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merjet

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  • 2 weeks later...

Concerning your research and remarks on Black Lives Matter, I should like to stress that people supporting that banner mean different things by it. My Black friends were explaining from early on that the phrase was to draw attention to and try to remedy the especially bad treatment of Black people by the police. It is fair enough to challenge, with evidence, that the other races, in particular White people, are treated just as badly by the police. But my Black friends were proceeding under the belief that Black people are especially mistreated by the police. They said publicly way back that they were not insinuating that other lives don't matter. (I'm pretty sure this movement could exist much the same if Marxism had never been invented; the Marxists and other extreme ideologues always try to piggyback and try to influence broader movements that rise to public attention, as you likely know.) To accuse people such as my Black friends of having insinuated that not all lives matter has been an insult (and has served as a cover for White racists hiding behind support for the police in general.)

The response of Mr. Pense parallels the argument over having a Civil Rights law (1964). It could be asserted that the civil rights of all matter. The Act arose, as you know, from a situation in which Black people were (long-time) treated awfully, especially Black people. Mr. Pense may not agree that there is specially bad police treatment of Black people on average. But any politician pitching for the constituency that elected Trump/Pence would know they should insinuate there is no imbalance against Black by local law enforcement, should tar the movement (the persons constituting it) with its bizarre unsavory elements [rather like the Chicago TV news would cover the Gay Pride Parade by showing drag queens rather than the thousands of plainer folks marching on the occasion], and should insinuate that BLM folks deny that all lives matter.

That there are Black citizens killing other Black citizens to high levels is another issue, simply not the purpose for which BLM emerged. To bring private killings under its umbrella would be a repurposing and a distraction and downgrading of the narrower cause to which it is dedicated.

Edited by Boydstun
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Stephen, thanks for your perspective.

21 hours ago, Boydstun said:

Concerning your research and remarks on Black Lives Matter, I should like to stress that people supporting that banner mean different things by it.

It seems I didn’t do so to your satisfaction, but I did make a distinction between what ‘black lives matters’ means to various individuals and what it means to the organization and movement BLM.

I thought about but didn’t include in my blog post the question, Does ‘black lives matter’ mean all black lives or some black lives? The question is very relevant to your following comment.

21 hours ago, Boydstun said:

That there are Black citizens killing other Black citizens to high levels is another issue, simply not the purpose for which BLM emerged. To bring private killings under its umbrella would be a repurposing and a distraction and downgrading of the narrower cause to which it is dedicated.

In my opinion, BLM saying that these other victims also matter would be an upgrade. I would respect BLM much more if it downgraded its advocacy of Marxism and condoning violence, but I don’t expect that will happen. If those other black victims killed by other blacks who aren't police officers are excluded, that at least suggests that ‘black lives matter’ really means ‘some black lives matter.’ That makes me wonder if BLM’s ‘black lives matter’ is more an advertising slogan for a package deal than a statement of principle.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Enlightening background, merjet. "A group of sensations retained automatically..." was under-explained by Rand (for me anyway ) I believe. Maybe it was that evident in her mind she decided it didn't need stressing further to her readers. So if two or more sensations are perceived by animal and man, relating to the same entity/event, you have the perception. I find it useful to think of making ¬an association¬ of sensations, in the place of "perception". Since this capability is shared with animals, an animal in a forest sees, sniffs, hears and feels underfoot its surroundings and thereafter automatically associates, or forms a perception, of the place with all or any one of its sense-experiences. Or e.g.: A human baby combines this familiar being's touch and scent and voice and vision with the sensation-group, of "mother". (Not infallible identification, since it is pre-conceptual - many years later the adult might smell his mother's perfume on someone else and have a brief return to infancy: a smell or a snatch of music heard have that lasting effect, the odd hiatus everyone has had, an instantly recalled association with a period or place). All quite commonsensical, if you're Aristotle or Rand, and one can see how automatized associations -perceptions - are the precursor to and the raw material of the non-automatic concepts.

Edited by whYNOT
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"...damned lies and statistics". Carefully picked to herd people into compliance.

Has anyone correlated factors like 1. the freedom vs. nanny statism of various nations? The greater the control over a (obedient) populace the more effective - we'd assume for now - would be the lockdown. Or 2. the relative wealth of nations - which will bear on the higher longevity of richer populations and a higher obesity rate? Both advanced age and weight are significant in Covid deaths. What was 'predicted' for Africa by WHO was something like 100 millions of deaths. But for mixed reasons many Africans traditionally don't live to ripe old age and are seldom overweight. Those predictions have proved to be without merit (1.2m deaths recorded to date) and amounted to fear-mongering . Therefore, one may deduce, counter-intutively and tragi-ironically, the more the freedom and wealth of a country, the higher the rate of virus deaths there might well be.

Edited by whYNOT
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