I'm interested to hear more about your claims that the BLM folks are buying $5 million mansions. I looked it up and sounds like it was a single sourced article about one of them buying a $1.4 million dollar CALIFORNIA home without using any donated funds. (The saying goes that it costs a million dollars in CA just to get a one room shanty). https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/patrisse-cullors-topanga-house/

Social movement organizers need to feed their families too. This idea that anyone dedicating their lives to a social movement shouldn't "profit" off of their work is nonsense. Should they use their cause to screw over their donors? Absolutely not. Trump has raised TONS of money off of spinning his supporters into a froth over the Big Lie. Plenty of activists on both sides have taken advantage of their supporters. But you are making claims about BLM that are bullshit, backed up your own personal supposition and Fox News propaganda.

You say re: BLM and Antifa: "There is money and organization at work here". No shit, Sherlock. You think? You mean to tell me that a group that seeks to rally people together has ... <GASP> ... collected money and taken efforts to ..... <GASP>.... RALLY their supporters??? And they're USING THE MEDIA TOO?!?! Oh no! <DOUBLE GASP>

That's. What. Political. Organizations. Do.

That's literally their only function: organize people towards an outcome they seek, and get attention to the cause. You aren't particularly insightful because you defined "political organization". SMH.

But look... I don't know your friends. I don't know if they're naive or you're just a judgement asshole. Maybe both? Who's to say.

But "liberals" (and even some "conservatives") are walking and chewing gum at the same time (it's possible!) in the sense that they (and me) are saying that the Defund marketing tagline is bad because it gives people like you an easy target to say "they want to take away ALL funding!!". In reality, only Fox and fringe liberals say that's what's meant. A vast, vast, vast majority of the people calling for defunding the police want to remove the insane levels of cash in policing that lead to worse societal outcomes and less militarization of policing and redirect that cash to programs that address core issues.

Whether you know this and don't care or work to now know it is beyond me. Looking at your bio, I would assume you are smart enough to look beyond the partisan nonsense. I dunno. Maybe because you're a mathematician, you're unable to think about things in shades of gray rather than yes vs. no.

Not all protests are riots. Not all rioters burn buildings. Not all rioting is done by black people over social issues (look at when a college wins a championship...white folks flip cars and loot too).

I can say that protesting is an American, Constitutionally protected right AND say that I flat out reject looting. I can say that I flat out reject looting AND seek to understand why POC are so angry.

I can support the defund movement AND agree that eliminating all cops and policing is a moronic idea. I can respect police for an insanely difficult job AND seek to add more controls over them that allow them to be held to account when they act poorly.

If you are a true "student of history", I challenge you to re-read your content in the context of history and ask yourself a simple question: "Where can I use history as my guide to understand where words like mine, this black and white thinking ultimately leads?"

Stop looking for a single right answer, my math nerd friend. Math might have singular simple answers, but life certainly doesn't.