HMD: Marijuana Conviction and Incarceration Not Biased Against Blacks

Thing is, our public political discourse is no longer fact-oriented. The progressive left cares not a bit what the facts are. The cluster of literary theory and pseudo-philosophy that grounds the progressive world view does--as they sometimes admit in discussions of CRT--constitute a "lens" through which they see the world. And that "lens" sees only a few kinds of things--and distorts them. Are whites and blacks convicted of drug crimes at differential rates? Yes. And are blacks convicted more often? Yes. This shows up in the progressive conceptual "lens" as discrimination--or, rather: oppression. Do blacks actually, as a matter of fact, commit more / more serious marijuana crimes than whites? The "lens" does not detect such facts. Or, if it must, they merely show up as further, deeper oppression: must be a result of hidden (another word for "structural") racism. 

   Even non-progressives  have given in to this mode of leftist discourse: you're not permitted to point out that the progressive presuppositions are false; you're only permitted to argue that the policy in question (e.g. pardoning all inmates convicted on weed charges) will harm black communities more. (HMD isn't subject to this error...though she does make both kinds of arguments.)

   Does the left just like violence and chaos? Sort of, yes. There's a strong youthful strain of leftism that finds urban shittiness exciting and sexy. But to some extent, this is a calculated strategy by the hard-left vanguard to destroy the nation. It is, after all, their main goal. They're not exactly cagey about it. Of course to make it palatable to the non-bleeding-edge of leftism, they have to pretend it's the "social justice" thing... Also, of course, this is motivated by the actual arguments: many progressives believe that all such differences must indicate racism. And, having been convinced that the USA is made of racism, they'll basically support any policy represented to them as "anti-racist." 

   And basically, to get your true believers on board, you only need one argument that isn't so overtly stupid that even a true believer can't swallow it. They won't listen to counter-argument. So, as they like to say in DCS, sometimes you can win the dogfight if you win the first turn...

   And, of course, it does seem unlikely that white progressives live in the neighborhoods that are going to be most afflicted by this move. As HMD points out, black neighborhoods are likely to suffer more.