I think you'd be surprised at how many (particularly young) people and leadership from organizations either refuse to denounce or outright condone rioting.
Many young people don't feel secure about their own lives. Priced out of property ownership, didn't find a serious partner to make family with, don't have a rewarding job. By supporting the rioters they feel like they are attacking a common enemy (people that are better off).
Except, it won't work. The rioters are destroying one of the last remaining pillars of the middle class - small businesses. Sure, Walmart and Amazon will be happy to take over the niche, with a private security force to replace the defunded police. But what it will mean for regular people is less meaningful jobs, more poverty, and even less security.
"Many young people don't feel secure about their own lives. Priced out of property ownership, didn't find a serious partner to make family with, don't have a rewarding job."
Good grief - by this logic the entire country would have been continually rioting during the great depression.
Many of the current rioters are rioting because it's fun and/or a way to get free stuff. No need to make it more complicated than that.
Yes and no. I think, some level of hardship is absolutely required in order to develop good personality traits. Sure, if you get too much, and it will break your back. But if you get too little, you grow up as a useless entitled narcissistic asshole, completely toxic to everyone around them.
I bet none of those rioters had to actually work their asses off to put the food on the table. Because once you do, you start respecting other businesses and won't go break their displays for fun.
How do you feel about events like the Stonewall Riots[1], where police historically assaulted LGBTQ+ people, and those people fought back? These people should have just accepted being beaten and arrested for being gay? That should have waited until legislation caught up with their rights?
I'm speaking specifically in the context of the riots we've been seeing over the last few months. To my knowledge the Stonewall riots did not result in the widespread destruction of uninvolved parties, vandalism, arson, etc. (there was some). It was a much smaller scale than what we're seeing now, which I think plays a part. It also had clear, actionable wants, something I think the recent movement lacks.
To answer your question, no I don't think every part of the Stonewall riots were moral or justified, but to some degree the end justifies the means and we look at it historically through that lens.
Refusal to denounce rioting can be problematic, but I'm not comfortable equating it with support. If people came by demanding that I denounce some random riot, I wouldn't do it, not because I'm pro-riot but because I reject the implication that the rioters have anything to do with me.
I've been quite surprised seeing how many people will condone rioting, but I'm still confident it's a small minority, shrinking to a barely existent minority for riots which can't plausibly be spun as honest protests.
Refusing to denounce rioting is almost always paired with something along the lines of "rioting is the language of the unheard" or "our organizations will not denounce any black person’s display of grief and/or rage", as is the literal case with one of the organizations from my hometown [0]. I cannot see that as anything but support. But trying to justify actions, you are, by definition, supporting those actions.
To be clear, it's the justification, not refusing to denounce.
I don't know if you've heard, but it's no longer enough to simply be "not in favor of riots", you must now be "actively anti-riots" — or so goes that other talking point.
I’m not surprised at all. This is a novelty for them. If this were a regular occurrence as in countries where rioting is socially mainstream they’d be singing a different tune.
Except, it won't work. The rioters are destroying one of the last remaining pillars of the middle class - small businesses. Sure, Walmart and Amazon will be happy to take over the niche, with a private security force to replace the defunded police. But what it will mean for regular people is less meaningful jobs, more poverty, and even less security.