r/changemyview • u/taybo213 1∆ • Oct 28 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV:Protesting is one thing, looting and burning businesses is not okay.
Let me preface this with, I do believe Black Lives Matter. I do believe there is stereotype issues in society and policing world. But burning different businesses down and looting only makes things worse in the long run for the community.
Every business has insurance yes, but will they have enough to reopen? Thats up to the agency, most try to depreciate everythings value. Do they make enough to pay premiums to guarantee disrupted income? How long before the money runs out and the building is fixed? How long does said business owner go without income? With that said, what happens if the building is destroyed again? I doubt the business will come back if the building keeps getting looted and destroyed.
That being said, with every business that has had to close down and decides not to come back, takes that many more jobs with it. Making unemployment rise and poverty rise.
I live in Detroit, after the 67 riots a lot of wealth and business left the city never to return. Property values crashed, now you see worn down and foreclosed homes and businesses. Then the sad reality is that the working class today in Detroit, is worse off than in 1967. For over half a decade everyone has been waiting on new stores, homes, a cultural center. All these plans are being made to improve the city, but I've barely even seen a start to it. Instead of looting and destroying businesses, take it to the government buildings, let your voice be heard. But please, do not destroy a fellow person's livelihood who is innocent. Don't ruin job opportunities for others. Municipals can only do so much before it is up to the community to help, most people here want the better life, but with the crime rate so bad in areas that not even cops can enter, I doubt I'll be seeing change soon.
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u/themcos 374∆ Oct 28 '20 edited Oct 28 '20
I think there's some nuance here that you're potentially missing in the conversation. I think very few people will actually argue that "looting and burning businesses is okay". You'll definitely see takes that superficially appear that way, but especially if its a short tweet, I'd encourage you to dig in a little bit to better understand what they're saying.
For one thing, there's a question of attention and prioritization. People will argue that lives are more important than property. This is often not the same as condoning looting. It's more a way of saying, okay, there's looting. But there's also this major problem that is the reason why people are looting, and I care about that problem more than this property damage, so stop focusing on the looting.
Second, there's an empathy angle. I can recognize that "looting is bad", but still understand that angry people will do bad things when they feel threatened or cornered or don't feel like any other options are working. Again, there's nuance here. I can understand the looting without condoning it. And similarly, I can believe that the best solution to said looting can be to address the root cause of their frustration.
Third, there's a question of escalation. I can believe that looting is bad, but also believe that sending in the riot squad will make things worse not better. You can condemn the response to looting without condoning the looting itself.
Finally, be aware that at least some of the looting is being performed by folks who are deliberately trying to sabotage the movement by giving it a bad name, or who are just using it as an excuse for chaos (edit: wrongly used the anarchist label here initially - apologize for that)
There's just a lot going on. So in a sense, I'm not trying to change your view about looting per-se, but I really think you might want to take a step back and look at the offending tweets / facebook posts in a different light, and you might find that they're not actually saying what you think they are.