One of the more dangerous things to come out of the protests over George Floyd has not been the rioting and looting. Rather, it’s been the mainstreaming of the organization known as Black Lives Matter, which is actually two mother organizations that serve as an umbrella for many local organizations. While the violence will eventually stop (and has in most cities), the effects of normalizing groups like Black Lives Matter and Movement for Black Lives will be long lasting and highly damaging.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, as prior to the Floyd protests, most seemed to recognize BLM as the fringe group it is and should remain. Their views, which we’ll get into in a minute, are not just left-wing, but are tinged with antisemitism and black nationalism.

Yet, lately, we’ve seen people like Mitt Romney marching with them. We’ve seen their slogan painted on the streets of our nation’s capital. We’ve even seen sports commentators fired for refusing to support the cause. We’ve moved past differences of opinion into outright Orwellian destruction.

That’s why it’s important, now more than ever, to point out that Black Lives Matter is still a terrible organization.

Ryan Bomberger wrote a piece for Townhall last week which takes statements from the BLM and M4BL websites. But I’d encourage people to go directly to their websites here and here to read all this for yourselves. Their positions are not being misrepresented.

For example, both groups consider themselves “abolitionist.” What do they want to abolish? Police, prisons, and essentially anything else that actually helps keep black people safer than they otherwise would be. This is where the latest push to “de-fund” the police has come from.

We are Abolitionist:

We believe that prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives.

They are also anti-capitalist.

We are anti-capitalist:

We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system.

No system has saved more lives across history than capitalism. That includes black lives. While poverty in the American sense is still rampant throughout the planet, in terms of people dying of starvation, lack of shelter, etc. the strides that have been made in that last 30 years are incredible. All of it was because of developing economies due to capitalism.

They are also parts of the movement that are anti-Semitic. BLM’s official website supports the BDS movement, an anti-Semitic targeting of only Israel. We’ve also seen accusations of “genocide” against Palestinians, which is a ridiculously offensive (and false) contention to levy at the Jewish state. The connections to the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam within these organizations are also pervasive.

But as Bomberger points out in his piece on the matter, it’s not just that their political views are toxic. It’s also that they offer no path forward. Forgiveness and reconciliation is not their message. Instead, it’s one of dominance, reparations, and power.

Lastly, I’ll note that they make it a specific point to affirm abortion, which is completely contrary to the idea that black lives matter. You can’t claim to care about a black lives lost to police brutality when you encourage the killing of hundreds of thousands of black babies in the womb.

What this all shows is that BLM and M4BL are as basically just left-wing front groups, pushing radical ideology and couching it in racial grievance. They aren’t trying to build solidarity around a simple message, though the attempts to sanitize their movement try to present it that way. I refuse to reimagine them as anything other than what they actually are because they are telling us who they are.

Protest for societal change. Speak out against police violence. Talk about positive, realistic ways we can help. But Black Lives Matter is still an awful organization and I’m not going to be gaslit about it.