Our pretensions to civilization have become very thin. Political violence was legitimized last year and is spreading wildly now. "Might makes right" is clearly the only "principle" behind freedom of speech. That's why Chinese Communists will never be censored by Big Tech.
When every "principle" becomes nothing but a ruthless exercise of power, it's not surprising that a growing number of people conclude they must demonstrate some sort of power in order to be taken seriously. Violence is the crudest exercise of power.
A well-run civilization makes it clear *universally* that violence is absolutely unacceptable. Giving free passes for irresponsible rhetoric and destruction to groups favored by the dominant political ideology of the State undermines that message.
We must also people peaceable means of expressing themselves and controlling their own lives, to relieve the pressures that can lead to violent outbursts and other forms of lawlessness. The less healthy discourse and freedom of action you have, the more pressure builds up.
It's dangerous when large numbers of people begin drawing the conclusion that might makes right, that laws and principles bend easily for those who have the political strength to bend them. Might makes right is the code of anarchy and barbarism, the antithesis of civilization.
A great deal of our society today boils down to anarchy and barbarism arrogantly disguising itself with the trappings of civilization. That's the key to understanding cancel culture and crybullies: they sanctify their lust for power by loudly claiming to be helpless victims.
It's very difficult to remain a civilized nation of honest principles and high ideals when power and money become highly centralized. Accumulate enough Might in one place, and it will inevitably begin making Right. Pretensions to principle become easily exposed as hypocrisy.
And for a generation now, our political culture has been loudly sending the signal that people who cling to the stated principles of our civilization, who play by all the rules, are chumps, suckers, and punching bags. Elites laugh merrily at their polite and ineffectual protests.
The Tea Party folks who held orderly rallies and meticulously cleaned up after themselves a decade ago were called domestic terrorists, treated like violent subversives, slandered as racist cavemen, and destroyed without remorse by the establishment of the party they SUPPORTED.
The message has been sent, over and over again: you want to be taken seriously? Get some real power. Show some muscle. Nobody in D.C. is afraid of people who work hard all day and pay their taxes. You have no connections, no influence, no leverage. You're no threat.
Even the electoral strength of the middle class, the only real threat it ever posed to the power elite, has been diluted to near-irrelevance. Big city machines dominate state politics. The middle class has been made dependent on government, afraid to bite the hand that feeds it.
And now they're waking up to discover they won't even be allowed to SPEAK any more. Sorry, chumps, but you don't have enough might to protect your "right" to free speech. You're all classified as violent extremists now. The people with real Might have passed judgement on you.
We should never have budged an inch from principles such as standing against political violence and defending real individual rights - like the right to free speech, not the coercive bogus "rights" invented by totalitarians to demand ever-greater levels of obedience from us.
But budge we did, and now it's absurd to watch the power elite pretend they have no idea where any of this is coming from. Where did anyone get the idea they must demonstrate the capacity and will for violence to be taken seriously? They got it from YOU. They watched the news.
And you're not "de-escalating" or listening to "grievances," as you always do when preferred ideological groups break stuff and kill people. You're making it worse, ratcheting the pressure up, taking advantage, giving them another searing lesson in how Might Makes Right.
None of that absolves individuals from blame for their actions. Plenty of blame to go around. The pandemic is clearly exacerbating tensions and rubbing salt in many deep social wounds. But let's not act puzzled at where anyone got the idea that political violence works. /end
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