Why would anyone not support Black Lives Matter?
Tags: Race, Protest, BlackLivesMatter, Riots, Blm

Why would anyone not support Black Lives Matter?

A non-simplistic look at BLM opposers

There are some concepts and ideas which are untouchable in current times. When words such as “equality”, “liberty”, and “happiness” are uttered, virtually everyone (in the West) agrees that they are something good that should be progressed towards.

The idea of perpetual “progress” is itself one of these ideas which are undisputed in modern societies. In a very matryoshka-like way, the ideas previously mentioned fall under our idea of “progress”. The very same idea which liberal ideologies have very successfully based themselves around for decades now.z

It is not hard to see, then, why defeating the left-leaning juggernaut on every level of society is such a herculean task. And, more to the topic of this article, it becomes much harder to phantom the notion that someone would agree with one of these political causes. The one in question, of course, being the Black Lives Matter movement which recently took flight after the death of George Floyd and others.

Although the BLM movement has been around for much longer,only recently has it achieved such an undisputed status, to the point that mainstream brands now treat it as religiously as they treat LGBT pride. That being the case, how could anyone still oppose it nowadays?

Rioters, looters, and all-around chaos-creators

Pointing out the elephant in the room for starters: a lot of people have a problem with looters taking advantage of the situation to get themselves new plasma TVs (or LEDs, whatever they happen to find.) Of course, this has been the most talked about critique towards BLM, and it usually gets shut down by the argument that these are not true protesters.

What is very often ignored or overlooked by BLM defenders is the overall environment of unrest — and sometimes even chaos — that BLM demonstrations often cause. The looters taking advantage of protests are not what the BLM movement stands for, for sure, but they would not have the opportunity to start looting places had it not been for the riots and disorder caused by the protests.

It is said that there can be no liberty without order. The rule of law is the foundation on which stable societies are allowed to flourish, and law enforcement is part of that rule of law. When individuals start to break the rule of law and create such unstable environments— even if it is for a good cause — society’s stability is put at risk.

Perhaps it is time to put a halt to the activist engines and attempt to backtrack in these times. Especially at this point, when people feel empowered enough to do things such as physically assault police officers without fear of any consequences.

Thus, what (smart) looting critics have a problem with is not the act of looting itself, it’s the way these protests are taking place and their consequences. For civil rights advocates, a large portion of BLM supporters seem to have never internalized the lessons from the civil rights movement.

Radicalism and political agendas

The sudden boom of relevance of the BLM movement following events such as George Floyd’s death has empowered outlandish proposals to

Make no mistake though: the radical side of BLM did not spawn as a result of these events. Contrary to being so spontaneous, many of these radical notions were already well into their development years ago. Political veterans might remember this video, in which the more hateful side of BLM was put on full display.

Although sites such as Snopes will try to “fact check” away things like these by talking about the “high tensions” present and pointing to the wider protests, which are valid points, this does not change the fact that sentiments like these are shared by a portion of BLM advocates. This is in itself worrying due to reasons that will be discussed later on.

For now, though, we have seen these radical ideas have real-world effects. One of the main proposals of the BLM movement has been prison reform, which includes giving more rights to convicted felons and pathways to rehabilitation. Unexpectedly (if you have not followed his actions closely, that is), the Trump administration implemented those very same ideas in programs such as the First Step Act.

President Trump is someone whom an incredible number of liberals consider to be a racist, bigot, and terribly orange man. Yet after seeing his presidency make these reforms, one has to acknowledge the influence of BLM ideology in our current climate. Be that political or cultural.

As previously touched upon, giant brands and companies have all championed political causes before. LGBT pride, women’s empowerment, diversity, and, being the latest one, the BLM movement. Writing this off as a simple commemoration of George Floyd or any other person’s unfair death would be very easy, but, again, that would only be looking surface-level.

Corporations and activists are actively pushing and agenda that, whether they are aware of it or not, is perfectly tailored to benefit certain parties under the disguise of equality and social justice.

As covered by several studies and data, granting convicted felons the right to vote would prove to be of tremendous political gain to the Democratic Party. Not only in most recent times, but elections as far back as George W. Bush could have been drastically different if felons had been allowed to vote.

It is not hard to see why felons prefer the Democrats over any other parties. As is generally known by now, people of color are over-represented in the U.S. penal system. These people of color, especially African-Americans, have been voting overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates for decades. Conveniently enough, movements such as BLM are very much linked to the ideals of pro-diversity, pro-”equality”, and many other liberal ideas that make picking off voters in this demographic so easy.

Even outside of elections, though, the influence of the BLM movement makes itself known. Most are already familiar with the controversies over affirmative action, which at its bare bones is a spoils system based on race, but that is only limited to the field of education. Lately, Democrats in California (again, the Democratic Party is deeply linked to BLM) have been attempting to do away with old civil rights laws in favor of new ones.

As discussed in this article, the changes Democrats are attempting to pass would place special preference over certain demographics in academia. Some of the implementations of this system would be recruitment programs and scholarships based on race/ethnicity, an extra focus on recruiting faculty based on the former, among other clearly unlawful (for now) actions. This would be placed on top of the affirmative action initiatives many schools have taken, of course, and it would effectively remove discrimination protections from certain demographics.

In the spirit of remaining hopeful, there have been proposals which have not yet made it very far. The calls for “de-funding the police” have not made it very far because most people seem to have enough common sense to know that crime will not magically disappear. This is not to mention the actual calls for abolishing the police, which have made it nowhere for obvious reasons.

All in all, these initiatives and changes have been directly influenced by the BLM movement in some way, whether it be before George Floyd’s death or afterwards. The fact that this movement has recently gained so much traction will only help to expose its uglier aspects in the future.

Closing thoughts

Regardless of the many objections people might put against BLM-related initiatives, none of these take away from the fact that injustices exist and continue to exist. Yet the partisan and often malicious intents of many people in this movement cannot be ignored.

The intentions of people fueled by revenge-seeking favoritism often result in over-racialized policies, which they attempt to advance unto broader society under the guise of virtuous progressive ideas. These ideas and the influence they generate cannot be allowed to go unchecked, or society will quickly divulge into the racial conflict and discrimination that we have fought so hard to get away from.