Stop saying "defund the police."

Poll after poll after poll is clear. The public supports funding social services that fill some roles police currently have, but they DON'T support defunding the police.

I don't care if you think those are the same thing. Voters don't.

There are neighborhoods in some cities where police are actually *underfunded* for their essential roles, and response times are low for people reporting crimes, accidents, etc.

Police nonresponse hurts POC as much as police brutality. Defund activists have no answer for this.
"BuT wE dOn'T lItErAlLy MeAn GeT rId Of ThE pOlIcE!"

Then find a new damn slogan, because at least some of the people chanting it with you do, in fact, literally mean that. https://t.co/mYlZXncoaH
"Defunding" the police is an intellectual coward's way out for leftists who are "woke" to the point of being sleep-deprived.

They don't want to grapple with the reality of crime and how systemic racism has put POC in the way of social harm that ensures they *need* police.
I'm totally with you on decriminalizing a broad litany of social problems and diverting money to programs that address these noncriminally, from housing to drug treatment.

But not all crime is fixable this way. What social program is going to end DUI? Domestic violence? Rape?
The real goal here is getting cops to serve POC the same way they serve white people.

But that's so much harder to do than pretending you can just eliminate police and handwave away all crime through some piecemeal patchwork of other social programs.
We are at a crucial crossroads of social attitudes on law and order.

The public is horrified by what happened to George Floyd and questioning why our prisons are so bloated. We're moving to a broader social understanding that the justice system has limits and can destroy lives.
Hell, we've reached the point where even *Republicans* feel the need to take reformist postures. Trump did little in the way of real criminal justice reform, but he touts things like drug pardons and expanding time credit in federal prisons. It's surreal to see that from the GOP.
AND YET, the public, including nonwhite people, still very much want police to be available when they need them.

And Republicans have successfully scared many voters into thinking that won't be the case under Democrats, because we have sent mixed messages.
Dems very much got the ball rolling on justice reform and their actual ideas on how to hold police accountable to their communities poll very well.

If we blow this moment because of a stupid three-word slogan and let the GOP look like the reasonable ones, we deserve what we get.

More from Society

Tomorrow, January 6th, MAGA chuds, Proud Boys, and white supremacists are planned to descend on Washington D.C. to contest the election. Among them will be NSC-131, a New England based neo-Nazi organization. Let's welcome them by saying hi to one of their members, Eddie Stuart!


Edward Stuart, from Chester, New Hampshire, has been a member of Nationalist Social Club (NSC) since the very beginning and is a staple participant in their actions. He is known in NSC chats as "Carl Jung" and is well connected in the New England Nazi scene.
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NSC-131 is a neo-Nazi group that was started in Massachusetts in early 2020 by Chris Hood. You can learn more about NSC and it's members in these threads:


Eddie describes his ideology as "Esoteric Hitlerism" which is an occult form of Nazism that literally worships Adolf Hitler as a god, or, specifically, as an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. Here is Ed holding the RigVeda with some of his occult Nazi pals. Interesting Ed!
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Much of this ideological insight was gained from Eddie's Twitter, where he originally used his "Carl Jung" persona and reposts explicit neo-fascist content and racist memes. In one edited picture, Eddie can be seen at an NSC event in late June 2020 holding a Nazi Sonnenrad flag
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“We don’t negotiate salaries” is a negotiation tactic.

Always. No, your company is not an exception.

A tactic I don’t appreciate at all because of how unfairly it penalizes low-leverage, junior employees, and those loyal enough not to question it, but that’s negotiation for you after all. Weaponized information asymmetry.

Listen to Aditya


And by the way, you should never be worried that an offer would be withdrawn if you politely negotiate.

I have seen this happen *extremely* rarely, mostly to women, and anyway is a giant red flag. It suggests you probably didn’t want to work there.

You wish there was no negotiating so it would all be more fair? I feel you, but it’s not happening.

Instead, negotiate hard, use your privilege, and then go and share numbers with your underrepresented and underpaid colleagues. […]