I'm hardly a Trumpist, but do you really and truly believe that Jan 6th and Balkan genocide (or even lesser evils, like the collapse of American democracy, such as it is...) belong together on the same page, let alone the same breath? A throng of disaffected rubes parading through the capitol, putting their feet on the desks of profoundly corrupt insiders, and filing out in time for dinner hardly makes for a putsch; the paucity of charges leveled against even the most provocative of them reflects that reality, does it not? For that matter, am I truly meant to be disturbed by the results of that Washington Post poll, disseminated to us so helpfully, in lockstep, by all the major propagandists in all our finest papers, just in time for this anniversary? What am I to make of a question which asks "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?" Ought I answer with anything less than the affirmative? Ought you? Says who? This nation was founded, after all, on acts of sedition and violence against what was the "lawful" government of the era. And was it not a bomb plot that aimed to grant us an early end to WW2? I consider you to be a thoughtful man (and, frankly, a moral one, though I believe you'd prefer ethical as a descriptor), but I'll confess there's little in this entry that resonates with me. And this is something of a tangent, but I'm surprised to see Solzhenitsyn being cited on the matter of morality; the guy was a fascist (consider his views on Franco's Spain, or Russian ethnonationalism).
This a very astute and sullen analysis of the worst angels of our nature. I would include one other factor at play today that was not available before 1990's. Tribalism was kept alive and the dehumanization of the "other" happened in small groups and face to face rallies and meeting. Times have changed and it is the "google gabfest". I call it Technological Tribalism. Today any belief does not live in isolation as there are people one can connect with on line that hold to some of the most horrendous ideology and social sicknesses. The flat earth society has grown through the internet and you can find an anti-anything anytime. This is partly why Trumpsters were able to connect and spread vitriolic hatred and do the things as reprehensible as Jan. 6. They rallied on the internet. Trump did nothing to stop it in fact turned a blind eye that made many stumble. Social media needs some more intelligent-moral-civil control to stop this passing of hate to others looking for other haters and people to hate.
Well said, Joe. In these special times we must work to counter cruelty and violence.
I'm hardly a Trumpist, but do you really and truly believe that Jan 6th and Balkan genocide (or even lesser evils, like the collapse of American democracy, such as it is...) belong together on the same page, let alone the same breath? A throng of disaffected rubes parading through the capitol, putting their feet on the desks of profoundly corrupt insiders, and filing out in time for dinner hardly makes for a putsch; the paucity of charges leveled against even the most provocative of them reflects that reality, does it not? For that matter, am I truly meant to be disturbed by the results of that Washington Post poll, disseminated to us so helpfully, in lockstep, by all the major propagandists in all our finest papers, just in time for this anniversary? What am I to make of a question which asks "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?" Ought I answer with anything less than the affirmative? Ought you? Says who? This nation was founded, after all, on acts of sedition and violence against what was the "lawful" government of the era. And was it not a bomb plot that aimed to grant us an early end to WW2? I consider you to be a thoughtful man (and, frankly, a moral one, though I believe you'd prefer ethical as a descriptor), but I'll confess there's little in this entry that resonates with me. And this is something of a tangent, but I'm surprised to see Solzhenitsyn being cited on the matter of morality; the guy was a fascist (consider his views on Franco's Spain, or Russian ethnonationalism).
This a very astute and sullen analysis of the worst angels of our nature. I would include one other factor at play today that was not available before 1990's. Tribalism was kept alive and the dehumanization of the "other" happened in small groups and face to face rallies and meeting. Times have changed and it is the "google gabfest". I call it Technological Tribalism. Today any belief does not live in isolation as there are people one can connect with on line that hold to some of the most horrendous ideology and social sicknesses. The flat earth society has grown through the internet and you can find an anti-anything anytime. This is partly why Trumpsters were able to connect and spread vitriolic hatred and do the things as reprehensible as Jan. 6. They rallied on the internet. Trump did nothing to stop it in fact turned a blind eye that made many stumble. Social media needs some more intelligent-moral-civil control to stop this passing of hate to others looking for other haters and people to hate.