The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Since when has America been about a free and democratic society?
Or are we just taking platitudes as fact now?
The murder of Charlie Kirk is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out public life and make people afraid of participating. From the January 6th, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, to the attack on Paul Pelosi, to the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Whitmer, to the murder of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, to the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, to the shooting of United Health Executive Brian Thompson, and the shooting several years ago of Representative Steve Scalise, this chilling rise in violence has targeted public officials across the political spectrum.
Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. We all remember the assassinations of President Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon, and Medgar Evers, and the attempted assassinations of President Ronald Reagan and Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Kinda sounds like this has been a problem in the US for decades. Maybe the government should look into that.
But bottom line, if we honestly believe in democracy, if we believe in freedom, all of us must be loud and clear: Political violence, regardless of ideology, is not the answer and must be condemned. Thank you very much.
Ah, that should solve it! Well done, Bernie!
Political violence, regardless of ideology, is not the answer and must be condemned.
Apparently Bernie makes an exception for institutionalized political violence, since he did not mention capital punishment, abortion bans, the targeting and murder of queer people, school shootings by right wing radicalized youths, or more… only politicians. Political violence is more than targeting someone for political speech, it is villainizing minorities, depriving them of opportunities and needs, suppressing/oppressing/excluding them from normal public life, or even implying they are “other” by roundabout means. Violence is more than a bullet, knife, or bomb. Violence can be indirect. Violence can take the form of hateful, fearful words and ideas. It can foment and spread.
None of it can be tolerated, but when the victims are out of options what are they to do? Talk? Bullies don’t communicate with words but with fists. Are we to submit? To lie down and die? To give up?
I reject this blind idealism that includes no constructive action to back it up. It’s little more than a plea to voluntarily lie down while the steamroller runs us over.
We don't know why this happened so why are we calling this political violence?
Don't know? Don't be daft.
We don't know. It is likely it is political but for all we know he didn't think Kirk was racist enough.
Basically all us do not shoot people we disagree with. 300,000,000 million citizens and a glut of weaponry, doesn't he get what Charlie Kirk meant by this is the price we pay? You will never plug all the holes, and we massively increase the chance a gun slips through along with the killer, and this is what will happen for as long as our culture and laws stay the same.
Take all the people Charlie Kirk has debated. Consider the surface area. All the people who must have had guns. And yet essentially every single person didn't kill him.
There were more people debating him peacefully that day than trying to assassinate him. He was having his ideas dismantled by simple logic, as always, and ignoring it, as always. He just happened to be shot that day. They act like life is a simulation that's meant to bend the rules for them rather than subjecting them to the same roll of the die as everyone else.
Yeah there's a ton of main character syndrome from the lot of them. None of them feared gun violence. The women seemed to never care that their side was pushing for the Christian version of Iran and that they personally would suffer in that situation.
Trump is a pedophile
Whenever the US makes a mistake of any kind, Sanders is there pointing to morality like a compass.
Bernie has been on the right side of history for half a century. And while he's technically right here as well, it assumes both sides play using the same rules. We all know one side only likes rules that don't apply to them.
Yea, I agree with you... But sadly the likely way out of that line of escalatory path is a civil war.
lol no.
They are just all worried.
I watched this yesterday, and I agree that it was a very good speech.