The left seems to be justifying all kinds of bad behavior these days. We have wealthy individuals talking about how they steal from Whole Foods. Hasan Piker, the socialist "nepo baby," has become the new darling of the left. I can’t believe the New York Times even published this garbage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/opinion/shoplifting-political-protest-microlooting-whole-foods.html

When does shoplifting become an act of political protest? The Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman is calling this microlooting, and it describes the phenomenon of people stealing small things from big corporations like Whole Foods. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino and the political commentator Hasan Piker join Spiegelman for a lively discussion on what’s behind this trend and where it might lead.

Well just FYI, I am a Democrat and I think looting should be treated harshly and security guards should be armed with both batons and stun guns, and able to use them freely when a looter is apprehended.

Is looting treated differently from theft?

Well just FYI, I am a Democrat and I think looting should be treated harshly and security guards should be armed with both batons and stun guns, and able to use them freely when a looter is apprehended.

So you're suggesting that security guards take a baton or a stun gun to what could easily turn into a gunfight?

38 minutes ago, impulse said:

So you're suggesting that security guards take a baton or a stun gun to what could easily turn into a gunfight?

Aoc would be crying bloody murder. Lets face it 40% of the farleft are far gone.

So you're suggesting that security guards take a baton or a stun gun to what could easily turn into a gunfight?

Aoc would be crying bloody murder. Lets face it 40% of the farleft are far gone.

He probably wants them to ride around the parking lot on Segways, too.

55 minutes ago, impulse said:

So you're suggesting that security guards take a baton or a stun gun to what could easily turn into a gunfight?

No. Most thieves who steal from retail stores are unarmed, this has been proven over and over again.

No. Most thieves who steal from retail stores are unarmed, this has been proven over and over again.

The key word there being "most". "Most" of the people that cops interact with every day are decent, unarmed people, too. But they need to be ready for the few that aren't. ('Cept maybe in lefty cities where they'll send social workers to a potential gunfight)

7 hours ago, impulse said:

The key word there being "most". "Most" of the people that cops interact with every day are decent, unarmed people, too. But they need to be ready for the few that aren't. ('Cept maybe in lefty cities where they'll send social workers to a potential gunfight)

Allways with some slur…

.anyways I like to see them prosecuted jailed or better yet publicly shamed can you imagine a cage in front of your local Walmart were the miscreants would be caged for a few hours!lmao all their pals would be pointing and laughing 😆 that would certainly stop a lot of the shoplifting quick!

8 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Well just FYI, I am a Democrat and I think looting should be treated harshly and security guards should be armed with both batons and stun guns, and able to use them freely when a looter is apprehended.

So you felt the Floyd rioters in Minnesota should be punished severeley? Got it.

8 hours ago, impulse said:

So you're suggesting that security guards take a baton or a stun gun to what could easily turn into a gunfight?

Very little looting in Florida after a storm. You loot, we shoot.

7 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

No. Most thieves who steal from retail stores are unarmed, this has been proven over and over again.

Back it up with stats as you have the reputation for untruth

7 hours ago, impulse said:

The key word there being "most". "Most" of the people that cops interact with every day are decent, unarmed people, too. But they need to be ready for the few that aren't. ('Cept maybe in lefty cities where they'll send social workers to a potential gunfight)

He cant back up his statetment so why argue.

Folks who hate Trump necessarily hate what he loves: Melania? A whore. America? Racist. Law and Order? Fascist. And so on.

If Trump made a speech one day and said "how fresh and air the clean smells after a rain", 50% of the Trump haters would asphyxiate and the others buy tickets for Algeria to avoid rain in the Sahara.

9 hours ago, TedG said:

The left seems to be justifying all kinds of bad behavior these days. We have wealthy individuals talking about how they steal from Whole Foods. Hasan Piker, the socialist "nepo baby," has become the new darling of the left. I can’t believe the New York Times even published this garbage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/opinion/shoplifting-political-protest-microlooting-whole-foods.html

When does shoplifting become an act of political protest? The Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman is calling this microlooting, and it describes the phenomenon of people stealing small things from big corporations like Whole Foods. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino and the political commentator Hasan Piker join Spiegelman for a lively discussion on what’s behind this trend and where it might lead.

Oh gawd, another pearl clutch.

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

I could go on, and if you answered 'yes' to any of those questions you're a "microlooter"

Now, go and apologize to your pearls.

23 minutes ago, BLMFem said:

Oh gawd, another pearl clutch.

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

I could go on, and if you answered 'yes' to any of those questions you're a "microlooter"

Now, go and apologize to your pearls.

Are you excusing shop lifting

Now go clean the pearl neckless off yourself.

4 minutes ago, TedG said:

Are you excusing shop lifting

You answer my question first and I'll answer yours. Agreed?

1 minute ago, BLMFem said:

You answer my question first and I'll answer yours. Agreed?

No, I don’t take orders from your ilk.

Read my original posts. Is shoplifting a valid act of political protest?

7 minutes ago, TedG said:

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Don't be silly.

34 minutes ago, BLMFem said:

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

All NO.

• Don't do Netflix

• Some of my electric tools may have come from the same factory as overpriced us ones but how would I know? 😉Maybe the manufacturer copied the original but again how would I know?

• No barrier jumping for me.

• Not interested in articles that want me to do anything other than read them.

5 minutes ago, BLMFem said:

Oh gawd, another pearl clutch.

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

I could go on, and if you answered 'yes' to any of those questions you're a "microlooter"

Now, go and apologize to your pearls.

The Left can justify any crime. No morals whatsover

10 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

All NO.

• Don't do Netflix

• Some of my electric tools may have come from the same factory as overpriced us ones but how would I know? 😉Maybe the manufacturer copied the original but again how would I know?

