In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action
Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this Amazon book.
Books Politics & Social Sciences Social Sciences
A fresh argument for rioting and looting as our most powerful tools for dismantling white supremacy. Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions that can take place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement. But Vicky Osterweil argues that stealing goods and destroying property are direct, pragmatic strategies of wealth redistribution and improving life for the working class -- not to mention the brazen messages these methods send to the police and the state. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous oppression. From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In Defense of Looting is a history of violent protest sparking social change, a compelling reframing of revolutionary activism, and a practical vision for a dramatically restructured society.
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Vicky Osterweil
Reddit Posts and Comments
0 posts • 15 mentions • top 14 shown below
55 points • functor7
In the book In Defense of Looting, which is really a historical account of black civil uprisings, the author suggests that we shouldn't view the Civil War as being an abolitionist movement at all. The conflict was, afterall, really spurred on by the role of slavery in new states, and Lincoln had no plans for abolition. The north was centered around bourgeois controlled industry, whereas the south was run more like royalty and aristocracy. And so the Civil War was therefore about the economic control of these two classes and the eventual overthrow of American aristocracy. The author argues that abolition only became a major component due to the slaves stealing themselves in mass, an act which was appropriated by the Union; abolition was forced on the Union through the actions of black people and not because of some high moral qualities of the Union.
6 points • PixieDustGurl420
> i don't think it's an unpopular opinion that rioting and looting is bad.
...really, I wouldn't get that impression at all looking around Reddit these days. Insane ideologues can be found in multiple subs trying to rationalize, justify and even condone the violence. You even have crazed activists now writing books about how looting and destruction is a GOOD THING:
> https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
...and they are fucking being PRAISED by leftist media for such publications!
11 points • WallStreetFighter
>Ainda me tens é de dizer onde é que é socialmente aceite ser ladrão
(retirei a raça desta frase de propósito)
A mesma fossa académica que produziu Franz Fanon, produziu recentemente este livro:
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
É uma tese académica que defende a pilhagem como argumento político.
De resto, imagens de pilhagens não têm faltado um pouco por todo o mundo.
​
Estas coisas começam sempre como ideias, experiências...
Depois são interpretadas, de forma cada vez mais literal.
Depois cristalizam-se em ações.
E quando são ecoadas para lá da memória, são aceites.
1 points • vwsslr200
Looks like that "In Defense of Looting" book that NPR was hawking a while back isn't going over too well on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
1 points • sobriquet9
Status quo is what we have now. People are proposing all kinds of revolutionary changes - defunding the police, redistribution of wealth through changes to tax codes, "The South Will Rise Again", etc.
There are even books on how to do it.
1 points • recycled_kevlar
From the Amazon page:
>"A passionate, in-depth study of one of history's most radical-and reviled-forms of direct action. In clear, precise prose, Osterweil lays bare the racialized settler-colonial roots of policing and property in the US, outlines the possibilities of militant resistance, and emphasizes the necessity of Black and Indigenous liberation. In Defense of Looting is a bracing and necessary read, written with great care and radical hope. As Osterweil herself says, 'The future is ours to take. We just need to loot it.'"―Kim Kelly, labor columnist, Teen Vogue
Decadence. Decadence is all I can think of.
I once had an outreach-type job that required me to go door to door in a crumbling rust belt city. We weren't affiliated with any government authority and we wore no uniforms, but people often assumed we were. I knocked on one door in the late morning, and a shirtless man came out and proceeded to loudly threaten to kill me and my partner if we ever came back. He was ranting about how the government was poisoning, murdering, and raping (he further specified that he meant that literally and figuratively) everybody in this city. I never felt threatened, this was all just theatrics.
On a different morning at a different door, when I knocked I heard an urgent inside conversation between two men go hush. I then heard someone step up to the door, open a wooden drawer, slide something dense and metallic across that wood, place something metallic against the door, and then open the door a crack. Through the crack, I saw a man who appeared to be leaning over his right arm, with his left hand on the door knob, look me in the eye and ask me who I was. He was very obviously pointing a handgun at my chest on the other side of the door.
After giving what is probably the most polite introduction I have ever made, this man became very friendly and invited me and my partner inside (but only after first closing the door again, opening a drawer, and sliding something metallic inside it). When we left through the same door I noticed a small wooden drawer beside it.
The histrionic man made a great show of how threatened he was, and how he was willing to use violence to protect himself, but he acted like he came to the door to make a stump speech, not to meet his death. The second man obviously felt threatened, and did what he could to mitigate that, including not loudly announcing how willing and able to shoot me he was.
The leaders of the revolution will not be those that write books condoning one form of violence while condemning another. They will be those who believe that oppression is slavery, and slavery is death, and they will act accordingly.
2 points • CriticalEscapeBike
He obviously hasn't read the latest thoughts on this subject:
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
1 points • wildgunman
It seems then that things like that silly NYTimes editorial "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police" and that ridiculous "In Defense of Looting" book are useful. They force the distinction by specifically proclaiming that "2+2=4" even if they then use that as an axiom to prove that the world rests on a tortoise.
1 points • DashingRogue45
>The way through this is to advocate for and devise the shape of reforms, and to elect the people who will pass those reforms.
You forgot something there: condemning rioting and looting, empowering law enforcement to stop them, and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law in order to disincentivise the kinds of things that ruin livelihoods, in a time where more and more people make excuses for rioting. Source: A book called "In Defense of Looting" being given any respect on NPR or in broader racial justice movements https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/27/906642178/one-authors-argument-in-defense-of-looting
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
1 points • nicdevera
Kindle $16.99, hardcover $21.03. Screw that, I pirated "In Defense of Looting" and you should too.
0 points • Mobile_Ant
One would think.
But then you get turds like this dropped:
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
Looting undermines capitalism and the government, see, so actually its liberation!
1 points • Yaintgotnotime
In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action published last week.
Captured by Lee Fang on twitter https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1301225509745909760
5 points • swissfrenchman
Other podcasts with Graeme Wood
https://www.aspenideas.org/podcasts/the-nature-of-evil-paul-bloom-and-graeme-wood?fbrefresh=1598336231
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/godless-spellchecker/the-godless-spellchecker-podcast/e/50646630
https://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/graeme-wood-understanding-isis-episode-613/
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-graeme-wood-way-strangers
https://secularjihadists.libsyn.com/ep83-has-isis-been-defeated-with-graeme-wood
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-lalo-dagach-podcast-31014020/episode/ldp-033-graeme-wood-encounters-34376395/
https://youtu.be/RQ4VhSMHzkk Vice
Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Wood_(journalist)
Vicky Osterweil
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1599182682&refinements=p_27%3AVicky+Osterweil&s=books&sr=1-1
http://thebriefpodcast.com
https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com
-7 points • fknr
Everyone agrees that looting and burning cars is okay because Black Lives Matter.
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Looting-Riotous-History-Uncivil/dp/1645036693
I'm just stating that this is far less than looting and burning and Black Lives still Matter.
Don't fuck up a black man's life because of a simple car accident.
The only evidence that you have is some redditor's post. They're probably a racist anyway.