I hear you, but do you agree it was wrong that MLK and others were struck down violently?
It’s a matter of scale IMHO.
Melissa and Mark didn’t get this kind of attention. No half mast flags, no wall to wall tv coverage, no presidential feigned sadness. Melissa was an ELECTED FUCKING OFFICIAL who was stalked and murdered in her home, along with her innocent husband. Does anyone know who Yvette Hoffman is?
The asymmetry is vast. Open season on elected Dems, but don’t go picking off any loudmouthed unelected trumpsuckers or there will be hell (for all of us) to pay.
I get what you’re saying about asymmetry, and maybe that’s a fair conversation. But before we go there, do you agree or disagree that it was wrong for Kirk to be killed over his opinions, just like it was wrong for Melissa, MLK, or anyone else?
That's a fair question. However, more is needed.
1. Legally speaking, it was indisputably wrong. From A crime to Z crime that took place until arrest, he was wrong.
2. Morally, it's not as clear cut because taking another life is not always wrong. The great majority of the time it is wrong. There are almost always better ways to act. But silencing a bad-faith voice whose known and clearly stated goal is to take more of our rights away, establish an American theocracy, and advocate apathy and even encourage murder for the sake of his disgusting principles; I don't know. My reason is not sympathy, but because we don't know if in the end it will have made any difference. It's the classic if you could kill Hitler question.
3. Practicality: much as what I wrote immediately above, we don't know the impact, if any this will have. Like everything else now, it will likely fade pretty quickly from the news cycle. It does give American fascism a martyr, but they already have as many martyrs as they wish to manufacture anyway.
3A: If this was a rational act by a rational person, is it the first shot in a burgeoning movement that's realizing that peaceful protests accomplish nothing and believe that concrete action is needed to save our democracy, or is it a radicalized leftist who lost rational thought and misguidedly lashed out over paranoia? Etc. I think that its practical effect will be minimal.
I could go on and on, but the way I see it, it amounts to a small sliver of of satisfaction in a sea of despair; a moment where the fascists saw measurable backlash against the policies they promote. I know what the response to that sentence will be, so I'll wait for it.
Overall the question(s) of right and wrong are a matter of degree and on-the-ground results. We'll just have to wait and see.
