Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Gabriel's avatar

You've really hit the core of the issue here, that the lack of a single unifying fabric making these issues...complicated. I'll go further, now there's a meta-structure that's picking winners and loosers and pitting them against each other.

Take any extremely online subculture and share a couple of their "I'm just venting" statements with someone from almost any other context, you'll often get shock, horror, rage, or some combination of all three.

How do you put humpty-dumpty back together again without...making enemies by assimilating everyone into (what?) ?

Expand full comment
Andrew Kadel's avatar

Yes. This is a good analysis. It's especially tough given the prevalence of gun culture. At the Proud Boys trial, they represented themselves as basically peaceful guys who would only ever act in self-defense or the defense of others who were being attacked. They have a very loose interpretation of that, since it includes prowling the streets for "antifa" or BLM people to fight. Zach Rehl testified that he didn't see anything unusual at the Capitol on January 6, no riot, "just a few scuffles."

In open carry states, it's entirely legal to carry a loaded assault rifle in the ready position. If you happen to have a loud conversation with someone and tell them what to do or where to go, that's not a true threat. Even if you say, "i'm going to fuck you up!" It's not a "true threat" until you point the gun AND rack a round into the chamber. Otherwise it's just profane bluster with no subjective intent to hurt anyone.

A culture of intimidation is a huge problem. And it's more of a problem now back where I grew up in Idaho than it is, in my experience, in the projects in the south Bronx where I go every week to lead church services. Alas, laws, legal administration and interpretation only contribute a small amount to relieving this problem.

Expand full comment
59 more comments...

No posts