Hodgkinson != Sayoc

    If we were a truly enlightened society, we would shed all unnecessary violence and work towards flourishing as a whole. That said, I'm tired of this false equivalence in violence in politics. Cesar Sayoc, now known as the the MAGA-Bomber, is an insane sycophant. Earlier in Trump's Presidency James Hodgkinson shot at conservative congress members...was he wrong to do so, probably...but he had volunteered for campaigns, protested, and followed every non-violent path imaginable before he took to violence...and sorry to say it, but Trump and his accomplices are demonstrably corrupt and unfit, will set us on an irrevocable path towards climate disaster, and endanger our democracy in many ways...so there are definitely empirical and rational reasons to be alarmed and reactive. When you look at the causes Hodgkinson was fighting for and the things he protested, it is clear he is a rational and compassionate person. Sayoc, on the other hand, has a long list of criminal activity, drug abuse, childish delusions, and volatile outbursts. In an ideal world, perhaps all violence is unacceptable... but being humans and in a far from perfect world, violence happens...and when it does, it matters what preceded the violence, it matters WHY they do it, the details matter and not all instances are equal.

How Can Progress Win

    I've been wanting the "left" to be more effective in winning political battles...and how do the politicians decide to try? Not by drafting or passing legislation that will help people, not by removing corruption that can uncripple our system, not by adopting progressive ideals that are extremely popular and winning elections...they decide to throw sexual assault victims under a bus and poison their cause by dragging it into the political sphere to die as a poisoned tribal issue. They've glorified protest...so they can do nothing and put all the responsibility on the public that entrusted THEM to fix things. Why do people have to protest to communicate their will to THEIR "representatives?" Politicians are serving themselves, not the people.
    So what are some solutions... well the most efficient form of governance is a Dictatorship...an order is given and it is carried out. The problem is you often get the wrong Dictator...and you become efficient at regression or malice. Cross that one off the list. Then there are those that will throw out the question: "why don't YOU run?" The political process has been corrupted to be exclusive to elites, it requires time and money that most don't have...it also requires a public bullshitting ability since the system is not focused on solving problems, but 24/7 news cycles and personality worship or assassination. On the other side, everyone expresses worry at what will happen if the people have more power...like a Direct Democracy; everyone says it will be "mob rule"...but at this point what are the elites doing that is better? Our system is a joke, they can't find consensus, they aren't able to protect the planet, our system, or create any meaningful progress...I'm not sure monkeys throwing darts would be any less effective at this point. They aren't even effectively deluding the public...we are getting screwed and we feel it excruciatingly.
    We must get past all this, and focus on solutions...we must get organized...we must improve our understanding of the world, we must learn to grant more "good will" and effectively communicate, we must learn to evaluate and craft arguments, we must all have the humility to be lifelong students and not make everything about ourselves. This is the obvious path forward, do humans have the maturity to follow it?