The issue, rather, is what picture of ā€œpolitical violenceā€ this messaging serves: To say that ā€œpolitical violenceā€ has ā€œno placeā€ in a society organized by political violence at home and abroad is to acquiesce to the normalization of that violence, so long as it is state and capitalist monopolized.

As author Ben Ehrenreich noted on X, ā€œThere is no place for political violence against rich, white men. It is antithetical to everything America stands for.ā€

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Palestinians should kill Khamaas!

    Russians should assasinate Putin!

    America shouldā€¦ idly stand by because violence is never the answer guys.

    Democratic leaders will call for civility and continue to fill the coffers of police departments nationwide, while sending billions of condition-free dollars and bombs to Israel. Within the U.S., these condemnations of political violence now set the scene for even greater violent repression and policing of protest movements and dissent.

    Spot on.

    • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I mean I donā€™t exactly expect democratic politicians to advocate for political assassinations as you know, they are politicians, so of course as soon as one of their own comes under attack even if theyā€™re on the other side of politics theyā€™re gonna denounce it cause they donā€™t want to be assassinated.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I read this article as asking politicians to go the other direction with this logic and extend this abhorrence of violence they have when it comes their fellow political leaders to homeless people, migrants, civilians in war zones, etc.

        • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yeah I definitely agree, I was more just replying to the quote from the article about them calling for civility. I donā€™t really imagine they would call for anything else after something like this as itā€™s violence directed at people in similar positions of power to them.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Politicians swiftly coalesced around the language of ā€œpolitical violence,ā€ rather than terrorism, to describe the assassination attempt, carried out by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead at the Western Pennsylvania rally.

    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.

    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.

    Trump and his Republican Party will no doubt remain committed to a political imaginary of apocalyptic race war and paranoid tribalism, which the assassination attempt will likely only feed.

    Democratic leaders will call for civility and continue to fill the coffers of police departments nationwide, while sending billions of condition-free dollars and bombs to Israel.


    The original article contains 744 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 70%. Iā€™m a bot and Iā€™m open source!