We have given a lot of platitudes in the last 14 hours.

"Violence begets Violence"

"Violence only understands Violence"

"All lives are sacred"

"Tolerance cannot tolerate intolerance"

Etc

Trite statements that want to be profound when what takes place is a very complex, emotional and deeply entrenched situation. Again, like everything in life, there is no black and white. There is no "single" thing. There are nuances and conditionals.

Is violence the answer?

Sometimes, yes. Violence is the answer.

Sometimes no.

The Art of War is a very good guide on when violence should and shouldn't be used to prevent the biggest loss of life.

Sometimes the life of one can save hundreds. Sometimes the life of one ends up becoming the many headed hydra. If you aren't sure which will be the outcome, you need to reflect on the strategy.

Did yesterday's killing do anything?

Not really. I predict it will become the many headed hydra. In many ways, it already has. People have already said they would devote their time to spreading his messages.

The way I have seen things, we are already so deeply divided as a nation, we are beyond the brink of no return. We have hand wrung and tolerated actions that never should have been allowed to get so far. We are already perpetuating the worst horrors on others because we have already dehumanized our opponents. The right has dehumanized anyone who isn't just like them. The left has dehumanized the right. Both have the word "vermin" in their lexicon to refer to their enemy.

I read an article back in 2018 that said, "America isn't headed to civil war. It's been there for a while. Welcome to the decline of a nation!" And it was very true.

I don't know what to think about it all any more. I've pretty much gone numb to a lot of it. We have been headed down this road to the abattoir for at least a decade. Now its just a straight fall downward.

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ScreamingFox · 41-45, F

Yup. We've been headed in this direction for decades. I remember understanding when I was 12-13. I was 17 when 9/11 happened and there was some sort of American pride I felt, like we we were actually together, but it didn't last.

IMO, we started out this way. We built our system on stolen land. We murdered people we felt superior to from the beginning. Human nature is brutal, like most of nature is.

I've tried being the peace and kindness I believed in, and it eventually made me bitter. It actually took me down. I care about kids, animals and nature. But I'm done with the choices and prejudices of people who should know better. People who have lived and yet never learn anything beyond their own perception. It's an ignorance you can't fight. It's not about sides, it's not about fence sitting, it's about equality and like you've mentioned before, equity. Compromise and fair play. Something most people seem incapable of.

I've washed my hands of it. My only hope is to be kind and caring to future generations and the planet. Otherwise, I am going to be devalued by my peers, no matter what I say or do. And because the bullies win, there's no point in standing up to the system created by them. We argue here, there and everywhere. We shoot at and kill each other. That's our only move, the only one that speaks. The only way to create martyrs, "heroes" and vigilantes.

There are no sides worth adhering to, no leaders worth following and the fact we feel forced into any box just shows we are only slaves putting our dreams into a suggestion box.

FoxyQueen · 51-55, F

@ScreamingFox When a system has been constructed on oppression from the very foundations, it is imppssible to remove it from those systems later. The only way to do so is to start all over and condemn oppression completely from the onset.

I think the most disheartening thing to me is that people are actually excited and happy about people they don't like and actively hate being hurt, maimed and killed. They relish in the pain and suffering of these people they have othered into no longer being human. And they don't even see 1) how wrong that behavior is and 2) they are actively and willingly participating in it. I have to believe these two things exist because otherwise, I will lose the last shreds of humanity in society I have clung to. I really want to believe that if they took a step back and actually looked at what they say and do, they would realize what inhuman monsters they have become and actively change their trajectory.

Sadly, with so many people encouraging this behavior and pointing out how they are being "oppressed" by those who don't want to become inhuman monsters, that simply won't happen. It is easier to go with the crowd and keep your community you've found, than toss yourself i to uncertainty and the fear of being alone by being self reflective.

And I just don't want to live in a space where people are so rabid against each other to the point of severe violence.

This was not how we were meant to live. Ever. And we need to break these horrible systems.

wishforthenight

@ScreamingFox No, America has not been heading this way for decades. It is only since Trump came to power in 2016 that things have really started to spiral.

Believe it, or don't. It's true.

FoxyQueen · 51-55, F

@wishforthenight Can you expand on this?

wishforthenight

@FoxyQueen

No. It will take too long.

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FoxyQueen · 51-55, F

@wishforthenight Okay. Then sources that I can read in my own to verify this, because from what I have learned and researched, this has been going on back in the 1890's, had a strong resurgence in thr Regan era and has finally found a foothold with trump and the tea party movement.

But I'm willing to admit all my resources over the last 10 years (actually a lot longer) but could be wrong.