George Floyd.

Ah yes the old "i can only remember 1 event at a time" defense

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by CryptoPunk on Thursday January 07, 2021 @11:34AM (#25673176)
Your accusation lacks the generosity of a benefit of the doubt.

It could be the fact that George Floyd's death triggered the movement, that his character figured centrally in it, and hashtags of his name were the primary symbol of it.

But instead you take the typical high handed approach of the moral elitist movement.

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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by bluntfang on Sunday January 10, 2021 @10:47AM (#25715813)
I don't consider myself a tolerant person, especially when it comes to obtuseness. You are engaging in a bad faith argument by purposefully being obtuse.

If you're acting in good faith, maybe consider your news bubble? Try places other than hackernews, it's demographic is upper middle class white men who are completely engaged to capitalism, which makes for some pretty horrific discussions.

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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by dang on Sunday January 10, 2021 @03:49PM (#25719606)
You can't post like this here, nor https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25531266, nor https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25550577. We ban accounts that do that. I'm not going to ban you right now because I don't see a long history of breaking the site guidelines, but please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use HN as intended— thoughtful, curious conversation, without swipes and attacks—from now on.
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Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by dang on Sunday January 10, 2021 @03:47PM (#25719580)
We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines with flamewar, personal attacks, and ideological battle, and ignoring our many requests to stop. Not cool.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email [email protected] and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by conductr on Thursday January 07, 2021 @02:28AM (#25668230)
I had this conversation earlier. I think it is a natural question to compare the two similar acts in terms of violent/destructive rioting. Especially so since they are individually representative of both ends of the growing political distance between left/right in our country.

My logic is not perfect by any means but I see a key difference between; 1) BLM was a group of citizens protesting against what is essentially abuse of power/government and they want change. They want legislative action that holds cops accountable. Doesn't matter if you agree with it, but this cause and their right to protest is the most American thing I've seen in a long time. Sure, there are people that took it too far and protesting turned to rioting. But protesting for action and change are patriotic acts.

2) On the other hand, today's events are almost opposite. It's been driven/lead by senior members of government. Using lies and propaganda, conditioning a group of citizen sympathizers over a long period of time to distrust media, distrust opposing "facts" or anyone that disagrees with Trumps agenda. Weaponize this group of people to seize power and considerably fracture our democracy. It's the least patriotic and perhaps treasonous thing I could ever imagine. But they think they are the patriots. It's just so backwards to me.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by roenxi on Thursday January 07, 2021 @03:26AM (#25668641)
Your logic is impeccable, but there is a lot of strawmaning and questionable assumptions.

It seems likely that the entire political spectrum wants cops held accountable. It is a fairly non-partisan issue that corruption of the police is a massive problem. The right wing hates the idea of people not following the rules, and the left is usually suspicious of the police at best.

And you've judging a right to protest about the corruption of the police force as morally American while protesting corruption in the electoral process is somehow unpatriotic. Those are both extremely civic things to be protesting, the equivalence is very strong. Both are core US principles of freedom and self governance.

Also the idea that the right wing protestors are more organised than the left is extremely suspect. The left are stereotypically much more organised and mobilised for protest - left wing politics has a long and proud history of working effectively through mass movements. Protestors are one of the pools the left wing draws its candidates for (there is that wonderfully classic photo of Bernie Sanders being arrested, for example). Trump is a more iconic figurehead but the left has far more effective logistical and advocacy support around protests. BLM protest leaders quite possibly are going to be a part of the next generation of Democrat leadership.

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by justin66 on Thursday January 07, 2021 @08:01AM (#25670479)
> It seems likely that the entire political spectrum wants cops held accountable.

Cue the laugh track!

Re:The account of realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours by throwawaybchr on Thursday January 07, 2021 @03:36AM (#25668694)
> On the other hand, today's events are almost opposite. It's been driven/lead by senior members of government. Using lies and propaganda, conditioning a group of citizen sympathizers over a long period of time to distrust media, distrust opposing "facts" or anyone that disagrees with Trumps agenda. Weaponize this group of people to seize power and considerably fracture our democracy. It's the least patriotic and perhaps treasonous thing I could ever imagine. But they think they are the patriots. It's just so backwards to me.

This is correct to a degree but it is debunked by the President's plain language in his speech prior to the violence at the Capitol where he asked the crowd to "peacefully and patriotically" protest at the Capitol.

It becomes difficult to make the accusation that the violence is incited when it is very explicitly said that the protest should be peaceful.

During the nomination of Justice Kavanaugh, members of Congress were confronted in elevators and hallways of the Capitol building by protesters. These protests were also based on unproven accusations and the people were weaponized to seize power as a ploy because they did not have the requisite votes as per the constitutional process. Intimidation and invasion of the building was seen very differently when it came to a lifelong appointment of a Supreme Court justice.

I would argue that the politicians from both parties share blame in allowing the discourse to escalate like this. To condemn only one party for it is not helpful at all.