I understand there are two sides to this story. I also understand the exact circumstances of the shooting still seem somewhat undefined. I also understand by whatever yardstick you measure, African Americans seem to come off second-best in their dealings with law enforcement. There is a long history of questionable incidents and many examples of gross misconduct by police.
There are always at least three sides to any story. The third side is the side that involves trying to figure things out. Trouble is that one hardly ever sees that side, even on a forum with "skeptics" in the name, which is a word for people who do this, at least somewhat.
To state that anyone who does not readily accept at face value the official explanation without question or reservation has no business posting messages on this forum is ridiculous. IMO arguments like that degrade this forum. As do posters acting like the whole thing is a big joke of little import to anyone outside this forum. This incident has impacted people across the United States. Many people, like me, wish they could believe the officer was truly justified in killing Michael Brown, only based on the history in this country, I think accepting that without question would be pretty naive.
Most of what I have seen, including what you have just written (albeit in a lightened form), amounts to: "This story affects me, and I have this reaction.
And my reaction makes me better than you!"
And then it just goes on from there, on and on. In its more physical form, it involves burning businesses. Or a cop shooting a kid. Or a kid provoking a cop. Or something. But when it's milder, when it just involves harsh words,
the difference is only one of degree.
It's all just monkey business.
Which may be all right, considering that everybody's a monkey, and what else do monkeys do?
Well, that's where it's problematic. It the pretense that it isn't monkey business that causes a lot of trouble.
I'd kind of like to find a way for this stuff not to happen any more.
What, you too? I thought so.
But here's how I'd like to do it. First, it would require getting some information, not just TV sound bites, and not just stories that are entirely predictable coming from people, that is, you can tell what the story is before hearing it. Now, there is some information out there, like this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...rand-jury-testimony-in-the-Darren-Wilson-case
Let's face it. Who is going to read through just shy of 5,000 pages of testimony? There's a reason people try to get out of doing jury duty. Still, analyses are things I sometimes see here. I used to do some myself, but it really is a lot of hard work, and so few people care about it for real. It's much more fun to know without having to go through the hard work of thinking, isn't it?
Then I'd ask questions like this. Why Ferguson? Why them? Why then? Let's compare, say, Ferguson with somewhere else. Maybe some places where some similar things happen, but even more importantly, some places where they don't. Then analyze the differences and try to drill it down and figure out just what variables correlate with the outcome.
How is that ever going to happen when it is
offensive to do so? When you're supposed to say, "Aaaaie, Ferguson is emblematic of
everywhere!" When you don't scream and shout shibboleths and are all excited, you're bad. You have to do this in order to be a pariah. Never mind that there isn't the slightest evidence that it has solved any human problem, let along any complex and deeply entrenched ones, but you have to do it, or you'll be told that you're saying it's "just a big joke."
It's exactly the same as this: Let's say that someone has a miracle cure for cancer. I don't know, eating peppered fried frogs three times a day. And maybe you doubt this. Well, what's the first thing they say as a counterargument?
Cancer is serious, you bastard! As if the seriousness of a problem indicated gullibility over the proposed answer. And while you correctly say that just buying an "official" explanation is naïve, the fact that an explanation is unofficial doesn't make it magically good, either. Nor does the fact that it tells you what you already believed anyway.
