as a formerly-conservative guy who now has some progressive opinions, i have a few thoughts on the last couple years of assassinations and assassination attempts.
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as a formerly-conservative guy who now has some progressive opinions, i have a few thoughts on the last couple years of assassinations and assassination attempts.
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as a formerly-conservative guy who now has some progressive opinions, i have a few thoughts on the last couple years of assassinations and assassination attempts.
the Trump assassin on the golf course, Luigi Mangione, and now Tyler Robinson all have a similar profile: conservative guys who felt like "something" was wrong and want to do "something" about it. if they'd grown up in liberal or left households, that would mean writing an article, organizing a protest, donating to a food bank, volunteering for a campaign, reading a book, joining a group.
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the Trump assassin on the golf course, Luigi Mangione, and now Tyler Robinson all have a similar profile: conservative guys who felt like "something" was wrong and want to do "something" about it. if they'd grown up in liberal or left households, that would mean writing an article, organizing a protest, donating to a food bank, volunteering for a campaign, reading a book, joining a group.
the thing is, when you grow up conservative, in conservative spaces and with conservative friends and family, you don't have these tools and instincts. you have violence. if you go on down the list of all the crazy, weird conservative violence that's happened over the last 10 years, a lot of these guys were (stick with me here) trying to help.
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the thing is, when you grow up conservative, in conservative spaces and with conservative friends and family, you don't have these tools and instincts. you have violence. if you go on down the list of all the crazy, weird conservative violence that's happened over the last 10 years, a lot of these guys were (stick with me here) trying to help.
the guy who showed up with a gun at Comet Ping Pong was trying to rescue kids. the people who bomb abortion clinics think they are stopping murder. Ashli Babbit's last tweeted words before she stormed the Capitol on Jan6 were "dark to light!" if you leave aside the grifters who are trying to make money on all this, the conservatives who have been caught up in QAnon or whatever genuinely want to save kids. but they want to do that by killing pedophiles.
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the guy who showed up with a gun at Comet Ping Pong was trying to rescue kids. the people who bomb abortion clinics think they are stopping murder. Ashli Babbit's last tweeted words before she stormed the Capitol on Jan6 were "dark to light!" if you leave aside the grifters who are trying to make money on all this, the conservatives who have been caught up in QAnon or whatever genuinely want to save kids. but they want to do that by killing pedophiles.
so these guys grew up around this, surrounded by guns at home and guns in the media, indoctrinated with the idea that the fastest, most masculine way to solve a problem is by shooting it. then life takes some unexpected twists (severe back pain, exposed to hate for the first time, etc.) and they find themselves with a huge problem on the wrong side of the political divide, and with no community of support or tools for what to do about it. so they shoot it.
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so these guys grew up around this, surrounded by guns at home and guns in the media, indoctrinated with the idea that the fastest, most masculine way to solve a problem is by shooting it. then life takes some unexpected twists (severe back pain, exposed to hate for the first time, etc.) and they find themselves with a huge problem on the wrong side of the political divide, and with no community of support or tools for what to do about it. so they shoot it.
the Trumpists are, i think, genuinely freaked out by this political violence, so they are attacking "the left". the thing is, that won't work, because none of this is coming from "the left." by moving the baseline of American politics further and further to the right and unleashing the cruelty of state violence and unfettered capitalism on more and more Americans, they are **expanding** the outgroup of persecuted non-Trumpists to include many individuals who are, in fact, conservatives.
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the Trumpists are, i think, genuinely freaked out by this political violence, so they are attacking "the left". the thing is, that won't work, because none of this is coming from "the left." by moving the baseline of American politics further and further to the right and unleashing the cruelty of state violence and unfettered capitalism on more and more Americans, they are **expanding** the outgroup of persecuted non-Trumpists to include many individuals who are, in fact, conservatives.
and some of these conservatives, who are now in the out-group, **do not have the tools** to respond non-violently or democratically to big, existential problems. they were not raised that way, and it's not what their community values.
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and some of these conservatives, who are now in the out-group, **do not have the tools** to respond non-violently or democratically to big, existential problems. they were not raised that way, and it's not what their community values.
so for the right, it's been a lot of fun over the years harassing reporters at the New York Times and academics at Columbia University. these are non-violent, democratic institutions. they are safe, liberal targets. and the spicier parts of the left have been subject to state surveillance and repression for over 100yrs. but the right is now expanding the outgroup to include conservative men. they are playing with fire.
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so for the right, it's been a lot of fun over the years harassing reporters at the New York Times and academics at Columbia University. these are non-violent, democratic institutions. they are safe, liberal targets. and the spicier parts of the left have been subject to state surveillance and repression for over 100yrs. but the right is now expanding the outgroup to include conservative men. they are playing with fire.
@peter It's almost as if us feminists were (and are) right when we advocate for letting boys grow up knowing their emotions, how to regulate them, to learn kindness and to seek help and support eachother, do what is right *for them* instead of some stupid violent macho role that so many of them think they have to play.
Huh.
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@bkuhn I went to elementary school in Texas and I think it was just called "The Civil War". Maybe just the schools I went to!
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@evan Yeah, I agree. My impression growing up (again, very Maryland- (maybe Baltimore)-specific) was that "War Between the States" was a shibboleth to communicate that you're the kind of person who would *RATHER* be saying "The War of Northern Aggression", but know that's not socially acceptable anymore.
IOW, "the War Between the States" was my childhood's "All Lives Matter".
Great point re: pre-war political units, I'll respond more fully on that because I too think that's fascinating.
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@bkuhn Maybe a better name that would better describe the cause and the illegitimacy of one side would be "The Slaveholders' Rebellion".
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@bkuhn I think the biggest strike against it is that it was a term used during Jim Crow in the South, and so it's tainted with that association.
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@bkuhn I also don't think "The War Between the States" covers up the cause of the war, slavery, more than "The Civil War".
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@bkuhn it's interesting that this is the term. I actually think there's some merit to calling it "The War Between the States". I can't think of another "civil war" where the belligerents were divided on pre-war subnational units. The English Civil War, Spanish Civil War, Chinese Civil War and Russian Civil War were all between political factions, sometimes more than two, intermingled throughout the country. Association with a particular territory was mostly temporary based on military conquest.
