Friendly reminder that blue lives don't exist.
You choose to be a cop you don't choose your skin color
Exactly. But the “blue lives matter” group only formed as a counter to Black Lives Matter so 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah... But it was promoted through money paid by Russian Intelligence in order to sow racial discord in America.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-biggest-facebook-ad-promoted-blue-lives-matter
This is my favorite argument to tell blue lives matter people. Along with my original point
I've even gotten a few of them to truly understand that it is inherently racist by design by using these two arguments specifically
Sorry, can you clarify what the argument is? I read the comment you replied to and it didn't seem like an argument so much as a fact check, which while powerful requires something kind of different. Am I missing something?
That "Blue Lives Matter" wasn't ever about caring about police lives, only a counter to Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was formed because innocent black people kept being killed. Blue Lives Matter was formed because being challenged with that fact offended them.
When a police officer shoots a black man because he's intimidated by his skin color, the defense "his life matters, too" is bullshit. Since Blue Lives Matter didn't actually have anything to do with violence against police officers, it's bullshit.
Ironically, I would say Blue Lives Matter caused people to target police officers, who really hadn't been targeted before. One could argue it is more accurate that Blue Lives Matter caused more unjustified police incidents against black people, which caused more misguided vigilante-style violence against police.
Yeah, but a lot of dumb people who could have supported BLM were swayed by Blue Lives Matter or All Lives Matter bullshit, especially if they work in or around emergency. There's a lot of non-conservatives in emergency fields that are especially succeptable to that kind of bullshit despite being otherwise good human beings.
I've talked at least two away from the "Blue/All Lives Matter" ledge. You have to do it delicately, but the whole problem with all this shit is that there ARE people who are not really racist who can be convinced that "there's a lot of cops dying in BLM riots" because that's what they're being told. When you have black friends who says "I don't want to be anywhere near BLM because they just make us look bad", you know that people are spreading some real fake shit. But instead of hating on them, you can just show them that BLM is not riots and Blue Lives Matter is not about stopping cops from being killed.
And then, the ones who aren't racist... they do listen.
I am not an American, so I'm not means an expert on anything American. What I do think is that globally, us on the political left are shit at making slogans at least compared to the political right. While I can't deny that Defund the Police resonated with people who have been oppressed by them their whole lives, I also can't deny it doesn't actually do anything to inform bystanders of the solution being proposed. The 'gentry' who actually have the political power to effect change, and in fact had the opposite effect. Honestly I think actors on the political right just spend a lot more time and money on spinning a good message.
Tl;Dr; BLMs message was so confusing it made it so right wing actors could flip Defund the Police on its head and scare centralists from the idea.
I'll give a different angle, as I see it.
A problem is that reality is complicated and makes shit for soundbytes. That means your options are to lie to constituents, or to actually have policy ideals that are just harder to explain.
Defund the Police is a great example. We simply lean on the police too heavily. We DO need to defund them. They should not be the first line for mental health breaks, the first line for non-physical domestic disputes, etc. I know other countries do this, but in the US I would argue the current format of police shouldn't be used for situations where violence is unlikely... and yeah, I mean things like driving infractions. Not only are they not great at it, but they are also not TRUSTED. In a country where someone getting a ticket for pulling through a stop sign literally fears for their life because they're black, we should be offering a justice system that makes such a danger impossible because it won't be kill-trained people with guns giving them their ticket.
Similarly, our police are over-equipped. Too many SWAT teams, used too lightly in situations without elevated risk or without enough red tape to require better information-gathering. And not unlike a bad comic book, SWAT team members have to hide their identity because they know the masses hate and fear them. I've known spouses of SWAT team members, and the rule is that nobody but those closest to you can know that's what they do. Not unlike drug dealers.
So stepping back, all those things are a nice ball of "what I fucking want to vote for". If you had 5 seconds to explain it, what would you say? I would say "defund the police". Because it's strictly accurate in a dozen ways AND it isn't even pretending to say "abolish the police" because that would be "absolish the police".
So yeah. The Right looks at Defund the Police and says "see, they're trying to abolish the police. Let's back the blue" and it's all over.
