August 30, 2020

Looting Goes Mainstream on NPR

Dana Mathewson

Power Line's Steven Hayward pens this article, with extensive quotes. It shines a blinding light on the twisted, sick collective mind of the Left.

With lawlessness and organized looting threatening to take down Joe Biden (which is why I’ve been calling the riots "spontaneous pro-Trump rallies”—have they filed their in-kind contribution reports with the FEC by the way?), we’ve seen leading Democrats like AOC say looting is just desperate people trying to get necessities. Like flat screen TVs and Nike shoes, though I haven’t been able to find the FDA’s nutritional guidance on any of these necessities.

In any case, NPR on Thursday offered an extended interview with Vicky Osterweil, author of a brand new book, In Defense of Looting. Here are some highlights from the interview:

For people who haven’t read your book, how do you define looting?

When I use the word looting, I mean the mass expropriation of property, mass shoplifting during a moment of upheaval or riot. That’s the thing I’m defending. . .

Can you talk about rioting as a tactic? What are the reasons people deploy it as a strategy?

It does a number of important things. It gets people what they need for free immediately, which means that they are capable of living and reproducing their lives without having to rely on jobs or a wage—which, during COVID times, is widely unreliable or, particularly in these communities is often not available, or it comes at great risk. That’s looting’s most basic tactical power as a political mode of action.

It also attacks the very way in which food and things are distributed. It attacks the idea of property, and it attacks the idea that in order for someone to have a roof over their head or have a meal ticket, they have to work for a boss, in order to buy things that people just like them somewhere else in the world had to make under the same conditions. It points to the way in which that’s unjust. And the reason that the world is organized that way, obviously, is for the profit of the people who own the stores and the factories. So you get to the heart of that property relation, and demonstrate that without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free. . .

Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that’s a part of it that doesn’t really get talked about—that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory [sic].

What are some of the most common myths and tropes that you hear about looting?

. . . one is that looters are just acting as consumers: Why are they taking flat screen TVs instead of rice and beans? Like, if they were just surviving, it’d be one thing, but they’re taking liquor. All these tropes come down to claiming that the rioters and the looters don’t know what they’re doing. They’re acting, you know, in a disorganized way, maybe an "animalistic” way. But the history of the movement for liberation in America is full of looters and rioters. They’ve always been a part of our movement.

What would you say to people who are concerned about essential places like grocery stores or pharmacies being attacked in those communities?

When it comes to small business, family owned business or locally owned business, they are no more likely to provide worker protections. They are no more likely to have to provide good stuff for the community than big businesses. It’s actually a Republican myth that has, over the last 20 years, really crawled into even leftist discourse: that the small business owner must be respected, that the small business owner creates jobs and is part of the community. But that’s actually a right-wing myth.

A business being attacked in the community is ultimately about attacking like modes of oppression that exist in the community.

And these are the people who want to run this country. Good grief, as my dear brother-in-law likes to say. The rest of the article is here: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/looting-goes-mainstream-on-npr.php And please vote for Republicans in a few more months, folks -- we need to keep the adults in charge of the asylum!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 01:32 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 753 words, total size 6 kb.

1 So if Klansmen torch a black church, will they be able to argue they were just cold and needed to warm themselves? I mean, come on!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at August 31, 2020 10:41 AM (GWhsQ)

2 Tim, I would say they can only claim that if they remain in the church while it burns down. Somehow, I doubt they would take the argument that far. . .

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at August 31, 2020 10:12 PM (bESxc)

3 I really like the way that you have expressed yourself. There is a lot to be admired from this post. You might want to click on Barbie Ryan Gosling Pink Jacket


Posted by: Mike Rooney at September 05, 2023 12:41 AM (fflly)

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