I’ve recently seen violent rhetoric against the wealthy tick up in some normally non-political online fan communities, with arguments for guillotines and other “ideological murder” being made by folks I’ve seen chatting for quite a while—not new random bot accounts.
When folks start seriously arguing about whether targeted killing of the wealthy would result in less bloodshed than allowing wealthy on both sides to persist and hide behind police forces and militias, it occurs to me it may be worth it for the senate to revisit stimulus checks.
I believe murder is bad, but at this point some folks are doing moral arithmetic about whether they are likely to be killed by cops or militias soon if things keep going like this, and what constitutes self-defense.
I disagree with Bush’s pre-emptive strike doctrine. Some won’t.
I don’t believe this sort of desperation will be derailed by escalatory “law and order” policies. We need systemic compassion at the federal level.
We need financial relief for individuals, not corporations.
We need confidence that health care will be affordable and available.
We’ve seen that if the news platforms advocates for genocide, those advocates are assaulted on camera.
We’ve seen that if cities shield police from manslaughter charges, cities shut down.
Does congress really want us to see what happens if they only bail out their buddies?
Again, I personally don’t believe violence will result in positive long-term outcomes for anyone here.
But that won’t stop increasingly desperate folks from finding violence increasingly appealing until or unless they can be lifted out of despair.
That must be the federal government’s top priority.
The population of our nation needs to be shown that those in power care about them and will care for them, regardless of political allegiance.
They need to see the wealthy reinvesting in their communities and paying fair wages instead of hoarding and offshoring wealth.
If the billionaires out there can’t see that now is the single best opportunity to cement their legacies as humanitarians, that now is the moment where a dollar spent today can save a hundred later, then the federal government needs to tax them and avert catastrophe for them.
Coronavirus handed Donald Trump and the Republican Party the single easiest election year opportunity to put cash in the pockets of voters and coast on “caring about the working man.”
They failed…they aren’t even effective opportunists.
I endorse Joseph Biden for president.
Further, while I cannot be familiar with every election at the state or local level, I encourage voters to research and hopefully support challengers to any incumbents complicit in allowing relief bills to languish.
Desperate folks need to see peaceful change can happen.
