The pro-looter activist from Common Dreams and LinkedIn is a Star Wars fan, a supporter of some billion dollar corporations but not others. And I remember when Star Wars and everything else about the Lucas fantasy world was criticized as authoritarian, and Star Wars itself as proto-fascist kitsch.

On twitter Ryan Cooper posted a screenshot to mock Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire. Cooper has 53 thousand followers; Walsh's follower count has gone up 100 thousand in the past month. I told Cooper he should engage Walsh directly, so his followers could see the response.

Cooper replied: "Have you ever argued with a conservative? They won't learn anything no matter what I say or where I say it. Whatever I say is wrong by definition."

I told him it's not about Walsh but giving information to his readers that they wouldn't get otherwise. I told him I remember when very serious American left-liberals read Tyler Cowen and were afraid of Palestinians. I remember when they loved Bill Clinton.

Today he tweets this

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." - Frank Wilhoit

Left-wing secularists in Lebanon are in a bloc with Hezbollah. As a 22 year old Bulgarian club-kid said to me in 2006. "This is a stupid country."

repeats

Corey Robin: "I think people have lots of different interests, and I think an elitist project like conservatism actually offers non-elites certain opportunities for power (though power that is always allied/hitched to subjection), which is one of the reasons non-elites support it."

(etc.)

Ryan tweets images of cops on the rampage. Lee Fang—see below, here and here—tweets violence by looters. Neither are conservatives, right?

CNN: Killer Mike urges Atlanta protesters 'not to burn your own house down' in emotional plea.

Killer Mike made an emotional plea for calm Friday night as a protest in Atlanta against police brutality turned violent.

The demonstration started peacefully, but some protestors broke storefront windows, torched cars and vandalized CNN headquarters. Atlanta was one of several US cities that witnessed protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

"I am the son of an Atlanta police officer," said the rapper and activist, who was joined at a press conference by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Police Chief Erika Shields and fellow Atlanta rap star T.I. "My cousin is an Atlanta city police officer. And my other cousin an East Point police officer." 

"And I got a lot of love and respect for police officers, down to the original eight police officers in Atlanta," he said, an apparent reference to the city's first black officers, hired in 1948, who he said were forced to dress in a separate building because white officers rejected them. 

Killer Mike and T.I. pointed to Atlanta's civil rights history as the home of Martin Luther King Jr. and others who have struggled for equality over the decades. 

"I watched a white police officer assassinate a black man," Killer Mike said while crying, referring to Floyd's death. "And I know that tore your heart out."

The officer, since fired, is seen in a video with his knee on Floyd's neck. He has been charged with murder and manslaughter.

"I am duty-bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy," Killer Mike said. "It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization."

"It is time to beat up prosecutors you don't like at the voting booth," he added, as he wore a T-shirt that read "Kill Your Masters," a lyric from one of his rap group's songs. "It is time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs." 

"I'm mad as hell. I woke up wanting to see the world burn down yesterday because I am tired of seeing black men die," he said. "We want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burned to the ground.

Two cheers for buppies and the black petty bourgeois.  I'm sure Killer Mike likes Star Wars. It's ok. I'll deal.

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One month later: From Star Wars to Star Trek