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Comment by mlang23 | Hacker News Reader

Wikipedia says there has been a poll in august 2015 regarding ALM. And "78% of likely American voters said that the statement All Lives Matter was "close[r] to [their] own" point of view than was Black Lives Matter.

Yet, everyone seems to agree that ALM is now a racist move? I am racist if I believe that all people should be treated equally? Those that utter the phrase are accused of subtly trying to transport a message which is anti-black? The longer I read about it, the more I hate identity politics. If I honestly believe that BLM is to restricted a phrase, I am now being accused of being racist because I dont explicitly support BLM? This is madness. Why do activists persue radical and extremist paths which eventually reduces the support they get from the political middle?

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I’ll assume you’re not intentionally misunderstanding ALM vs. BLM. ALM is the base assumption that we all agree with. But imagine if we were in our happy ALM world, but “B” kept getting shat on. BLM is a response to that, to say, “Hey, BLM too!” If it helps, think of it as an asterisk. “*BLM too.” BLM is not exclusive, it’s an interjection.

Also, these thoughts aren’t mine (though they were obvious to me from the start), they’re fully Googleable.

No, I am not intentionally misunderstanding something. How do you even do that?

But I still done get the word wrestling. From my POV, ALM is not exclusive. But if someone accuses me of being racist just because I am using a phrase that has somehow been declared unwanted by a select few, all they are achieving is that they reduce my willingness to support their rallies.

Language police is horrible. I know it from first hand. I am blind. And since about 10 years or so, I notice that more and more people feel like they are not allowed to use the word blind while I am around. It is pretty clear why they do that. They are afraid of stepping on someones toes and being shunted for that. Now, all that has been achieved by this is that people feel more awkward around me, because they no longer know how to talk about my condition. They find all sorts of phrases to make sure they never mention the supposedly bad word. However, fuck it, I AM BLIND. Policing the language does not improve my situation at all. In fact, it worsens it.

There's a type of person who has the aim of dividing other people. Arguing over black lives matter Vs sll lives matter is just a divisive tactic. The correct answer to both is "yes, and [what's the most important thing we need to do right now?]"

ALM was still new, unknown and misunderstood/misidentified in 2015, not to mention the poll was sourced from Rasmussen, a right-leaning polling company.

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