Blaming outside instigators is a common tactic for downplaying unrest.
I'm not saying you're wrong, and I agree Russia does run campaigns with the purpose of sowing tensions, but I'm very skeptical of any causality between Russia and the movement, protests, or riots.
#dcBlackout was trending on Twitter last night. How do you explain that? There were _tons_ of accounts I saw (many with Korean/Chinese avatars, which were probably fronts) that were spreading the same misinformation, often were a shrill tone of panic and conspiracy.
Like I said, I'm not arguing that the foreign misinformation campaigns don't exist. I'm just skeptical that the protests and riots wouldn't be happening regardless.
China an Russia have been stirring up American discourse aggressively through the internet for years. They would most certainly seize on an opportunity like this. The incident is ultimately caused in the US, but it's for sure going to have its flamed stoked by foreign actors. They don't build there systems for one off attacks. They have weapons of war.
The US is by far the most likely hostile state actor. They are the ones that benefit from the protesters being seen as more radical and destructive than they are, while Russia or China would be working towards hypothetical future benefits.
The media and the government are both very clear that there are fringe elements (both far-left and far-right) infiltrating the protests and trying to derail the efforts. So everyone is going out of their way to separate protesting from looting.
The only place I see where there is concentrated effort to equate protestors and rioting is on the twitter left.
Luckily it's only those "fringe elements" that are getting tear gassed, attacked with rubber bullets and batons, or being arrested. As both the media and the government have stated they are the problem.
The fringe elements are blending into the crowds. The poor protestors are getting gassed. Let's not create this narrative that the majority of protestors are out to loot and damage property. They're not. And most of the ones who are causing damage aren't black.
>Let's not create this narrative that the majority of protestors are out to loot and damage property.
It doesn't matter who is looting or causing damage to property if their actions are being used to justify retaliation against every protester.
Separating the "fringe elements is being done by the media and the government to allow more authoritarian responses. It is not being done out of goodwill for the law abiding protesters.
I think it does matter. This is an issue that is affecting black people. White people who are protesting should be doing it to support them, not to hijack their movement and running it how they see fit.
Why would it matter who hijacked a movement the moment before it is forcibly ended? These "fringe elements" don't matter, what's important is what started these protests and what is being done to silence them.
Who in the US wins? Not the people. Not the pols. Maybe nebulous people with agendas...
I mean it doesn’t help Trump. He’s kind taking a hands off approach so far.
But it also doesn’t help Biden. He hasn’t said peep. He’s holed up and keeping quiet.
It would help countries the US is nettling but I’m not sure China has much to gain (maybe tit for tat re Hong Kong) Russia? The whole story was they colluded with Trump... so now they want him to lose to Biden? Whaaaa...
If nothing else, Russia would benefit from the transition period slightly, and may prefer shorter presidential terms to longer ones generally for this reason. However, since Biden has been VP before, he would be able to get up to speed quicker than some.
or you know there is genuine unrest. have you seen some of the videos of US policing in response these protests? no need to Stoke fires when the the US police are doing it for you
I think you're absolutely right. It's easy, too - fake a few Antifa tweets, white suburbia panics (literally happened today), pay someone to break a few windows and run away, cops hit anything that moves.
I don't think you even need a hostile state actor. Almost nobody I've discussed current affairs with that is supportive of the rioters is capable of understanding that the only correct way to compare racial/gender disparities in excessive use of police force is based on per 10,000 arrests per violent crime. You quickly discover that there really isn't much of a disparity and the disparity that exists doesn't even lean in the direction people believes it does.
Is there a problem with excessive use of police force? Definitely. Is it disproportionate with regards to race or gender relative to representation based on a per 10,000 arrests per violent crime basis? No.
So you look at arrests of violent crime and decide that is the only way to asses racial/gender disparities in excessive use of police force?? Why is that a correct way? What about stops by police, arrests of non-violent crime, murders by police?
One reason is because the burden to manufacture crimes is far higher. Every violent crime necessarily has a victim and if the victim survived the encounter they can identify affirmatively the characteristics of their assailant.
The problem with non-violent crimes is that they could be tainted by biases since there isn't always as concrete/reliable an eyewitness.
Someone attacks me and it's a lot easier to trust what I report. I see someone steal something at a distance, and my eyewitness account is less trustworthy.
It's not about fabricating an otherwise nonexistent problem into being.
It is about applying the right pressure in the right place at the right time.
For example: jumping in with some social media accounts to schedule a protest for just before sundown (or finding one that happens to be scheduled that poorly to begin with) and using bot accounts to boost it's visibility, increase turnout, and increase the chances that enough stupid people are in the same place at the same time so that something stupid happens.
Seems quite unlikely to be Putin. Do you think it's a conspiracty theory to wonder aloud if the J. Edgar Hoover Building had any hand in this at all. Mere idle speculation... Because J. Edgar Hoover. after whom the FBI continue to name their building tried to get Dr King to commit suicide using surviellance and blackmail. That we know of. But keep the name on the building. No need to lie about it. Putin probably told them to keep the name because he wants the USA to look bad, right? See how silly all this Putin garbage is? Laugh at it, hard. It's what it deserves and what it has always deserved.
Everything is fine. Where do i donate to his employees sick leave fund again?
Must be the Russians that has everyone angry.
Russians == Saddam's WND until you see hard, overwhelming evidence.
But if you're really not seeing where the anger is coming from, maybe that's a much more significant reason for it than Putin could ever be in his wildest, wettest dreams.
