just please remember, whatever the news says about LA after this, that this is *always* how it goes. Everything is extremely calm until the police actively escalate for no reason. It was true during all the BLM protests and it’s true now.

"Violence" is one of the most elastic concepts you will ever encounter.

the hong kong protestors used the phrase "do not split" to mean that the radical protest and peaceful protest arms of the movement should refuse to criticize each other.

I have had many comp-sci students who are specializing in AI in my Critical AI classes who are scandalized by the revelation of its underbelly, for eg, environmental harms, labour injustices, the effed-up TESCREAL ideologies, the baked-in surveillance. Their program feeds them pure hype.