Derek Chauvin / George Floyd: What NOBODY is talking about
I want you to keep an old, simple, and wise idea in mind as we work through the various issues that the Derek Chauvin trial has presented. The saying goes “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I have noticed that as the world breathlessly watches the trial of Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd — caught up in the minutia of the day-to-day court proceedings — nobody is taking a step back to call attention to how we got here in the first place.
The more I ponder on the case — the evidence, the cultural, social, and political milieu, the systemic shortcomings that led us here — the more I’m realizing this entire situation was 100% preventable. So, let’s ask some basic questions that nobody in mainstream media (and by extension, their viewers) is asking.
Why did Floyd reportedly swallow three times the lethal dose of fentanyl?
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks that the ‘war on drugs’ has been effective in actually fixing the problem of drugs and their effects on the communities they ravage. The evidence, over the many decades since these policies went into place, has shown that the drug problem has gotten much worse; not better. If people were actually free, there would be no laws against an individual putting whatever substance into their body they choose… including fentanyl. Imagine if we actually focused on prevention in the drug/addiction arena. Floyd would not have felt it was necessary to attempt to hide the drugs he was in possession of. If these drugs were, in fact, a contributing factor to his death, we would not be having this national conversation.
Solution: Examine current laws and remove all victimless crimes from the books. Stop trying to control what people do to themselves. We don’t act this way over alcohol and the associated issues caused by alcoholism, so why do we have a separate set of rules for other substances? If there is no victim, there is no crime.
Why were the police concerned about a counterfeit $20 in the first place?
The monopolization of the monetary supply has resulted in a major lack of innovation and competition and has left us with an extremely antiquated currency. It’s laughable how easily solved the counterfeit paper currency problem is, but the upside for State control over currency is so massive that it’s better to create entire task forces to track down and prosecute individuals who try to make copies.
Solution: There is already an amazing merging technology that is solving this problem . That technology is blockchain and the distributed ledger. The most well-known and popular example of this technology is Bitcoin. Unhackable, non-counterfeitable, and fully outside the control of State power and manipulation. Without competition in currency, there is no true free market — and as long as $USD maintains its stranglehold over currency markets, this problem will never be solved.
Don’t People Know What State Power is?
People, in general, don’t seem to understand the nature of the State, and the fact they have the monopoly on force, and that that force is the only and most powerful tool in their arsenal. The State will escalate until you either comply or die. When the police respond to a call, they are not there to ask questions. They are not there to adjudicate your crime(s). They are not there to offer counseling and support for your addiction. They are there to gain your compliance, regardless of your guilt or innocence. Once they have you under control, the escalation will stop. It doesn’t matter if you are innocent and have a job to be at in the morning and likely can’t afford bail; not their problem. You sit down, shut up, and comply, or face the consequences.
State Power understands they are the ones pulling the strings of society. They are the ones passing the laws. They are the ones enforcing the laws. They are the ones who live by a completely separate set of the very laws used to control us. There is an incentive to keep people divided with these stories. Divide and conquer is a powerful strategy for those in control.
Solution: The solution to this problem is through a multi-generational change that will require the abolition of The State and privatization of personal security. Modern-day security is a joke and the police end up taking on the role of the proverbial “pound of cure” (double entendre intentional). In the absence of the state, private entities would be free to compete on best practices and alternative preventative measures that we currently couldn't even dream of.
Don’t People Understand the Media Business Model?
The media has MASSIVE incentive to put a magnifying glass on the Chauvin/Floyd circus. They get paid when you click. They get paid when you tune in and watch. Their job is to put their viewers in front of advertisers. It’s the major flaw in people getting their news “for free.” This model creates incentive to chase sensational stories and, when none are available, incentivizes media companies to create their own news or, at the very least, over-sensationalized otherwise unimportant stories.
There is a reason Floyd was heard throughout the entire interaction regurgitating catchphrases like, “I can’t breathe,” even when he was in the back of the police car; a safe distance away from Chauvin’s knee. He has likely seen all of the sensationalized news coverage of riots and narratives and protest signs with these handy catchphrases plastered everywhere. He likely heard the stories his news sources and community presented him, detailing how black people are being hunted by white officers. If any one of us were in his position, we too would be terrified.
Solution: There are a ton of business models upstart companies are testing; some based on blockchain technology, some based on crowdsourcing, some based on reputation. Any of these alternatives would be preferable to the current model. The problem isn’t the technology or the business model. The problem is getting audiences to understand the importance of paying for what they consume. The solution is to educate people on the current business models and why it’s completely detrimental to the pursuit of truth. You don’t need to debunk every false story that comes out of a news source… all you need to do is get people to understand the model in which they receive the news is flawed, if not downright dangerous.
Why was George Floyd so scared?
The common narrative in the black community warns young black men (for the most part) that white cops are killing black men en masse. Mothers train their young boys how to interact with police; what to say, where to keep their hands, how to behave, etc. However, the actual numbers do not reflect that narrative. According to the Skeptic Research Center, existing data indicated that somewhere between 13-27 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019, yet over half (53.5%) of those reporting “very liberal” political views estimated that 1,000 or more unarmed Black men were killed.
That’s a huge discrepancy between actual numbers and perceived numbers.
Solution: People are not designed to keep up with the news of 7 billion people. It’s the very reason that — even though we are safer today than at any other point in human history — people report that things are much worse than they’ve ever been. If you remove the incentive to keep people afraid of every evil deed done in the world, you remove the power of these statistically insignificant stories to hold so much sway over our emotions.
Unfortunately, simply presenting people with numbers, data, facts, and stats do not generally work to change their minds. In fact, when confronted with opposing facts people's beliefs on the subject tend to get stronger. The only reason these stories are so delicious to mainstream media networks is because the fear-clicks and panic-views drive their profit margins skyward.
A hypothetical “Free Society News Network” would likely be incentivized to place importance on local stories, as that information would better help its readers/viewers to make more informed decisions about their community immediately surrounding them. But, as long as people are at odds over federal policy, there will be incentive to keep pumping a country full of people with false narratives that move the political agenda in a direction favorable to those in power.
Heads, I win. Tails, you lose.
As you may have noticed, there are so many problems that could have been solved before we arrived at this point in time. The problem is, so many people are wrapped up in the false dichotomy between competing narratives: “White cop murders defenseless black man” vs “Criminal commits currency crime, then dies of drug overdose.”
Of the two, which narrative do you think is the most “sticky?”
There will be no happy ending in the Derek Chauvin trial.
It’s the classic “heads I win, tails you lose.”
The State winning the trial is a loss for the idea of “innocent until proven guilty.” Instead, from this point forward, your innocence only matters as long as the mob thinks you’re innocent. It’s ALL about mob perception and NONE about the objective truth of your guilt or innocence.
The State losing the trial wins them the war. They will get the riots and discord they want and need in order to keep the focus off their failed policies. Classic divide and conquer wins again. As long as the people are fighting each other, The State gets to ride in on a white horse and offer their “solution.”
As we near the end of this trial, it appears Chauvin will not be convicted of murder in any degree.
Riots are inevitable.
Thoughts to tweet: No matter who wins or loses in the #DerekChauvinTrial, The State wins. It's classic "Heads, I win. Tails, you lose." Riots are inevitable. #GeorgeFloyd #ICantBreathe #DerekChauvin @unframeofmind
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Daniel Wagner is a host of the Unframe of Mind show. More podcasts, videos, memes, articles, and hilarious merch at unframeofmind.com.