Two nights ago, the Great Patriot, Defender of Kenosha, and Guardian of the Republic, Kyle Rittenhouse, suppressed an unlawful riot in Kenosha where countless businesses have been burnt down, looted and forced out of business.
The police were no where to be found, unable to act and carry out their function of maintaining Law and Order.
So the citizens of the area took up arms, exercising their Second Amendment right to suppress violent riot, arson and looting and to suppress a communist insurrection.
It's almost as if the far left wants to take our Second Amendment rights so they can abolish the police and then rain chaos upon our communities (problem, reaction...solution?), and then institute their new police force under the flag of communism to restore civilization.
So what he did was legal?
When you start to support vigilantism like this, you are no different than the looters and rioters. This all is coming together in a really bad way and dangerous way for our country.
Everyone is screaming, no one is actually listening.
This has been getting worse for a long time, and we've reached a point that was entirely predictable.
We need some honesty and some critical thinking pretty soon, and I don't know that we have that ability any more.
I'm very afraid that out of control processes have begun with each side fully blaming the other and ignoring the bigger picture. Our country is like dry tinder right now....
That's exactly how I see it. Each end of this is now essentially at 100%, with zero consideration being given to the other. None.
Either (a) they foolishly think they can really somehow "beat" the other side, or (b) they really don't care about fixing anything and are fine with destroying everything. This is madness.
It's really hard to discuss this, because the environment of USMB forces me into positions I don't really support. I know that that occurs to other members which is why we set up the invite only debates, to allow some real discussions.
But I agree with you - both sides seem to be in a zero-sum strategy, where there is no middle ground or rationality. And psychologically it creates a self reinforcing death spiral.
You are fed a constant stream of disinformation that feeds the emotions and you react, eventually creating the very event that you are forcasting. Does that make sense?
There are not just "two sides" - the majority of both the left and the right want law and order. The Dem governors don't want riots any more than the Rep governors - they are responsible for these people AND, in a more cynical view, riots aren't going to get them re-elected. But it's a fine line between putting down riots and infringing on legitimate free speech. Most of these events don't START as a riot.
Kenosha was tragic on many levels - but it also represents something that happens too often.
One of the articles I read was interviewing tearful residents - owners of local business begging protestors not to destroy them, because we are YOUR people, these are YOUR businesses. And that is true. And, though this is not morally equivalent, it reminds me of the Bosnian/Serb conflict where villages, who's ethnically different residents had been neighbors and coworkers and friends for generations, rapidly turned on each other and the victim just couldn't understand it - how could you do this to people you had lived with, dined with, gone to school with?
And then these factors make it much worse.
- The coming in of outside agitators.
- The role of social media - groups claiming to be other groups, groups setting up violent confrontation based on deliberate disinformation, people unintentionally setting up violent confrontation through unknowingly spreading disinformation.
- Agendas from extremist groups that have no real affiliation to the mainstream left/right.
I support the police, I always have - two cousins are in law enforcement, but we DO need to do something about the problems in policing whether you call them bad apples or "systemic racism" - something needs to be seen to be done. But is there any space for that now?
I'm sick of this being portrayed as just left/right...that forces people into taking sides and participating in the zero sum game.
What to do? Strict curfews? More national guard presence at the ready since this was set off so quickly? Clamp down on protesters AND militias? Ban guns at protests? (probably not doable given our culture)....and how do we do this while accommodating our rights? Or do we give them up?
I don't have an answer other than fear and frustration at the lack of coherent leadership now and the complete politicization of EVERYTHING.
....thanks for listening to my rant....
So the question is what do you do?
