The US Politics |OT|

[IvorEvilen]

iron_megalith said:

IvorEvilen said:

So because rioting was going on... it gives someone a license to kill people?  I did not realize that not shooting other people required an above average amount of tolerance?

Three people who actually came at him within 3 feet or less, with clear intent to harm, got shot.

Did he intentionally shoot anyone else that was going else where?

Also, you ignored my example of idiots like Binger who do not know how to handle a gun. This may come as a shock to folks like you but you can have something dangerous and yet wield it properly if you have proper training.

This is how I got banned from before but I'm gonna say it again. If Hiku or some other moderator twists what I say again and decides to ban me again, so be it. I barely give any shit what happens to my account on this forum.

So I'm going to hypothetically speak about this circumstance again. This is the same argument I gave last year.

Once again, when people burn down things that I've worked so hard for years, earnestly through honest means, and is my main source of keeping me financially afloat, they best put a bullet into my head while they burn it down or else I put one on theirs.

Just because these are "material" things that got lost doesn't mean it may not drive me into so much hardship that I may as well want to be dead. This is not an act of god that I can just let it slip. This is some fucking self-righteous idiot thinking he has the right to do it when I had nothing to do with what he's "protesting" about. Then again, I guess someone committing suicide because of such is the best outcoming these asshole would want.

IvorEvilen said:

Sarcasm aside, I see a lot of "the media lied about Kyle" posts here and on social media.  The notion that the media lied about Kyle is propaganda.  I consume a lot of media that is marketed towards centrist and left-wing audiences, and other than reporting on the limited information that was available at the time, I do not recall any sensationalist articles claiming he was a murderer that went out hunting for protesters (although Kyle did make some statements prior and post the incident that certainly did not help his case in the court of public opinion).  I do recall a few sensationalist posts shared on Facebook around that time (as well as cringy far-left content creators trying to capitalize on the outrage), but I saw the opposite misinformation from my conservative friends and family too.  It really ran the whole gamut.

That's not to say there weren't distasteful editorial or opinion pieces from more mainstream sources, or the occasional reporting of information that later proved to be factually inaccurate.  But anecdotally, I did not encounter any of those.  And that's part of the insidiousness of the claim.  It's nigh impossible to refute or support, but people believe it because the narrative is convenient.  Someone can compile a list of "problematic articles", but people are going to just disagree on the nuance of language, for example, crying bias over Kyle being referred to as a "killer".

And all of this is just an excuse to claim it's the medias fault, rather than acknowledge that half of the country's outrage is actually being fueled by differing opinions on the roles guns should play in society, the value of life, and the intersection of race/justice/police (I acknowledge that last point is loaded, because people are quick to point out that everyone was white in the Kenosha incident, but the contrast of the incident is hard to ignore considering the cultural climate the event took place in).  To put it more simply, people are not okay with the idea of vigilantes with guns policing our towns.  People are not okay with them getting to use the law as a shield when they get into trouble with people who are not okay with them being vigilantes.

It's not about differing opinions when you have the media with a very broad viewership or readership are preaching things that never happened in the trial. All just to keep the narrative alive. Not to mention race baiting by injecting inexistent racial elements into this case. It's not even the media only doing this. Hollywood personalities, sports athletes, senators, the fucking POTUS. They all keep making statements as if there were racial factor in this god damn incident when it's 3 white men that got shot. Even The Independent made a Freudian slip and made it so that Kyle Rittenhouse incident involved 3 black men getting shot.

So please. Spare me the bullshit.

I'm gonna have a bit more sympathy for someone out there protecting their own property, particularly their home.  Otherwise, I'm gonna trust that they have insurance and can weather the unfortunate turn of events.  If you seriously think it is worth risking your life in defense of things, well, that's your prerogative.  But we as a society still reserve the right to judge your actions.

The reality was that the vast majority of people and property were at minimal to no risk of damage over the course of the summer of 2020.  I'm sorry if you were negatively impacted by the riots in any shape or form, but I suspect most people are outraged by the hypothetical, not the actual scenario.  There are legal remedies to damages that were sustained.  But we unfortunately cannot bring the dead back to life.  While I am disappointed in the results of the Rittenhouse trial, I would rather see legislative reform rather than outrage leading people down a path to anarchy.  If both sides do not think the law can protect them, whether physical, property, or otherwise, we go down a dangerous path.

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I cannot really comment on Binger, because myself, like many Americans, do not really care to educate myself on gun operation.  I do not need to know how to operate a firearm to know how dangerous they are.  I can see the data.  I have talked to a number of Americans who think that me not knowing something about gun operation is a "gotcha" moment.  I do not give two-shits about how to operate a gun.  It's a deadly weapon.  I have no need for such an instrument.

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For your last point, to deny the race element in this entire discussion is kind of "missing the point"... and also assuming all of this happened in a vacuum.  This was a racially charged issue from its inception.  As another commenter pointed out above, this particular night of rioting was occurring during demonstrations following the Jacob Blake shooting.  Rittenhouse was there with a gun to assist police officers in policing demonstrations that were intended to protest excessive use of force by police and over-militarization of police, particularly against minorities and people of color (this was the political speech I was referencing in my initial post).  The fact that police did not see Rittenhouse as a threat, in contrast to the widely publicized incidents of police being too quick to shoot now and ask questions later when dealing with people of color... just seemed to provide even more evidence for people that police are crooked.

Not to mention Rittenhouse getting all buddy-buddy with white nationalists... Yikes.

I cannot convince you that media is not biased.  But there is a distinction between news reporting, editorializing, and entertainment.  None of the media I consumed was "preaching things that never happened", but there was investigative reporting, interviews, analyses of the trial, etc.  All of this was evidence-based or clarified that "details were not verified".  The more outlandish things I saw were always on social media (left and right) about completely fabricated details that I could not fathom where they were coming from.