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HBI's avatar

I'm not overly concerned about fault - once the atrocities and counter-atrocities start, it's pretty hard to assess who is at fault anyway. The only real human agency is stopping the conflict in the first place. This is why we talk and protest but don't do damage or kill.

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shallowfocus's avatar

You say that you're not concerned about fault, but at the same time you began your argument by blaming left-wingers for "starting something". So make up your mind - is someone at fault here or not? And if the side who started it is to blame, then obviously the side who started it are the conservatives who started using the Emmett Till memorial for target practice... in 2008, years before any Confederate monuments were taken down. The Emmett Till memorial was vandalized so many times that it had to be replaced with a bulletproof version.

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HBI's avatar

Well, then I guess everyone is to blame then, though I somehow doubt those who were felling Confederate monuments were thinking about Emmett Till. Doesn't change the atrocity->counter-atrocity nature of things. Look at the Irish fight or any other conflict in history. Hell, South Africans are still lynching each other 30 years after the apartheid government fell.

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Koshmarov's avatar

"This is why we talk and protest but don't do damage or kill."

Well -- it's nice to think so. Some people, in fact, do damage and kill. I infer this is to your point.

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HBI's avatar

Well yes, those who value peace don't do damage or kill. I'd rather see a statue mangled than someone die, but I believe property damage leads to escalation faster than anything else short of actual killing.

As for not valuing peace, those who haven't seen war will never value it enough. This is why we have more war.

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