ah, that’s an interesting distinction - Black folks cannot avoid their fate as Black, but cops absolutely can choose a different profession.
In the past I have often wondered about the way the police profession preys on poor people (much like how recruitment of soldiers targets the most poor and desperate), and so historically I’ve favored a view that sees the process of becoming a police officer as at least somewhat coercive - there are economic factors that are coercive, but also a hegemonic culture of recruitment and indoctrination that is relevant to why the least educated and privileged among us become cops. That indoctrination does make those people class traitors, and I do think within the same context some people choose to take a different path - so I don’t see that system of coercion as total in the sense that cops don’t have any relevant choice or moral responsibility.
Regardless, it’s categorically different than being an oppressed minority that targets people based on fixed, biological traits.
And even if gender or orientation was a choice (not implying that it is), it would be a choice that is infinitely less harmful to the people around you.
sure, maybe - conservatives tend to overreact to news about gay and trans and I’m not entirely willing to say what they experience is not a kind of harm (even if we aren’t sympathetic to their feelings), but this theoretical exercise is pointless since being gay and trans are biological and genetic conditions that can’t be altered - you’re stuck with your gender identity and sexual orientation.
being a cop is a choice, being straight / gay or cis / trans is not.
And that’s why blue lives don’t exist. No one is born a cop.
ah, that’s an interesting distinction - Black folks cannot avoid their fate as Black, but cops absolutely can choose a different profession.
In the past I have often wondered about the way the police profession preys on poor people (much like how recruitment of soldiers targets the most poor and desperate), and so historically I’ve favored a view that sees the process of becoming a police officer as at least somewhat coercive - there are economic factors that are coercive, but also a hegemonic culture of recruitment and indoctrination that is relevant to why the least educated and privileged among us become cops. That indoctrination does make those people class traitors, and I do think within the same context some people choose to take a different path - so I don’t see that system of coercion as total in the sense that cops don’t have any relevant choice or moral responsibility.
Regardless, it’s categorically different than being an oppressed minority that targets people based on fixed, biological traits.
And even if gender or orientation was a choice (not implying that it is), it would be a choice that is infinitely less harmful to the people around you.
sure, maybe - conservatives tend to overreact to news about gay and trans and I’m not entirely willing to say what they experience is not a kind of harm (even if we aren’t sympathetic to their feelings), but this theoretical exercise is pointless since being gay and trans are biological and genetic conditions that can’t be altered - you’re stuck with your gender identity and sexual orientation.