Justifying violence.

I believe that people choose violence for one of two reasons.

People who choose violence either think that they have no non-violent, effective redress for a perceived, profound act of injustice, act of oppression, act of violence or an offensive act against something they hold sacred (a deity, their country, societal or cultural practices, etc.), either through courts or through political action or advocacy,

OR,

People who choose violence think that the person or the people they want to target with violence deserve to experience that violence merely because of the targets’ perceived race, ethnicity, cultural group, religion or sexual identity.

Sometimes, people who seek to commit violence think both of these things.

Whether or not people have sympathy for the person who commits the act of violence depends on how they feel about the options for non-violence redress and the act of injustice, oppression, violence or offense, as well as how they feel about the target of the violence.

And that’s why some people felt sympathy for Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two men during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and others felt sympathy for Luigi Mangione, who very likely murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

If you feel sympathy for one and not the other, I strongly encourage you to reflect on that. I’m not condemning you for your feelings of sympathy, I’m just asking you to really reflect on why you feel sympathy for one and not the other, and to think about the people who feel absolutely the opposite of you.

As for me: I understand hate, I have felt hate, I understand wanting a certain, specific person to cease existing, and I have wanted some people to cease to exist. But I can’t support murder. It leads to more murder.

Inspired by these series of tweets reproduced here.