https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/looting-goes-mainstream-on-npr.phpLOOTING GOES MAINSTREAM ON NPRAUGUST 29, 2020 BY STEVEN HAYWARD
With lawlessness and organized looting threatening to take down Joe Biden (which is why I’ve been calling the riots “spontaneous pro-Trump ralliesâ€â€”have they filed their in-kind contribution reports with the FEC by the way?), we’ve seen leading Democrats like AOC say looting is just desperate people trying to get necessities. Like flat screen TVs and Nike shoes, though I haven’t been able to find the FDA’s nutritional guidance on any of these necessities.
In any case, NPR on Thursday offered an extended interview with Vicky Osterweil, author of a brand new book, In Defense of Looting. Here are some highlights from the interview:
For people who haven’t read your book, how do you define looting?When I use the word looting, I mean the mass expropriation of property, mass shoplifting during a moment of upheaval or riot. That’s the thing I’m defending. . .
Can you talk about rioting as a tactic? What are the reasons people deploy it as a strategy?It does a number of important things. It gets people what they need for free immediately, which means that they are capable of living and reproducing their lives without having to rely on jobs or a wage—which, during COVID times, is widely unreliable or, particularly in these communities is often not available, or it comes at great risk. That’s looting’s most basic tactical power as a political mode of action.
It also attacks the very way in which food and things are distributed. It attacks the idea of property, and it attacks the idea that in order for someone to have a roof over their head or have a meal ticket, they have to work for a boss, in order to buy things that people just like them somewhere else in the world had to make under the same conditions. It points to the way in which that’s unjust. And the reason that the world is organized that way, obviously, is for the profit of the people who own the stores and the factories. So you get to the heart of that property relation, and demonstrate that without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free. . .
More at URL above...Poster's note:Still wondering if this is satire... or... does this gal really mean it...?
Link to NPR interview:
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/27/906642178/one-authors-argument-in-defense-of-lootingLink to the book:
https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/vicky-osterweil/in-defense-of-looting/9781645036678/
