Thread by @AnchorageAction

Violence is used to control - it takes away power by force, assumes others are less than.
This piece focuses on 1:1 relationships & punishing violence. Let's also reflect on how larger context, rhetoric & what we treat as acceptable enables violent action:
adn.com/opinions/edito…

Violence often starts with the words we use, dehumanizing & othering language.
We see it when people describe people experiencing homelessness: "Can't / won't help themselves." "Don't belong here." "Not our problem, send them (back) to..."
Describing human beings as a nuisance.

Then the language conflates people's existence with crime, property damage. Move them out of "nice" areas, "they don't belong." The "only" way to make the city safer is more law enforcement on the streets, make them behave a certain way.
Or just make them not visible anymore.

That language also gets used against whole neighborhoods & groups. If someone looks different, it's easier to tell.
Certain "types" of people become the problem:
People speaking other languages.
People with darker skin.
People who dress like a different gender (or ambiguous).

When it's easier to sort people into right & wrong, acceptable vs outside the norm, it's easier to believe there is a specific version of society and behavior that needs enforcing.
That it's OK to say hateful things on social media, calling for others to be made to conform...

... but then it's not just online.
It gets spoken, then shouted, out loud in public meetings.
It gets printed in the paper, and even on candidate mailers.
It starts turning into threatening language against other community members, elected officials.
Then signs get vandalized.

Soon after, public meetings can turn into mob mentality: believing the only way to get what you want is to shout down, intimidate & use physical presence to assert your will, win the fight, stop something you don't agree with. The only proper outcome of the vote is YOUR way.

This leads to acceptance that using force, directly or through law & order, is the only real way to get the behavior you want, from the people who "refuse to behave (how we want them to)."
More people in jail, harsher punishments.
Enforcing vagrancy laws.
Banning LGBTQ existence.

Uses rhetoric of war, struggle, "us vs them."
Big aggressive vehicles, Punisher skulls, glorifying weapons & idea of defending way of life = a strong offense.
Spectral threats of enemies all around, anyone who doesn't agree.

This is how violent culture enables private violence.

Alaska has a serious violence problem. So does the rest of the country.

Why are things so bad & getting worse?
Why are so many women killed?
Why so much hate at #anchgov meetings?
Why are attacks against people's identity (thru policy, rhetoric & proxy intimidation) increasing?

We need to treat violence like the real threat to society, and all of us as individuals, that it is.

We need to stop killing women, girls, Indigenous people, people of color.
We also need to stop pretending all the types of violence in our society & politics aren't related.

Remember when all of this happened in 2021?
May: A Jewish museum was defaced with Nazi stickers.
June: A woman experiencing homelessness was shot and killed.
September: Holocaust imagery & words at Assembly meetings about masks.
October 7: A meeting almost gets out of control.

Just 2 weeks ago, ADN editorial was about defaced signs in the 2022 election.
But, little coverage of sign vandalism in 2021 mayor's race... Just from Anchorage Press & blogs.
Do a search for AK news about vandalized signs: lots of results from right-wing blogs, blaming "Antifa"

The impacts of violence are not evenly felt in our community (although it hurts all of us). It's used to take & keep power from women, from Native peoples, from Black people, from people of color, from queer people, from other religions & non-belief, anyone who doesn't conform.

Violence is the tool of choice for people who believe others do not have a right to disagree or say no. Often it's because their view is in the minority, so they can't achieve what they want through agreement with most in the community.
They use force to take, then hold, power.

Just like violence destroys families, it also threatens the basic idea of a diverse, accepting society where everyone is allowed to exist, be free, and be different.
"Respect women" sounds simple.
So does "Respect everyone." Somehow it's so difficult, we keep moving away from it.