Now a lot of folk on here know...

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

...That I'm no fan of the Donald. Really no fan of the Donald.

But some things make me despair of some of the folk in opposition to Trump:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/04/facebook-live-stream-video-man-attacked-chicago-trump

This is reprehensible. Kidnapping and what I can only call lynching a person for their political beliefs is what we expect of the Klan or the more extreme white supremacists.

What do folk from the Democrats side of things think of this? (BTW I don't get a vote in the US elections, and though I would regard myself as conservative, in US terms I'm an elitist socialist.)

And what do folk from the right think too? Is this polarisation of society over the last few decades a good thing?

I find myself wanting to imprison these folk exactly as much as I want to imprison people from the racist right who do these things to black folk and immigrants, i.e. lots.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Don't worry, you can rest assured the Alt-Right will respond in kind in a short time. Perhaps some lynchings to spice things up a bit?

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Polarisation can never be a good thing. It'll undermine American societies to levels unseen for quite while.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

It's like they can't see what sort of problems this will bring. (That's both sides, BTW.)

[garote]

How's that South Park quote go?

"That's just the way it is now. You get punished for the group you're a part of, even if you didn't do anything." ...?

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, you can rest assured the Alt-Right will respond in kind in a short time. Perhaps some lynchings to spice things up a bit?

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I hope you're wrong, but I'm afeared you're right.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

It's very difficult for people to treat someone better than they are being treated. It causes cognitive dissonance, for example, to smile compassionately at a person who is cruel to you. So while this tortured man most likely was never the aggressor, I see this behavior as a response to the abuses heaped on the people who are now doing the abusing. We all need to guard against this, for it is exceedingly difficult to respond with decency to a person who is indecent to you. Violence is just the next step.

Folk from the right are just as varied as folks from the left: you can't lump them. I think the far religious right feel empowered and their missionary zeal is stoked. I think the liberal elitists are terrified because they are realizing that in a democracy it doesn't matter if you are right, what matters is if you are popular, and elitists are not popular.

Violence needs to be punished according to the law, no matter who perpetrates it.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I agree with almost all of this comment.

But this has been a bad moment which gives the excuse for more bad moments for some people.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The degree to which we can protect each othter and support an environment of civility and respect will dictate how long it takes us to remove ourselves from barbarism once more.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

Democrats will say it's an anomaly, that's been given too much attention. The right will say it's a trend, not given nearly enough attention (those were easy!).

The truth, probably somewhere in the middle (as usual). The left is probably hoping this is fake, since they seem to have taken an early lead on hoax-election-retaliation stories - but that doesn't seem to be the case. The right were probably hoping and anticipating an indifferent shrug from Chicago politicians and law enforcement - but (surprisingly) that doesn't seem to be the case either.

It's hard to tell though - have we evolved into a new kind of asshole, or are we the same old assholes with evolved technology? Probably the latter, but we're united in rooting for the former - we're united in hoping we're special, in hoping our time is special - in hoping Trump, and Earth 2017, and the circumstances we're facing are special. They probably aren't though.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, the victim is mentally handicapped. His politics were not a motivation. His race and his disability (vulnerability) seem to be what motivated the attack, as well as the obviously despicable nature of his attackers.

People will spin this however they want.

In the broader context of crime and violence in America, the trendline has been steadily downward for over 20 years. Notwithstanding both parties' claim of either "lawlessness," "degeneracy," "extremist rhetoric," or "gun violence." But the objective truth is that Americans are exceedingly unlikely to suffer a violent crime, unless they fall into a few select categories of people. If you are a young, urban, minority man who belong to drug gang, for example, your days may be numbered. BTW, this drop in violent crime has happened concurrent with an absolute flood of firearm sales in the US over the last 20 years. Go figure.
.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

BTW, this drop in violent crime has happened concurrent with an absolute flood of firearm sales in the US over the last 20 years. Go figure.

Correlation with lead exposure levels having gone down appreciably since banning lead in petrol/gasoline? (It's a worldwide, or at least a supra-national correlation too BTW.)

But still, despite this, the attritional stats of gun crime don't favour the US over other developed nations with more stringent gun laws. But as far as I can see it is not really a subject for debate. Until you chaps replace the bill of rights with something even better (because it is still pretty damn good, no matter what) this situation will not change.

In general, when it comes to change, I think it should be properly thought-out, managed, and implemented with as little damage to the fabric of society as possible; unless there is an injustice that cries to heaven for redress - like slavery. It may be (I am uncertain, certainly) that in a world of overproduction in food, goods, and services, and great distributional and logistic abilities, poverty is another such thing.

The gun thing is a trifle behind in the queue for things that need to be done urgently; climate change may not be, even though we as a species adapt pretty well thanks in part to the benefits of civilisation.

But what do I know?

[Tips hat.]

RE: Now a lot of folk on here know...

[debunkgpolitics.livejournal.com]

I hope his abusers face the maximum punishment without any chance of reduced sentences.

Also appalling is the tolerance for this heinous behavior. Police found the victim while on patrol, not in response to an emergency call. The call about a battery was linked to this case but at a nearby residence. That the victim escaped was a miracle from God.