****** This article is an appeal to KOS moderators and the KOS rules of the road***********
Nowhere in this article is there an call to be violent, or in support of violence.
Rather, I am appealing that we be able to talk about violence without fearing it, and talking about how to respond to it on the personal level, and how to be prepared to live in it. we are living in violent times — can we start there at least?
We are being promised violence from the right.
At the convention — fight fight fight
From the Heritage Foundation
From Rodger Stone
From Trump
And what should Anericans do? Rise up citizen — “Be Afraid” …. there are endless articles cautioning that we should worry and be afraid
Time magazine will rub it in,
https://time.com/6998406/political-violence-united-states-recent-history/
“Ideas that were once confined to fringe groups now appear in the mainstream media,” Kleinfeld remarked. “These shifts have created a new reality: millions of Americans willing to undertake, support, or excuse political violence.”
What are we gonna do?
Complain and ramp the fear and worry.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/12/were-in-an-epidemic-of-right-wing-terror-wont-someone-tell-the-press/
This sort of mainstream media denial goes back a long way. After the Oklahoma City bombing, speculation that Muslim jihadists were responsible saturated mainstream media. New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal wrote, “Whatever we are doing to destroy Mideast terrorism, the chief terrorist threat against Americans, has not been working.” After news broke that a homegrown Christian was responsible for the bombing, mainstream voices still strained to blame anything except the Right’s gathering forces of hate against the federal government.
pointing fingers and complaining…. did it work?
A very erudite head in the sand perhaps
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-to-treat-right-wing-violence-in-the-us
Politicians tend to describe the far right almost spectrally—its protagonists are said to emerge from the dark recesses of the American past or the fringes and “fever swamps” of the present. In some ways, the batch of new books published about the far right represents a helpful corrective. Their authors tend to see American extremism as a more specific set of political patterns. But, taken together, they also suggest how little agreement there is on basic matters: what the far right wants, and whether it represents an eternal pattern in American politics or a new one.
The ADL at least has some suggestions
https://www.adl.org/resources/report/right-wing-extremist-terrorism-united-states
End the Complicity of Social Media in Facilitating Extremism
Congress must prioritize countering online extremism and ensuring that perpetrators who engage in unlawful activity online can be held accountable. Online platforms often lack adequate policies to mitigate extremism and hate equitably and at scale. Federal and state laws and policies require significant updating to hold online platforms and individual perpetrators accountable for enabling hate, racism and extremist violence across the internet. In March 2021, ADL announced the REPAIR Plan, which offers a comprehensive framework for platforms and policymakers to take meaningful action to decrease online hate and extremism. Like ADL’s PROTECT Plan, REPAIR addresses domestic extremism and terrorism but goes beyond these issues to address other manifestations and harms of online hate, including online harassment, antisemitism, racism and disinformation.
2 problems there — mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
or the most common way of talking about this issue : pay someone to take care of it. Subcontract it.
Create an Independent Clearinghouse for Online Extremist Content
Congress should work with the Biden-Harris Administration to create a publicly funded, independent nonprofit center to track online extremist threat information in real-time and make referrals to social media companies and law enforcement agencies when appropriate.
- This approach is needed because those empowered with law enforcement and intelligence capabilities must not be tasked with new investigative and other powers that could infringe upon civil liberties – for example, through broad internet surveillance. Scouring online sources through an independent organization will act as a buffer but will not prevent the nonprofit center from assisting law enforcement in cases where criminal behavior is suspected. This wall of separation, modeled in part on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), will help streamline national security tips and resources while preserving civil liberties.
- In FY2022 appropriations, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) was provided with $500,000 to investigate the feasibility of this concept. NIJ should be empowered to complete its review, and Congress should quickly follow up to ensure that a clearinghouse can be authorized.
When i go hiking — it is common to see trails organized by colored paint on trees.
When i see this kind of proposal I see a trail of “ifs” if ___ does this we can do __. if _____ ( unrealize- able goal) add flowery language …..
I believe we need to stand up to violence on a personal level right where we are.
Decentralized — individually motivated and in agreement about what living with freedom and liberty means
If go into details about it — someone will flag me or an admin will shut it down.
And it doesn’t mean advocating violence. It means letting go of fear and making community from that common denominator with others.
There is nothing to fear but fear itself — that’s where we start.
There are many writers at KOS that want to talk about this and are gently steered away from expressing — or put in time out for trying.
I used to have a free image of a boxer for posting stories — that was removed, and not by me. I take the hint that some admin is so afraid of an image of a boxer — they cut it out.
We can’t pray this shit away — i prefer to meditate on what i can do — and get on my path.