They're all playing stupid games and winning a lot of stupid prizes.

There absolutely is a distinction. One is clearly worse than the other. However, if you have the power to do something against clear injustice and you don't do something, I think you bear SOME responsibility.

It's obvious that these people are just virtue signaling but I really dislike the "not my neighborhood, not my problem" attitude.

This.

What exactly are the rioters doing 'for' the cause?

Also if this is your opinion are you marching with BLM or what other way are you showing support?

Target: Why would I care? This doesn't affect my bottom line.
Rioters: Goodbye stores
Target: Hey, Congressman who I fund. You need to do something about this racial injustice thing, because they're gonna keep burning my stores.
Congressman: We are now holding the police accountable for abuse and are addressing racial injustice!


At least that's the idea. We'll see if it happens. The alternative is

Congressman: See! The blacks are rioting! They need to be put down!

*Even more stores burn*

Both of these are obviously extreme, but you get the idea. The real response will be somewhere in the middle, and the response we've seen so far is to cave on symbolism but not actual policy.

So I'm reading that the guy who had the gun and killed 2 people wasn't allowed to own the gun and isn't a resident...

Pro tip: Don't voluntarily join a riot with a gun, that's a recipe for disaster.

No, just virtue signaling on an online forum.

I don't support rioters. I don't think the state of communities are bad enough to warrant that.

Also, no I don't march because I find protests creepy AF. Any sort of large group shouting makes me uneasy. I prefer to go the monetary route and to do charitable work for underprivileged communities.

Forcing outcomes through violence, theft & intimidation is a shitty way for good change to happen. That's more how the mob operates.The biggest shifts happened when people like MLK or Ghandi peacefully mobilized the masses and won souls over because the bystander saw how one side was pacifist and fighting for a good while the other wasn't. Here we don't have pacifism, we have people committing violence, stealing, destroying property based on narratives that are built on half truths.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Aug 26 2020 11:23am

I don't think that's the case at all. Most revolutions are incredibly violent (American Revolution, French Revolution, Arab Spring, etc.) This is why you should never let things fester because if things turn violent, you might get some really nasty consequences (Iranian Revolution). This is why I'm a supporter of incremental progress and accelerating when necessary. It's a national security issue.