The past week has been a huge introspective journey for me as a person in relation to the events that have transpired lately.

I have never considered myself a racist, but up until a few days ago, in the midst of rhetorics such as "Black Lives Matter", "Blue Lives Matter", gender identity and sexual orientation acceptance movements, I would sit here and say "All Lives Matter". Not because I disregard that there are people who are suffering because of inequalities, but because I believe that all people should be treated equal.

After seeing both the mainstream media as well as social media continue to document the events happening in the world, as well as consuming the commentary of many people involved in the situations, I have come to understand something about these rhetorics: Extremists withheld, they are not there to say that other lives don't matter. They are there to draw attention to the people that need it because their lives, their opinions, and their freedoms are not being respected.

I grew up on IRC, a platform that I'm sure a lot of us here on the Fediverse are familiar with, but that maybe we have lost the feeling of. Once upon a time, online communication was not afforded such luxuries as picture, video and audio, at least not in a convenient matter. The people that you talked with were nameless and colorless, and it didn't matter one bit "what" they were, so much as "who" they were. I ended up on IRC because I never had many friends locally, and the one decent friend that I had when I was a kid was black. I wasn't allowed to talk to him, with no reason given to me by my parents, and my family ended up moving because of the fact that his family was black, but I was unaware of this until I was an adult. I've always seen the world to be full of equal people, and never really considered it to be a concern because I have never been blatantly presented with this kind of bias before. It's a mindset that I'd be happy to have if it weren't for the fact that so many others out in the world don't share the same, and now we're seeing the consequences.

While going through recent events, I came across Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", readable at https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html . In school, we had learned that racial equality had been achieved by the actions of Dr. King, among others, but after reading this letter in contrast to so many of the things happening now, and in hindsight, it appears that just isn't so. Much of the literal imagery that he discusses is still visible in a less literal sense. I encourage anybody reading this to read his letter, as many sentiments that he expresses in there are still very applicable today.

I'm not going to deny that I'm privileged, because I here I sit, a cis white male, living in an area where we haven't seen any visible effects of protests or riots. And I also don't mean to detract from any of the minorities being affected by all of this with my following statement, but I believe it to be the truth: If you're an American, regardless of color or other distinguishing factor, your freedoms are at risk. Have a look online at any of the videos circulating and you'll see that governments and law enforcement are illegally taking our rights, and being told to do so by the people who claim to be giving us these rights. Privacy, 1st and 4th amendment rights are all going out the window. 2nd amendment rights are preserved as of the moment, because it furthers political agendas, but don't be surprised if you see those go along with everything else. People are being killed, pointlessly. People who have families that they need to take care of, and that love them, who will never see them again. People who are friends to others who will deeply mourn their death. It's not just blacks, either, so to anybody comfortable in your privilege, be wary.

I hate to be political in public as it can be so polarizing, but it's not about politics anymore. It's about the fact that basic human rights are actively being disposed of. History has shown, the events that lead to the kind of dystopian future that we don't want to see again are slow and incremental, and history is replaying itself right now. Not doing anything is just letting it happen. Everyone is responsible at this point. Stand up for what you believe in.

"History is written by the victor. History is filled with liars. If he lives and we die, his truth becomes written - and ours is lost." - Captain Price, Modern Warfare 2
It's a modern reincarnation of the original quote, but I feel that it applies here, and explains better. Make your voice heard, or someone else will determine what these events will go down in history as. Make sure our children know that we fought for the freedom of all, instead of having them taught in schools that the US rioted only for the government put them in their place.

@kitty
Here's the thing though. No matter how much BLM type activists claim that they're concerned for the rights and lives of everyone, that they're not saying that anyone else's lives don't matter, the reality is their rhetoric, their actions, their politics, everything is centered around "black" identity, "black" lives, "black" statistics and body counts.

They didn't start the movement by saying "corrupt and incompetent cops are killing people". They didn't start by saying "the government is taking away everyone's rights". From the very start they only framed everything with a racial lens. And heck, maybe if the statistics and studies actually supported the view that cops are overwhelmingly racist, maybe I could have supported them. But that's not the case.

Seriously, if cops are that god damned racist, why aren't Hispanics mixed into this thing too? I'm sure you can name plenty of black individuals killed by cops from the countless media coverage storms over the years. But how many Hispanics can you name? Am I to believe that cops are racist towards black people but not hispanics? I've yet to see protests and riots over hispanics losing their lives, let alone Asians or other ethnic minorities.

"Stand up for what you believe in."
Personally I am. I stand against an inherently racist movement, that is being used to undermine democracy and currently threatens the US 1st amendment more than anything else. Because right now, if you go out in public and express an opinion against the dogma of progressivism and BLM, you can say goodbye to your livelihood.

