my feeling on "defund the police" is that i'm mostly in favor of the goals, am ambiguous on the sloganeering, and think that everyone who isn't directly involved with lobbying politicians or organizing protests or working with community leaders IRL should take two steps back

too many people who aren't directly involved in the sausage grinding have gotten far too wrapped up in winning the battle for packaging the sausage, on every side of this very complex and multi-faceted problem

it's really, honestly okay to choose not to voice strong opinions on this and to listen to the people who *are* doing the work here, who, unsurprisingly, have much more nuanced views about it.

abrams did a massive amount of work to GOTV in georgia, and, unsurprisingly, she's very nuanced about "defund the police" as both policy and slogan, without throwing *anyone* out of the boat, which seems like a worthwhile option to consider

in portland, we damn near did elect a defund mayor and would've elected her, if we hadn't also had a doomed, left spoiler write-in campaign that kicked a knee out from under the defund candidate, which is part of what informs my thinking about this.

online, we've got too many chefs and not enough dishwashers, and in 2021, a personal goal of mine is to stop trying to cook and start washing dishes, which are accumulating in frighteningly large piles.

just absolutely fucking incredible that some person i don't know would see this thread as a good opportunity to step in and say "well, actually, i'm right about this, and here's what i think"

admittedly, i'm a straight white guy on the internet, so this happens to me at roughly .000045% the frequency it happens to everyone who isn't me

anyway, i'm going to mute this thread, because none of this is really an invitation to argue, it's just my own perspective, which is worth every single penny you paid for it