If you're white, you can't cast a #ICantBreathe - because TRIGGER!

[JakeStratham]

The thing about this guy, is he claims he would have once agreed with me. But upon his "scholarly" studies and "actually listening to black people", he has come to these conclusions. These bat-shit, insane conclusions, that he's going to be teaching students once he becomes a professor. Ugh.

This same guy was also once a Hare Krishna. He repeated these chants, "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare" for hours, every day. He developed OCD, would take showers for hours, harm himself, etc.. In other words, when he becomes fixated on something, yeah, it goes into a whole other realm beyond emotionally-involved, if such a thing is possible.

Oh man. I am happy to say I don't have friends like that.

 

[knownerror]

I know what you mean.. I posted one comment on a Facebook post.. even providing sources on your argument seems to not be enough. I forgot people lack the basic understanding of economics and how the government works.

 

[miketpowell]

I got into a debate with my buddy on facebook (riveting, I know) who's studying for a PhD in sociology, because he said this:

"I can't breathe" is from Eric Garner, the black guy who was choked and died, for selling untaxed cigarettes. Definitely a clear-cut case of police brutality.

After the exchange, tldr;, his position is this:

1. Your intent does not matter. Only how people perceive your intent is all that matters in society, and therefore, how you present yourself should be consistent not with your intentions, but how people *might* perceive you.

2. If you could conduct a survey, based on whether or not black people think "I can't breathe" worn by a white person is offensive, they would, by in large, find it offensive.

To #1, I say go ahead and ask me my intent if my tshirt offends you. I've worn a copblock shirt and a guy recently asked me about it at a gas station. Big fucking deal.

My main problem is with #2. How the fuck could showing solidarity by casting a #icantbreathe, ever, be considered offensive to a black person? Am I ridiculous in assuming (if you exclude your typical militant fringe % you find in any sample) that they (blacks) are going to feel a sense of appreciation?

Is this real life?

It's really quite simple. It's the same as the math proof I used to do as a math teacher to prove 1 = 2

Basically have one subtle thing about your argument that seems right but is actually complete BS. But that one subtle thing if not noticed and accepted as correct allows you to come up with whatever conclusion you want without being wrong on the logic later on.

In the math proof it's when I subtlety divide both sides by x-x AKA 0, which is of course a big no no. Here it's where it's stipulated that "all that matters is how "someone" perceives your actions". Without further clarification it's complete BS. A better statement would be "all that matters is how a reasonable and well informed person perceives your actions."

I mean you can't claim intent is all that matters - if a reasonable well informed person perceives it differently you might have a problem. They are right that it's not just intent that matters.

However an easy way to mess with someone like that is just tell them they are obviously a racist/fascist/whatever they don't want to be. The reason is because no matter what the intent of the words they spoke you perceived them as being racist/fascist so therefore they are. Then they *might* just see how the argument that perception is all that matters doesn't work because sometimes perceptions are just wrong, just like intent.

But lastly it's just hopeless to have a conversation with a condescending ass that thinks he's just plain better than you. That looks like exactly what you are dealing with there. At the end of the day he will always know he's right simply because he knows he's better than you.