By David Futrelle
The protests over the police murder of George Floyd have gotten YouTube “philsopher” Stefan Molyneux all excited, in part because they have given him a fresh excuse to indulge in one of his favorite hobbies, racism.
Actually, that’s a little unfair to Mr Molyneux; racism is a huge part of the “philosophy” he spews on YouTube and Twitter, and thus his racism is something more than a hobby; it’s his bread and butter, part of how he makes his living.
In any case, let’s get on to the protests, which Molyneux sees as fundamentally illegitimate. First off, he’s not convinced that there even was a murder at the hands of the police, but rather a death due to preexsisting conditions that just happened to coincide with a police officer pressing his knee down hard on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes.
As Molyneux sees it, the protests are all Soros-funded communist plots first hatched long before Soros was even born:
Oh, and also they’re the fault of barbaric Somali immigrants.
And possibly some college professors as well:
Public schools are also somehow to blame:
And welfare, let’s not forget the insidious evil behind programs designed to keep poor children from starving to death:
He also tsk-tsks black protesters for allegedly playing into stereotypes by burning down a Wendy’s. (I’m not exactly sure what stereotypes he’s talking about — the stereotype of there being Wendy’s franchises in black neighborhoods?)
But don’t worry! Despite all of his posting about the protests, Mr Molyneux has managed to find time to post about the most important subject of all — that is, of course, Stefan Molyneux, MA.
It’s good to know that even in the midst of a dramatic crisis that Mr Molyneux can keep his eyes on the prize, himself.
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Not that any of Molyneux’s arguments relate to actual evidence but this is worth a read: https://www.vox.com/2015/6/21/8820537/black-fathers-day
I’ve seen a lot of photos and video of law enforcement handling the protests well in some places, and in other places they dress in riot gear and basically incite the riot. In my hometown the cops are mostly armed with pepper balls which they fire at news crews, and with which they were firing into moving and stopped vehicles last night. Some people trying to get home from work were shot with pepper balls in the temple for no reason at all. The police are completely out of control here and the mayor’s office is sitting on its hands.
If you prep for a riot and treat all protesters and innocent bystanders as though they are rioting, then don’t be all surprised-pikachu when a riot happens.
@Alan Robertshaw : that’s evil. That’s also scoobidoo-level of evil.
The Trump administration make me wonder. Most evil men and women I had since until now thought they were good, and they rarely if ever paraded how evil they were. For example, WWII collaborators I have talked with justified themselves by painting the jews they ratted out as bad men and themselves as in a pinch and/or with need of favors from the germans.
But the trump administration seem to have as a byline “we will put showing off how evil we are before everything”. To the point their will to show off get in the way of actually acting evil.
@Leliel
Pardon my cynicism, but his record hardly says “New Deal President”. For all we know, it’s just more empty promises that will be forgotten if he gets elected. Yes, people’s political views do change but it’s awfully convenient that they change to whatever’s most likely to get the approval of the voters.
Meeting with the protestors is a good sign, of course. But it’s merely a first step if he wants to restore his reputation.
@Ohlmann
I still believe that they still think they’re good…but their idea of “good” is wrapped up in being “macho.” Which is to say, it’s Trump surrounding himself with people he understands, which is to say people who see things in terms of “winner” or “loser” and are scared shitless of losing.
Persona 5 did something very smart with the main antagonist, Masayoshi Shido (a Trumpian parody of conservative Prime Minister and notorious nationalist Shinzo Abe). His Shadow (essentially his dark side) looks almost exactly like him until he gets his battle armor on (most Shadows generally dress in crazier outfits), because to him, all of his vices are really virtues, and he simultaneously believes that he is saving Japan while letting the vast majority of it rot. Trump is not at all dissimilar.
@ Anonymous
For all we know, your cynicism is scientifically counter to reality.
I’m not joking. Political science has proven that once in office, the average politician tries to implement 70% of their promises (or something like that; I forget the exact numbers, but it’s big) and the rest can be chalked up to opposition a lot of the time.
“Politicians make up their positions” is, like most nuggets of popular wisdom, bunk.
I only remember who Molyneux is when I see a post here. I then think, “Oh, it’s one of the guys we talk about on this site”. Because knowledge of his existence literally evaporates out of my head the moment I leave this website.
