You magnificent SOB!

That’s a consistent and reasonable take. Mob violence can be unpredictable and harmful to its own causes. I’m certainly willing to call it murder myself, while also being glad for it. And I condemn going after the person who called in the tip, for many reasons, but succinctly - that person cannot possibly bear enough responsibility for the state of things, even acknowledging the actions they sure didn’t have to take, to be an appropriate target of anything like what happened to Brian Thompson.

Well, I can understand your point of view without sharing it. As for the hostility, beyond most folks just following whatever up/downvoting they see taking place already, there’s a critical element here that shouldn’t be missed - the positive response has been largely bipartisan, which is rare and valuable. And not only is it bipartisan, it points out an important truth which any resident of this country would do well to keep in mind -

At this stage of the game, we might be a hair’s breadth from realizing that it hasn’t been Democrats vs. Republicans for a long time, it’s just all of us regular folks vs the abusive rich (+their enablers).

I’m reaching here, but if other people feel that way, I can imagine wanting to discourage anything that takes away from a sudden (much needed) feeling of unity.

Just to give one more take (without contributing any hostility, I hope!) - one way to look at it might be that you see this new development (Thompson’s murder and the nation’s “hell yeah!”) as the scary, dangerous step too far, whereas maybe many of us see the scary dangerous step(s) too far as having already happened (maybe long) in the past.

We’re in a really scary situation as a country, and that was almost exactly as true the day before Thompson’s murder as it is today. The significant events leading to our scary situation are a list of egregious misdeeds and manipulations by people in power, stretching back years - even if I take your premise that it’s wrong, this is just yet one more event (if a notable acceleration). I sincerely believe that a few more gray hoodies might actually send things back in the right direction and bring the owner class back to the negotiating table. As it stands (and ~equally true two weeks ago), the social contract in this country is in tatters. The rich get everything, everyone else - nothing, not even the healthcare we already frickin bought.

Laws are not virtuous by default, is it a moral judgment against killing itself here, or is the problem that it was not a legal act? Of course don’t let me reduce your position to one of my own two phrasings lol, but I am curious about the specific objection you have.

Mine’s even slightly weirder - I’m trash at navigation in a car, on streets. Even if it’s somewhere I’ve been a bunch, once GPS became commonplace that part of my brain seems to have basically switched off or decayed somehow.

But outside, backpacking or even less demanding stuff, I have a great sense of direction. Plenty of successful solo trips, etc., very rarely feel turned around or confused. There’s probably a contribution caused by the differing level of effort, but it’s hard to put into words how my subconscious automatically provides a ton of help in the latter situation and zero in the former.

Clever reversal bud, sure got me.

You’re defending a stranger who went hostile and attacked the poster of a meme in a place for memes. Spend your time however you like, I just can’t imagine how you or the original commenter I replied to are able to take the littlest stuff - posted to a JOKE community - and extrapolate out (AKA invent) a bunch of serious takes, and then disagree with those fictional takes. The OP posted almost nothing, to a meme community. What y’all are doing is Don Quixote stuff (or more accurately, straw man bullshit), but like I said, spend your time however you see fit.

Yeesh friend, kinda jumped down OP’s throat here, no? Seems pretty uncharitable to go from their posted meme to “this cartoonish fantasy world of yours”, and then take that even further.

I mean, OP never really described any kind of “world” at all, just expressed disappointment. So I mean.

…it’s kinda your cartoonish fantasy world, by definition, isn’t it? Whatever thing you’re imagining here? Weirdly hostile take.

What a legend.

Really? Have you watched the uninterrupted start-to-finish footage? I struggled to find emotion of any kind. The way he walks toward Thompson after shooting him, clearing his pistol’s misfire, is so unhurried and casual - it’s what I look like putting my earbuds back in their case as I walk. The dude does not look emotional or even remotely stressed that he just shot someone in full view of another person.

Love this guy, he tells it like it is! Straight-shooting leopard.

It was just a variant of “woah!”, in response to what you posted. I apologize if it came off as something different.

Welp, yours is the most creative take I’ve seen this morning haha, kudos!

Just indicating that the steps taken that you mentioned are far beyond what most people would imagine as expected behavior for encrypted messaging software. Assuming your quote was published somewhere, as being about WhatsApp. I might’ve misunderstood.

Fucking woof…

I haven’t heard that one, but they did like a crossover a year or two back with the Hood Politics podcast I believe that was a multi episode deep dive into the topic. Given how few details I apparently remember, probably worth a re-listen for me too, but you oughta give it a whirl!

Not everyone believes this, but my understanding is that declassified (CIA I think? been a while) documents support the assertion that parts of our government employed a strategy designed to disrupt black communities. This strategy involved flooding predominantly black neighborhoods with crack cocaine, and then letting addiction, crime, and incarceration take their course.

It worked really well.

And then add in policies over the years that have perversely incentivized splitting up households (much-needed aid not available depending on who lives in the home), too, which may have been well-intentioned but proved very damaging to communities.

And we should also not forget - when comparing poverty outcomes between black and Latino Americans - these groups did not start from equivalent points. The practice of slavery did lasting, massive damage to the black community in the US - it’s basically impossible to extract present outcomes from that history. Far too much trauma.

I was definitely including “expanding for extra use” in what I mean by allowing construction, but either way thanks for the info. I’ve seen some utterly hideous stylistic choices (which, to be fair, seem garish and “loud” by design, I didn’t uncover some secret), but I really like when it’s done with some care. Probably not a realistic goal in every case, as y’all have helped me see.

The one you posted is utterly jaw dropping :)

Huh, thanks for that perspective, I (US native) was firmly in the “how could they do this?!” camp, but you’re right! When old ass buildings are all over the place it’s probably much more pressing to figure out how to allow ongoing development and construction, vs. how to preserve the aesthetic of yet another centuries-old brick structure.

Edit to add: ugh I still can’t get over how ugly and deliberately discordant it looks, reasonable takes be damned!

This is the exact line I was gonna quote too lol, this story is very specific and fun to read