[Air-L] Social Media and the UK Riots: ?Twitter Mobs?, ?Facebook Mobs?, ?Blackberry Mobs? and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism (Christopher J. Richter)

[Kyle Kontour]

> It is looting and mob mentality.
>
> Mattie and others:  I don't fundamentally disagree about what this has
become, but to me this comes across as akin to saying that the riots in Los
Angeles after the Rodney King verdict were merely looting and mob mentality.
 Can we not agree that there is a context which provides the kindling that
eventually leads to the flames of looting mobs?  Ten year olds (hopefully)
are not concerned about acquiring jobs, but they are old enough to feel
angry about structural inequality, even if they lack the experience, scope
or vocabulary to understand it as such.  I think it's perfectly okay to
condemn this sort of destruction while still understanding that sometimes
people are not going to wait to form protests, but rather just want to break
stuff.  This is kind of the definition of disenfranchisement (to whatever
extent real or imagined).  Again, this is not at all a defense of such
actions--I just think that the aura of "mob" and "looting" (even if
accurately used here) leads us down an even darker road.