Ass.
@Alan Robertshaw
The solicitor general’s claim is factually wrong and goes against every declaration the Nazis made, such as the removal of German citizenship of Jews prior to that year. But somehow I’m not surprised that the Trump administration favors Nazis. I’m almost surprised Trump hasn’t said that there were “fine people on both sides” of WWII.
@ naglfar
Indeed. That is mentioned in the article. Apart from the moral aspects of the case; the Solicitor-General is trying to throw 70 years of precedent out of the window.
If there’s any confusion about where the black fathers have gone, you could always ask George Floyd’s six year old daughter. Maybe she has some ideas?
For all their small government bluster those ancaps sure do a lot of pro cop preaching. Not incoherent at all (or an argument for that matter).
@rick, those boots won’t lick themselves, you know.
@Ohlmann
The term I have heard used is “performative cruelty.” Probably here, though I have seen it elsewhere, too. Trump is to incompetent to actually accomplish anything, but he can at least please his followers by being pubically cruel to folks they don’t like. He assumes (likely accurately) that many of his supporters don’t like Jews, so he makes an effort to be seen hurting them. It doesn’t even have to be effective, he just needs to signal intent.
Meanwhile, Trump is busy telling governors that they have to “dominate” protesters, revealing … not much of anything because we already knew he was like this.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/unhinged-trump-demands-mass-arrests-flag-burning-laws
Also featured: his weird obsession with flag burning.
@moregeekthan
Oddly, he’s also done a lot of the inverse and pretended to like Jews by doing things most Jews don’t want but that evangelicals do (and that evangelicals think Jews will like). He frames this as being pro-Jewish, but less than 20% of Jews support him, so it seems to be only evangelicals that believe him. Most Jews see right through this because he is a very obvious antisemite.
@PoM
The flag burning obsession has been a thing for a while, when he was running in 2016 he declared that flag burning should cause loss of citizenship.
If burning the flag is seditious enough to be a crime, shouldn’t is also be a crime to display a Confederate flag? Or how about the Cincinnati police flying the “thin blue line” flag?
If you’re going ultra-nationalistic, do it right! In fact, do it like the DPRK: the leader personifies the nation, and every home must have an approved picture of the leader on the wall. Not displaying the picture, or allowing it to be damaged, is a crime.
I’m thinking about going and buying a flag now and burning it, just out of general principles. Not because I have anything political to say at this moment by the act, but just to piss off the people who would be pissed off by it.
@Leliel
We will see, but at the end of the day as long as he’s not Trump it won’t be a complete disaster…I hope.
Also, where did you get that statistic from? I’ve never heard of it before.
How about making your pfp a burning flag?
@Moggie
I like my kitty as my pic, but maybe I’ll change it on Facebook just to annoy my racist uncle.
It’s clear that Trump’s years-long campaign to demonize the media is working.
The police are straight up shooting at camera rolling live. They want people to see that they’re not afraid of shooting at the media.
The article of PoM illustrate the hypothesis of Leliel. It still baffle me, but Trump is directly saying to people to act like cartoon villains to prove a point.
@ POM
Re: flag burning
You might find this amusing. Brexit demonstration tried to burn EU flag. Turns out they’re flameproof; because of EU regulations.
And another example; with cool music!
@Alan Robertshaw, Naglfar:
With regards to the anti-reclamation pronouncement… what do you want to bet somebody whose power and money Trump would like on his side has a cache of stolen art that they’re annoyed they can’t show off and so helped push for this?
We already know the people running Hobby Lobby were trafficking in stolen antiquities.
Basically, Trump is cartoonishly evil, but that just makes him the perfect public face for the people behind the scenes who really do want to do the things they know won’t be approved of.
@Policy of Madness, Naglfar:
And, as others have previously pointed out, the law in the U.S. is that burning the flag is the proper way to dispose of a flag that is too damaged to use.
The people staging flag burnings are thus just dealing with the more metaphorical damage.
@ jenora
Yeah, the group in the US that burns the most American flags is the Boy Scouts. They do is as a service for people.
Did you know you can get free flags from the US Govt? They replace the ones on govt buildings almost daily, so you can ask for the old ones.
Link in case you want one: https://www.aoc.gov/flags
Probably best if you don’t say it’s for burning.