A BIPARTISAN SAMPLING of the worldā€™s greatest perpetrators and enablers of political violence has rushed to condemn political violence following the shooting attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday.

ā€œThe idea that thereā€™s political violence ā€¦ in America like this, is just unheard of, itā€™s just not appropriate,ā€ said President Joe Biden, the backer of Israelā€™s genocidal war against Palestine, with a death toll that researchers believe could reach 186,000 Palestinians. Bidenā€™s narrower point was correct, though: Deadly attacks on the American ruling class are vanishingly rare these days. Political violence that is not ā€œlike thisā€ ā€” the political violence of organized abandonment, poverty, militarized borders, police brutality, incarceration, and deportation ā€” is commonplace.

And condemn it, most everyone in the Democratic political establishment has: ā€œPolitical violence is absolutely unacceptable,ā€ wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on X. ā€œThere is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,ā€ tweeted former President Barack Obama, who oversaw war efforts and military strikes against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan with massive civilian death tolls; Obama added that we should ā€œuse this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.ā€ ā€œThere is no place for political violence, including the horrific incident we just witnessed in Pennsylvania,ā€ wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The chorus of condemnation was predictable and not in itself a problem: Thereā€™s nothing wrong with desiring a world without stochastic assassination attempts, even against political opponents. But when you have Israelā€™s minister of foreign affairs, Israel Katz of the fascistic ruling Likud Party, tweeting, ā€œViolence can never ever be part of politics,ā€ the very concept of ā€œpolitical violenceā€ is evacuated of meaning.

  • MudMan
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    1ā€¢9 months ago

    No, itā€™s not ā€œanother form of warā€. Plenty of illiberal countries have a strong monopoly on violence and nobody conceptualizes that as them being at war with their population. Thatā€™s absurd.

    Making grandiose declarations doesnā€™t make them make sense. I wish people took an extra breath to check what they are actually saying when they post.

    Also, if youā€™re not saying you want to abolish the monopoly on violence by the state what are you saying? Because thatā€™s the thing about monopolies, you either have it or you donā€™t. As Iā€™ve said above, control and accountability donā€™t remove the monopoly on violence, and the US already has an unusually lax regulation on this issue. So what are you saying?

    • @nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      Im saying a few things. First and foremost im saying every politician condemning violence is full of shit. Secondly Im saying the monopoly on violence in the US is not a good thing for two distinct reasons: The system often give the head executive office to someone who doesnā€™t have a popular mandate, meaning the people they place in the positions to execute the state violence shouldnā€™t have the right to hold their position. On top of that no free country half as safe as American uses violence on its citizens more. That is not a sustainable model of monopoly of violence. Hell even the courts are both illegitimate and practicing violence, particularly against women. So itā€™s not even contained to the executive branch.

      So in short, politicians lie, illegitimate officers are executing violence on civilians, and more violence on civilians than anyone else. How long does a country like that stay free? Because the answer could just be about 5 more months.

      • MudMan
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        2ā€¢9 months ago

        So what is a US where there is no monopoly on violence by the state in your view? Or rather, if it is a ā€œbad thingā€, what is a good thing? How do you see this working?

        • The same way US prisons are a bad thing but no serious prison abolitionist things the solution is to instantly release all prisoners right now. We need to take corrective steps and if I knew the inā€™s and outā€™s of all those steps I probably wouldnā€™t be trying to have discussions on social media, and instead be writing books, running for office, or starting a movement.

          • MudMan
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            4ā€¢9 months ago

            So you know itā€™s bad but you donā€™t know what good looks like.

            Please consider the possibility that this is because itā€™s not bad at all to have the state, rather than private citizens, hold the sole ability to use force, and that the problems youā€™ve observed may be unrelated to that principle. Not that they donā€™t exist, just that they are not caused by what youā€™re saying they are.

            I leave you with that, in genuine good faith.