Thread by @RadioFreeTom

I read this piece recommended by @JVLast on how participating in the 1/6 insurrection ruined three lives. I read it trying to summon compassion, as he suggested we all do.
And yet, I'm struggling. /1

@JVLast There's a lot in the piece about protecting people from the consequences of free speech, vulnerable and gullible people. But the only way I can agree with that is to just give up on human agency and accept that a paternal state should have kept these people out of trouble. /2

@JVLast I don't know how to do that. I've always lived with pride in a country that never fears free speech, especially not if it's just nincompoopery writ large. (I don't even like hate speech codes.) So to feel compassion, I have to think of these people as no better than children. /3

And we just accept that some number of us are children without moral or political agency, we've decided that felonies - including those of the insurrection - have to be judged by "how stupid are you?," and just have competency hearings all day and then give people guardians. /4

I'm not ready to do that. My compassion for vulnerable people sucked into a conspiracy theory is undermined by the realization that millions of people in difficult straits did not attempt to kill police officers and overturn an election.
We're either adults or we're not. /5x

Gah. Forgot to add the article.

nymag.com/intelligencer/…