I'm gonna say BLM was the same. BLM had clear numbers, clear figures, a clear message. Stop killing black people. They had people marching with (posters of) unarmed black people who were killed without any reasonable suspicion of a crime. They had everything you could need. But then you had an orange fascist prick saying "All lives matter". NO SHIT all lives matter. But how many white people do these idiots know who have been wrongfullly abused by police? Post-BLM, we are way down on black deaths by cop; it's only TWICE their representation.
You say you're not an American, so I get it. But the real problem with BLM is exactly what we have complained it is... full-on-racism. BLM became a riot in many areas because White Supremecists working with the police started the riots to give an excuse to end the protests. The message was trampled on, not because it was bad, but because we are a horrible country right now. And yes, innocent people only see the fallout and the sound bytes on TV. When the most powerful man in the country has this message that "all lives matter", anyone who is not politically savvy is going to just nod their head and agree.
You've made some good points. I hope that a fair number of people read through the whole post, but I fear that not enough will. Most seem to have about a three sentence threshold.
Bingo! And it's kinda hard to make a soundbyte explanation for why something is too complicated for a soundbyte :)
I don’t understand what you’re getting at. In case my original comment wasn’t clear, I was (I guess too subtly) pointing out the problematic and racist origins of the blue lives matter phrase
You left the end of your statement unsaid so it wasn’t clear to me. It could be taken more than one way. Such as “Don’t complain that blue lives don’t exist, because if BLM hadn’t started it, blue lives wouldn’t even be a thing.”
Glad to know you didn’t mean it that way.
Gotcha yeah, sorry about that lol. Maybe I’ll edit my original comment to be a little clearer
The Andorians have it double bad, having to deal with the anti blue and anti antennae crowd.
Nobody even remembers the Andorians, too.
Except for that time the death star blew up thier planet
Even if it's counted, is it even more dangerous, counted using the same metrics? I have no idea, but it's not far-fetched that it's not, at least if we mean American soldiers. Like, it's way more dangerous to be an Iraqi civilian than an American soldier.
Really depends on the country. In the US, death rate is really low. There might be a couple instances of getting shot at, but you're so much less likely to die of other causes it ironically makes up for it.
Of course, you get these spikes in death rates in the military, like if you're sent to an active warzone. We just measure "dangerous jobs" by year.
But the other professions don’t need to defend themselves against blatant racism and abuse of power. “This is a dangerous profession, which is why we shot an unarmed black teenager 117 times.”
Covid was also a top fatality result of police for a while there. Just showcasing their amazing decision making skills as they refuse to get vaccinated.
Clearly they represent the best of the best there.
My local city jail literally got shut down by the tail-end of the pandemic, because of all the COVID outbreaks due to none of the cops would wear masks.
Delivery drivers also are more likely than police to be subject to robberies...
It's also not unheard of for robbery to end in murder.
I worked in a worker's comp adjacent field for a while. The majority of injuries in police were absolutely vehicular in nature. Second place would be "was trying to chase a far more physically fit suspect on foot and fell/pulled something", that happens waaaay more frequently than you would expect.
Violence and diseases. In consequence many sex workers get hurt regularly during their job, some get killed and many have PTSD and/or abuse drugs and alcohol.
In countries were sex work is legal this does not get significantly better, btw. I live in Germany where sex work is legal since 1950 or something and it's a job you even have to pay tax for. They still suffer from violence. There was a protest this year to give better protection from violence.
As far as i know the most dangerous job is either Under Water Welder or Septic tank diver (yes thats a thing) among those, most heavy industry Jobs are very dangerous as well (mining, steelworks...)
I thought the most dangerous one was president, at an 18% fatality rate (8 out of 45 so far)
What about fire fighters? At least they do everything in their power to keep your dog alive.
Yeah, that does not rock.
But also
a very small minority of firefighters who are also active arsonists
Another way in which they are different.
Other than car accidents and maybe the occassional biohazard, its probably more mentally taxing than anything. But IDK I'm no paramedic
To paraphrase someone (can't remember who), calling cops cunts is an unfair comparison: cops lack both the depth and the warmth, and don't bring joy to anyone
Maybe someone who is armed and breaking into your grandmother's home? Maybe crowd control for a municipal parade?
Maybe. Except they don't show up until well after an incident, so I definitely don't rely on them for my grandmothers safety.