The more I examine USA, the more I realize that the government no longer has the most power over our individual lives. The ones you should look at as the ones ultimately responsible for your rights being trampled on are: activists that masquerade as journalists, the mainstream media and every large corporation that shares into the progressive ideology. They not only have power to influence our lives, by manipulating the information we have access to, and even destroy them through the use of mob justice, but they also have power to influence and control the politicians that will feel compelled to vote certain laws, or else they will be the ones destroyed in the name of "social justice".

You're right, human rights in USA are threatened more than ever. You're just not looking in the right place to see the ones who will be responsible for making 1984 real.

@alyx
To be brutally honest, my concern at this point isn't solely the racial inequalities as much as the overall injustice and brutality, to all individuals. At this moment, we have police out there who are trying to fight a battle against peaceful protesters, in the name of furthering political agendas and sport. Black people are not the only people who suffer from this, other races as well as whites, elderly individuals as well as children are being assaulted by law enforcement. Maybe blacks are just the first people to speak out about it.

Regardless, I was glad to see that so many people are getting out there and protesting, and frankly, I would be out there as well if things hadn't turned to riots and looting. I don't believe that's right, and I don't want to contribute the portrayal that this is about anarchy, so I stay home, but that's just my opinion.

People wide and far seem to have a large problem with generalization. Racism comes with a lot of stereotypes, and stereotypes are generalization. Police being bad is also a generalization. Not all police out there are bad, not all of them are racist, and not all of them are brutal. If you look at social media, you can see select incidents where police are out there protesting, just the same as the masses. But the ones who are being brutal need to be stopped. To play devil's advocate, not all black people are innocent, but at the same time, not all white people are innocent either.

I believe that the first amendment is important and crucial to the success of this country. However, it would seem that your portrayal of what the first amendment actually does is skewed. See https://xkcd.com/1357/. The issue at hand is that governments are trying to silence both journalists and individuals alike from being able to disclose their opinions. Governments are trying to create legal recourse for people who oppose them. People in the streets are being maced and gassed for stating their opinion in protest, an action that has a lot of history in America and is the basis for a lot of the freedoms that we have now.

By all means, you can walk out into the street and state opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. And, if you aren't grouped in with the rest of the protesters who are being maced by police unfairly, you won't receive any legal recourse. What you will receive is social opposition, which is something that the first amendment would have never protected you from in the first place. I do not consider that a loss of first amendment rights.

Additionally, while I agree that much of the information that we may receive from mass media may have other influence in it, personal agendas and the like, would you consider it better to be receiving information from a variety of mass and social media outlets, or would you like to be receiving only the information that the government wants to you know. As of the moment, we have a sitting president who is very blatantly trying to claim that certain events haven't transpired, and calling the truth fake. We are facing propaganda, which the first amendment currently entitles us to a grain of salt to take with it.

And here we sit on the Fediverse, where, depending on where you are, literally anything goes. You can say things here that you couldn't say on Twitter or Facebook and have it viewed by masses. Hypothetically speaking, if we start losing first amendment rights, and social media companies start tightening up their rules and censoring what people are able to post, they might flock to platforms like the Fediverse. Putting these platforms in the spotlight, we start falling further down the 1984 rabbit hole. We lose the ability to legally encrypt, or governments must be given master keys. Everything that you put online is subject to inspection so that the "great leaders" of this country will be able to prevent your terrorist-like thoughts from infecting the minds of others and inciting the same kind of violence that they claim the protesters are starting today.

The people don't have the power to do that. The people don't have their hands in the pockets of corporations or the financial incentive to make those things happen. Only the law, which is supposed to be protecting us from these fates, has the power to set them against us.

If you have an unpopular opinion, you face the people you voice that to not liking you. If you break what certain leaders would like to be the law, apparently you face the military of your own country that's allegedly there to protect you. Our "superiors" are not being held to the standard that we ourselves are, and to me, that's what this is about.

@kitty @alyx
I was almost gonna repeat your post until:

>What you will receive is social opposition, which is something that the first amendment would have never protected you from in the first place. I do not consider that a loss of first amendment rights

"First amendment doesn't protect against mob rule" take.

A mob mobilized by funded political organizations crashing against the individual is almost more diabolical than a police force. If anything, it's bc they are LESS held accountable than a police force. You're too focused on the police & government to realize how laws & amendments are also there to protect yourself from the mob or tribe. The individual is the first, & most vulnerable minority in a society. If you cannot stand by that bc you support "social opposition", then you side with the mob in a situation.

Cops used to protect KKK events in order to protect their first amendment rights from violence. Something to consider there. Laws tend to pop up precisely to prevent mob rule judgements & tribal violence, otherwise we'd still be lynching blacks in the South whenever some rape happened bc after all it's "social opposition" & his rights aren't being nullified according to the mob or "social group" he's present in :^l.
"The government isn't preventing that black person from claiming his innocence, it's only social opposition looking to punish him before due process". Lel