Graeme Wood of The Atlantic wrote, “Last week, NPR’s Code Switch published an interview with Vicky Osterweil, the author of In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action. NPR summarizes the book as an argument that ‘looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society.’ If the real, lasting change you wish to effect is burning society to cinders and crippling for a generation its ability to serve its poorest citizens, then I suppose I am forced to agree.”
Wood also wrote, “I am also from recent-immigrant stock. Osterweil euphemizes looting as ‘proletarian shopping,’ and no one from a place that has recently experienced this phenomenon can take seriously her assurance that it can happen justly and bloodlessly. When I think of riots and smashed storefronts, I think of Kristallnacht. I think of American businesses built by penniless immigrants who preferred to forfeit their vacations and weekends for 30 years rather than see their children suffer as they did; I think of these businesses ransacked in 30 minutes and left in ruins. Osterweil at least has the psychology right when she says that looting can be ‘joyous and liberatory.’ I have never seen a sullen looter, but I have seen plenty of shop owners crying next to the smoking remains of their children’s future.”
There were reasons looters once were shot on sight.
They were good reasons, too.
Osterweil needs to get her head checked. Maybe we should loot the publication of her new book, so she doesn’t make a dime and then and only then would she understand how ludicrous her book really is. Some ppl are so desperate and starved for attention that they behave in a destructive manner just to gain attention and notoriety. I present to you, Vicky Osterweil. I rest my case…..lol….lol…
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