Now a parade! Now we're talking. If I had to stand around during a municipal parade I would definitely act like I have the most dangerous job. T hank the Lord for the boys in blue being there for parades!
Okay so we just kind of let all grandma's be targets of crime because nobody will ever try to arrest you?
Where do you get the idea that pilot is the 3rd most dangerous job? How often do you hear about pilots dying? And more dangerous than driving jobs? Lol no.
The majority of aircraft pilot fatalities occur in crashes of privately owned planes and helicopters rather than on regularly scheduled commercial jet aircraft.
https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-united-states
By the way, most deaths aren't reported on the news.
It's because they have too much power. Gets to their head. Same with politicians, though they usually don't go round shooting people.
Pilots have no business being on there. Just because people are scared of flying, doesn’t mean it’s actually dangerous.
And yet they do, statistically, die more than most other jobs. Pilots have every business being on here because the comic creator just literally took a "top X dangerous jobs list" and turned it into a meme.
Passengering is safe. Piloting, less so. Just like riding in a bus is statistically safer than being a career driver. Because you get off the bus, and that driver does 7 more runs. Alongside a long-haul truck driver carrying zero people. Etc. But Piloting is more dangerous than driving a truck.
Piloting of what aircraft type?
It’s pretty rare to hear about a commercial flight resulting in a crash or even death.
If you’re talking about commercial pilots flying around passengers then no it’s not dangerous at all, certainly not compared to truck drivers. To say it’s dangerous because they do it everyday is silly. Reality is it’s one of the safest forms of travel. Trucking is not nearly as safe and has a lot more risk factors involved.
If you’re strictly talking about bush pilots then you might have a case but there’s not as many bush pilots compared to commercial pilots in order for it to significantly skew the statistics.
A lot more truck drivers die in a year from accidents then commercial pilots. Calling it more dangerous is hella silly bro.
I mean, we're talking pretty much anyone who flies an airplane for any commercial purpose. Bush flying, remote cargo flights in small aircraft, crop-dusting, helicopter lifting, hell even helicopter logging.
And while more truck drivers die annually than pilots, what we're discussing here are RATES of death per capita, not individual deaths. An individual is statistically more likely to be killed flying as a commercial pilot (in any capacity) than a truck driver is to be killed while on the job.
Bush pilots probably drive the statistics up pretty far because it's dangerous in general and many of them keep flying long after commercial retirement ages.
Most pilots aren't commerical passenger pilots. Most are crop dusters and priority freight
Just now got a push message stating that the jobs of Dutch policemen were very dangerous, according to the union, because of bad communication technology.
Historically, shitty radio communication has gotten a LOT of people killed during emergencies. I'm perfectly willing to accept you can shave off a few percents of risk by getting Dutch cops better radios. But it's hardly going to move the needle compared to "unskilled" Labour such as construction.
I do workplace safety in the Netherlands, so allow me to trot some numbers out.
3800 people die every year as a result of their jobs. 2500 from cancer, 700 from coronary issues. Over 400 die from falling or car crashes. So about 200 people die from all the stuff you'd generally associate with gruesome workplace hazards. Now, generally when I hold this talk, the point is "stop being a moron around chemicals", but this time my point is "Dutch cops are really unlikely to die from their work".
Police officers have the highest suicide rate after Doctors and Dentists. Not sure if it's because of poor stress management or being constantly in contact with some of the shittiest people to live.
“being constantly in contact with some of the shittiest people to live.”
So other cops then. I’d probably kill myself too if I were a cop.
Lets be honest, plenty non cops are really shitty in ways different from the shitty that drives you to be a cop. Cops do deal with these other people as well. So a cop has shitty people on all sides.
Its an impossible tasks and society must construct itself as to not have police bc they cannot do the job asked even regardless of the value of the work (which is none as well)
I feel like a position of authority, the weapons, and the qualified immunity letting you put hands on anyone for any bullshit reason you want make you the danger, not in danger.
Depends where you live, over here the police are friendly and will talk instead of shoot. and if they shoot, they will have a hearing, to check if they have shot according to the law. hence, depends on the law in your county if the protectors of the normal people are nice or not.
Certainly not going to the hospital or reporting their injuries, always something more important to do on the farm.