Why Not Murder?

Hot Air has some thoughts from a top Vox editor on the righteousness of violence against Trump rallies.
Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
So …. who exactly is the fascist in this scenario? The Week’s Michael Dougherty seemed to wonder that himself, asking Rensin what exactly he saw as the limits of “legitimate” political violence. The answer? Murder’s out … but that’s about it:
@michaelbd Destroying property is legitimate. Shouting down is legitimate. Disruption of all events is legitimate. Murder isn't.

— Emmett Rensin (@emmettrensin) June 3, 2016
So any violence short of murder is legitimate, as long as the political aim is pure enough, presumably. If you’re wondering what kind of violence isn’t legitimate, Jeryl Bier found this line in Rensin’s sand from last year:
Here's @emmettrensin on "literal violence": https://t.co/gmYzGWfbHO pic.twitter.com/HPYejDklOm

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) June 3, 2016
A “Stop Hillary” wifi password is literal violence, while destruction of property and shutting down free speech is just legitimate political action.
So what's so wrong with just killing Trump? Wouldn't it obviate the need for all this destruction of property, all these clashes in the street? Doesn't everyone say that they'd kill Hitler if they could go back in time and do so?

I mean, I understand the Catholic objection -- that murder is an inherently disordered act. But surely you won't want to impose some religious test on your politics, Vox. Why not have the courage of your convictions?

UPDATE: Vox today runs an article called "Donald Trump Rallies Are Only Going To Get More Dangerous For Everyone." Whose fault is that? Trump's, of course.

UPDATE: Althouse: "Yells of "[F***] you!" are heard, along with vuvuzelas and chants of 'Trump go home!'"

Vuvuzelas, is it? Now we know what we're dealing with here.



UPDATE: Vox suspends, but does not fire, its editor. Go sit in timeout until after the election -- everyone knows you don't actually tell people to riot. You just say that it's completely understandable that people riot given how awful Trump is, and that it's certain to get worse.

4 comments:

Eric Blair said...

I used to not understand why the Roman Republic fell into all that violence.

I do now.

Ymar Sakar said...

If they think that's violence, wait until they see what people train US patriots in as a counter attack.

Not even Islamic death squads in Iraq or ISIL, can match a properly trained kill team in the US. It's due to a very simple reason, American warriors don't tend to be in a cult of death, unless they are with the Leftist alliance for evil. Thus the ability to survive means experience is accumulated on both the cadre, teacher, student, and operator levels. Islam's problem when Europe began developing better armor and weapons, was their fatalism. Same thing why Japan lost so many new pilots in the Marianas Turkey Shoot.

Texan99 said...

I really loved the video.

Grim said...

It's fun, isn't it? :)