Monday 15 July 2024

Follow up comments on attempted assassination of Trump [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on violence. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are (when I remember) shown in green.

 

 

PS - please consider, from my post   “On leadership”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/04/on-leadership.html   (apologies for the outdated, sexist language):   

“a comment by Reinhold Niebuhr (who also wrote the "Serenity Prayer") "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary" ”   

 

There is substantial commentary coming out after the attempted assassination of Trump. I am going to collate what I consider the better examples of those here, including a few I had included in my original post: 

  • “Today’s violence”   https://robertreich.substack.com/p/todays-violence      
  • “Political Violence”   https://snyder.substack.com/p/political-violence   “Reflections from the 1920s and 1930s   ...   us-and-them thinking, is dangerous. ... can lead to more violence. ... is also very often erroneous.  The history of the far right ... in which violence often refracts within and around a political movement that endorses it.   ...   And the general point about how violence, once authorised, can turn in an unexpected direction, also applies to the far left of the 1920s and 1930s.   ...   What matters more than the action, though, is the reaction.  We should all condemn political violence.  We should all proclaim that this next election will be settled by the number of votes”   which makes the following particularly significant:  
  • “From “Hang Mike Pence,” to “Paul Pelosi Hammered” to “Shooting Trump” — Political Violence is Deadly to Democracy”   https://www.juancole.com/2024/07/shooting-political-democracy.html   “This is a time for extreme political maturity by members of both major parties. The Republic depends on it. Trump and his partisans will inevitably attempt to use the incident to drive further polarization and grievance-based politics. They should be denied ammunition for any such efforts.”      
  • “Political Violence IS ALWAYS WRONG, Whether on January 6th or at a Trump Rally”   https://youtu.be/HodrIN5BKGY?si=sq_uUdNThgbt2bf7      
  • “Aftermath of a Shooting”   https://www.crisisgroup.org/united-states/aftermath-shooting   “... the country’s political leaders, especially Trump himself, should avoid stoking division in order to reduce risks of violence as the November election approaches”     
  • “The Convulsed Republic: The Shooting of Donald Trump”   https://theaimn.com/the-convulsed-republic-the-shooting-of-donald-trump/   “Far from this being incredible, such acts of violence speckle and blood US politics. Candidates have been previously gunned down in cold blood. Presidents, whether going to the theatre or appearing in public motorcades, have been very publicly assassinated.”   The article includes a sound warning against conspiracy “thinking”.     

 

This is all leaving me gravely concerned for the future of the USA - let alone democracy there (and in places likely to be influenced by what happens there). 

I had been planning a speculative article about the USA under Trump, but I will hold off on that for now.

I will probably add more over time. 


 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

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