Liberal slippage and gaslighting: defunding the police

A: You do realize that defund the police doesn't actually mean completely get rid of the police, right?

B: Maybe you should actually pay attention to what the council wants. Minneapolis police: City Council members announce intent to defund the police department - CNN

C: The Minneapolis BLM group that spoke with the mayor on video made it unmistakably clear that they meant abolish.

D: i think part of the issue is that words like “defund” and “dismantle” don’t inherently imply any kind of replacement.
But, as pointed out, there is a replacement function in this specific proposal.

B: could've gone with "let's build a new way to police!" or something like that..
I think that's a useful way to gaslight people. It's the same with the untenable slogans like "#BelieveAllWomen"

E: and maybe you should have the intelligence, savvy, and political wisdom enough to know that what the most radical members of the city council say they want in the heat of this moment and what will actually happen are two different things? The mayor is not on board with this and the city council is not moving forward with dismantling armed officers at this point. They have announced some ideologically charged and frankly utopian aspirations for the future. They have committed to working with the community to "reimagine" what a policing force will look like. I bet that in the final analysis the outcome will look something like Camden, New Jersey. Either way, armed officers able to respond to 911 calls and other criminal activity will not be disbanded. But why let measure, reason, and common sense guide us in a moment like this??

B: This is the councilwoman's tweet:

Lisa Bender on Twitter: "Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety." / Twitter

A: yes and that doesn't mean get rid of policing entirely.

B: Ok so what you're saying is, dismantle doesn't mean dismantle. Got it

E: why don't you just come out and admit that you're working for the Trump misinformation services? Holy fuck.

F: You do realize...” is always what I hear from people getting ready to tell me what THEY don’t realize.” Smooth move, Sparky!

G: They said they wanted a private company to take over, let's see how long that last

H: Ilhan Omar also said on video that we must "completely dismantle the Minneapolis PD" but of course by 'completely dismantle' she meant 'maintain strong force of armed officers for 911 calls but also reallocate some resources to social workers and community services'.

E: you and *** both could be a clarifying voice of reason right now instead of just parroting right wing talking points. Even if you disagree with the defund the police platform (as I do, I'd rather reasonable reform, including serious restraints on qualified immunity) you could still be more responsible in actually providing facts and details about what the "defund the police" experiments are really about. Frankly, I think the phrase is a terrible one and a gift to Trump and the right wing. There might be some valuable ideas here, but as you say, it would be an experiment. But it is not a move to do away with an armed police force and a 911 response team to criminal activity.

and she really has power in the party. Good grief.

H: Lol first I was told that these radical leftists were fringe Twitter and college campus idiots. Then they graduated and got jobs in media and academia. Still fringe idiots. Now they're in Congress and city councils voting to dismantle police departments and suggesting that calling 911 in the middle of the night is "white privilege"... still fringe and 'no power' for E. And calling out this incremental delusion is "parroting right wing talking points". Give me a break.

I: Did you think the same of the Charlotesvile protestors when they said "Jews will not replace us?"

J: Going by how some people claim the "dismantling doesn't mean entirely getting rid of it" is a valid defense, then "not consenting to sex doesn't mean entirely not wanting sex" is also valid.

K: It's funny to watch all the post-modernist takes here... *But defund doesn't actually mean defund, it means this other thing*.

In this case we can be confident there is no linguistic obfuscation. These people tell us they want to disband the police as a first step, without even having a plan.

Utter madness.

L: it's pretty obvious the legal system will be moved to twitter.

D: I’ve had activists tell me defund means exactly that and I’ve had activists tell me that defund “actually” means a long list of things that include reform, partial reallocation, retraining, and other similar things.

B: They are exploiting the ambiguity of these terms.

D: [I] think the people who started “defund the police” meant precisely that. Stop giving them money. That’s what defund means. I suspect a bunch of people piled on, then realized the literal definition of defund wasn’t actually a good idea. So they back tracked and came up with these contortions for what defund “actually” means. Because if they stop using the phrase they’ll be labeled unsupportive and thrown off woke island.

B: I mean if they mean reform then just...say what they mean?

M: Exactly, its either one or the other. But saying one while meaning the other is devious at the very least.

N: 2020 is the year we reinvent the definition of words. Dismantle now means to thoroughly & completely make slight changes to existing institutions...

O: I am marginally curious on who the blacks of Minnieapolis are going to blame next when their communities go to shit despite no cops around.