I cant believe you guys are catching shit for this. Guns and tactical gear make me scared and I would have no way of knowing a man's intentions just based off vibes. Of course he didn't deserve to be shot at, but people are ridiculous for thinking you're victim shaming just by pointing out optics
you might have known if he was a known member of your community like Arturo was who had been to protests with his gun before but 50501 has no ties to the community
it would be cool if event organizers had a handy rolodex of all the local good guys with guns but until they do i think it's maybe better to just not go to the local wine mom protest kitted out for war.
I get that. Mainly because 50501 are already well established as cop collaborators and even before this I absolutely did not trust them to ensure my safety. But to me it just highlights part of the bigger problem, which is that this mass movement doesn't seem to have ties in their communities
Like he was a known quantity at BLM actions and I think the tie between BLM and community defense is more readily apparent. It just sucks that the Definitive Movement at the moment by design is not one that has any space whatsoever for more radical elements
that was always gonna be the case with No Kings though and I don't think it's outrageous to ask that the local antifa supersoldiers maybe consider optics a bit more before strolling up looking like that
No Kings in LA was a wild mix of the entire left side of the political spectrum and I just don't see how having armed black bloc there would have helped. Best case scenario a bunch of normies gtfo because they're uncomfortable, worst case scenario what we saw in SLC
I get what you're saying but surely they could have tried, like, talking to Arturo first? Like the threat assessment/de-escalation part seems to have gone wildly off the rails and I think people are taking fault with a perceived imbalance of where the blame is falling, esp since 50501 called him
a depraved terrorist and thanked their peacekeepers
The org fucked up on many levels incl comms but I don't think it's outrageous to assume just hours after some political assassinations that something similar was going on. Definitely should have waited to confirm those assumptions though obvs
yeah. I haven't seen the vid but you and Ricky generally have good takes (and I say this as an antifa supersoldier) and I imagine the backlash is in large part due to basically not wanting to let 50501 off the hook even a little bit because of how they responded during and after