It was not so long ago, on the venerable pages of 1EyedEeel, that those of us unfortunate enough to have landed on the left of the political spectrum were scolded for apparently celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk. No, we said, we are not celebrating that murder. Instead, our point was that the canonization of Kirk was a means to avoid frank discussion of his actual words. We would not participate in canonizing such a divisive figure. No matter said our critics. The issue was stated to be that ‘the left’ were responsible for the Kirk shooting. This ‘fact’ showed ‘the left’ are "loonies", "cancerous", they killed Kirk "because of his beliefs", they are "losing their grip on reality", "showing their true colours" and "cannot accept contrarian views". Yes, receipts available if memory does not serve. Some actually HOPED for "civil war" and that 'lefties' would be "carted off to work camps". Others opined that "far left violence is becoming a trend [and they will] definitely not like what comes next". Well, I guess that last remark was prescient?
Political irony is a gap between ideals and reality. With all this Kirk-inspired defence of free speech, and the deploring of political violence in response to "contrarian beliefs", we on the loony left were asked to ignore two obvious contradictions coming our way. One, our free speech to NOT fall into normative line was self-evidently denied. Apparently, we could not walk and chew gum. In this case, oppose murdering based on disagreement with beliefs but also have our own evaluation that said we oppose canonizing someone we regard as possessing many noxious beliefs. Two, apparently leftists were prone to political violence and deserved violent retribution because political violence was wrong. It is not even possible to parody that one, it is so comically contradictory.
Anyway, now we all watch as US ICE murders a soccer mom in her car and a male nurse trying to assist a woman who was being set upon by ICE agents. Senior US politicians from Trump down on through VP Vance and Congressman like R. Fine, plus Trump’s loyal protection squadron in his administration (Noem, Miller, Hegseth etc), have set about blaming the murder victims for their fate. The soccer mom was called a domestic terrorist trying to use her car as a weapon, when she was shot twice in the body and once in the head. The ICE agent is heard saying “f***en b***h” after murdering her. MAGA is saying the soccer mom deserved it, apparently because women should not be challenging men. The nurse is being accused of sedition and for deserving to be shot, because he was carrying a (licensed) hand-gun on his person (so much for gun rights?) when half a dozen ICE agents piled on top of him on an icy road and shot him multiple times at point-blank range. An ICE agent is on video dancing and clapping moments after the nurse was murdered. The US Republican leadership and their MAGA support base are literally celebrating the murders.
Political irony is a gap between ideals and reality. Is there really any kind of substance to the idea that there is some ideological debate going on here? If everything that was said in those Kirk blogs is true, that free speech extends to free political speech and political action, that political violence in response to political disagreement is wrong, that trends toward violent retribution are abhorrent, where are all the blogs calling for action against the Trump Regime. The Trump Regime that is quite literally terrorizing and violently suppressing its own citizens?
Is there not some common humanity, unfortunately too often hidden behind vicious and pointless trolling of people, usually based on their identity differences, that isn’t screaming out that there is potentially something terrible both germinating and unfolding in the USA at this present time? If political irony is a gap between ideals and reality, when does reality intervene to say stop pretending that free speech and abhorrence of political violence can just be memes launched by the right against the left or the left against the right, and that they actually should mean something, regardless of partisan identification? The US Government is celebrating the murder of its own citizens by its own agents. We are beyond hypotheticals. They’re celebrating murder, FYI.
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I think Trump has been great for America. Unfortunate for the rest of the world, but we have been sucking at their teat for a long time.
Randy, I hope NOT but also actually very much doubt that PouPou is a "f***head", so let's stow such terms?
I suggest it better to stick to the fair point that what we might be seeing is this idea that "would not happen to me", which. May have an underlying premise of "obsequiousness to authority". Surely there would be an irony in the fact that the condemnation of the Kirk shooting included this kind of hard boundary drawn around "authority", by which free speech was deemed to warrant protection from almost any exercise of authority (such as denying Kirk speech).
For most in the US, it is not lost on them that these shootings are occurring in Minneapolis. Yes Trump previously targeted other blue cities like LA and Portland, but MN has a specific history around racial vilification and disproportionate force exercised toward blacks. Maybe PouPou thinks this kind of disproportionate force could never happen to him, or maybe he doesn't, but plenty of whites in the Twin Cities are noting that now it is coming for them.
The Kirk shooting had nothing to do with this because there was no disparity in 'authority' between the killer and the victim. Kirk wasn't threatening the shooter other than in the most abstract way, and if moral criticism is the same as a violent threat, then the world is in deep trouble.
As for 'whites' in Minnesota, this isn't a racial issue, it is a political one. Does US Federal law trump state law? Should Democrat voters be allowed to continue to prosecute their tantrum against an unfavourable federal election result? Will they stop giving a shit about ICE when the Democrats retake power, just like they stopped giving a shit abvout Black Lives once Biden's feet were under the desk?
Pou, could you please call me a fuckhead to settle folks down
Pou, try to read what you're writing with even just an ounce of reflexivity. Kirk's speech can't be considered threatening but you think protest at Trump is necessarily threatening?
Best yet: "The world would be in trouble if "moral criticisms is the same as violent threat".
But you have just been treating lack of compliance, which is very clearly premised on moral criticism, as tantamount to violent threat.
The double standard indicates your position lacks any sincerity. We can see this when you try to reframe protests against ICE as a "tantrum" against the 2024 election result. Gee, maybe it's moral criticism??? Reflexivity helps here. And FYI most polls in the US show a massive divergence when asked about support for action against illegal immigfants and support for ICE. Those poll results should explain your constant effort to make Obama and Trump equivalent on deportation. The method matters. The polls show that.
No it's not the lack of compliance, as you keep spamming here. It's the threat toward ICE that is escalating this situation. That's a step beyond lack of compliance.
Randy, you F-head. Does that make it better? Have I settled it?!
PS: Prof Daz is a F-head. Heard it here first NOT. Half of 1EE tells me it every second day. I'm not going to return the favour though. An argument or reason can be bad without that person necessarily being a F-head. Except me. All the educated are F-heads or so I am told
Pou, you are equating non-compliance with threat, so there is no "step beyond" lack of compliance whereupon threat steps in.
I mean you have also regurgitated DHS propaganda that immediately called shooting victims domestic terrorists engaged in sedition.
You have failed to mount a single counter-argument to the claim you are advancing a "comply or die" position.
I don't think your a fuckhead Daz, besides that you need a bit of toughening up!
I have been called everything on here from Fuckwit to Arrogant Old Prick, thank Christ I am not thin skinned!
Mechanic or cook?
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