• No barrier jumping for me.

• Not interested in articles that want me to do anything other than read them.

"Some of my electric tools may have come from the same factory as overpriced us ones but how would I know? 😉Maybe the manufacturer copied the original but again how would I know?"

So I'll take that as a YES then (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

2 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

The Left can justify any crime. No morals whatsover

I almost fell for it - good one!

40 minutes ago, TedG said:

No, I don’t take orders from your ilk.

Read my original posts. Is shoplifting a valid act of political protest?

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

In short, are you a "microlooter"?

12 hours ago, BLMFem said:

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Just thinking about this one.

Many years ago I bought a "designer" T shirt somewhere on Sukhumvit? and sent it to my teenage daughter. She wore it to school and some of her "friends" told her it wasn't real it was fake. She asked me. I told her "wear it again and if they tell you again, tell them yes it is fake but you can go to the mall tomorrow and buy a "real" one like theirs but they cannot buy one like yours.

I have one or two ancient F1 "team" shirts purchased on Silom. They are real enough for my purposes.

Sent my mate a McLaren shirt. He wore it one evening at some evening do during a amateur race weekend and people asked him for his autograph because in the dark he looked like Ron Dennis. One of his racing mates said" I know where that shirt came from". 555

None of the above were "stolen". somebody had a job in a factory making them; the company which manufactured them made a profit; the company which made the fabric made a profit; the street vendor made a profit. Et al...

The retailers will close an outlet if the losses are too high. Until then, they attempt to address the losses, by increasing the prices the honest consumers pay. eventually, the stores are closed and areas become deadzones without competitive priced products. In their place are secured small stores which charge inflated prices. When this happens, people who live in the affected areas will complain and claim systemic discrimination.

Marx wouldnt of seen a shoplifter as some kind of hero he actually called petty criminals the lumpenproletariat or social scum because he thought they were too unorganised to ever start a real revolution. To him shoplifting is just a mechanical byproduct of the capitalist system basically if you keep people poor and alienatid they are going to take things to survive so its a system failur rather than a moral one. He wouldnt care about the big corporations losing money since thats private property he wanted to abolish anyway but he would say that stealing a loaf of bread is a waste of energy when you should be getting your mates together to sieze the whole bakery. Its basically a distraction from the real work of class strugle so he’d tell you to stop being a petty thief and start being a revolutionary instead.

Power to the peiple.

5 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Just thinking about this one.

Many years ago I bought a "designer" T shirt somewhere on Sukhumvit? and sent it to my teenage daughter. She wore it to school and some of her "friends" told her it wasn't real it was fake. She asked me. I told her "wear it again and if they tell you again, tell them yes it is fake but you can go to the mall tomorrow and buy a "real" one like theirs but they cannot buy one like yours.

I have one or two ancient F1 "team" shirts purchased on Silom. They are real enough for my purposes.

Sent my mate a McLaren shirt. He wore it one evening at some evening do during a amateur race weekend and people asked him for his autograph because in the dark he looked like Ron Dennis. One of his racing mates said" I know where that shirt came from". 555

None of the above were "stolen". somebody had a job in a factory making them; the company which manufactured them made a profit; the company which made the fabric made a profit; the street vendor made a profit. Et al...

Buying knock-offs is a crime, not a Robin Hood move.

Classic "microlooting", and something 99-100% of the posters here on AN have engaged in at some point in their lives - especially those of us who live in Thailand.

Hence the complete silence from the OP @TedG when I called him on it.😂

17 hours ago, BLMFem said:

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

In short, are you a "microlooter"?

We are talking about stealing from shops .

Do you steal from shops ?

On 4/27/2026 at 12:46 PM, TedG said:

left seems to be justifying all kinds of bad behavior these days

It's really weird, I'm seeing so many videos of people stealing from shops, filling their bags and walking out.

What the bloody hell is wrong with the world, stop these arse holes, beat them to a pulp 😡

If I saw these young thugs looting I'd gladly smash their face in. You'll find most of the offenders are young, poor parenting, from government housing, mum never kept her legs closed, filthy animals

Kudos to the security guard at Kmart 🙏

Edited April 28Apr 28 by SAFETY FIRST

The classic hypocrisy dodge. "If you have ever done (vaguely similar thing), then you can STFU about (more serious thing)"

Stealing hundreds/thousands of dollars in merchandise from a retail shop is hardly the same as logging in to your sister's Netflix.

1 hour ago, Nick Carter icp said:

We are talking about stealing from shops .

Do you steal from shops ?

I'm talking about committing crimes.

No, I don't steal from shops.

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

7 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

The classic hypocrisy dodge. "If you have ever done (vaguely similar thing), then you can STFU about (more serious thing)"

Stealing hundreds/thousands of dollars in merchandise from a retail shop is hardly the same as logging in to your sister's Netflix.

OK, if you wanna quantify things let's go with this scenario:

One person shoplifts for $1, another buys a cracked version of MS Office for $10. Are both criminals, and if yes, who is the biggest criminal?

""If you have ever done (vaguely similar thing), then you can STFU about (more serious thing)""

I never said that because I don't believe that is a valid argument, just pointed out the hypocrisy.

1 hour ago, BLMFem said:

I'm talking about committing crimes.

No, I don't steal from shops.

Have you ever shared username and passwords for paid services like e.g. Netflix?

Have you ever listened to copyrighted music or watched movies you didn't pay for?

Have you ever knowingly bought an item that was a knock-off?

Have you ever ridden on public transport and not paid for it?

Have you ever read an article that was behind a paywall you didn't pay to access?

Have you ever copy and pasted a post and then posted it again the next day in the same thread , 20 hours later ?