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The Nation, oldest progressive newspaper in the US, doesn't pull any punches (www.thenation.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

You can argue that it's a better place with him gone, but it's a much worse place because it happened and because people are celebrating, because it implies that society accepts murdering people who express differing opinions.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    You can argue that it’s a better place with him gone

    I wasn't arguing that, but that is my subjective opinion.

    but it’s a much worse place because it happened and because people are celebrating

    That's more complicated, i partially agree but I'll reserve final judgement for a while to see how it pans out.

    because it implies that society accepts murdering people who express differing opinions.

    I'm not sure how to tell you this, but open pretty much any historical book of any era and you'll find the same.

    I'm not saying it's ideal and each to their own but i am saying i think it's naive to ignore the entire history of humanity (and pre-humanity) and expect this current society to be different for some reason.

    A large part of the entire history of our species is built on murdering the "other".

    This society and all almost all societies, past and present have accepted/encouraged murdering other groups for stuff and power.

    In fact, I'd argue we are better at it than ever.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I agree that it's human nature and always will be. But that doesn't mean it's ok or that we should shrug and say oh well. It means that we need to always be guarding against it and condemning it when it happens. There are times in history where ideological violence has gotten way out of hand, and i believe we can avoid that if we try. And if we instead encourage it then we will have another cultural revolution or holocaust like in China or Russia or Germany.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    I agree that it’s human nature and always will be. But that doesn’t mean it’s ok or that we should shrug and say oh well.

    Agreed.

    It means that we need to always be guarding against it and condemning it when it happens.

    Agreed, in principle, but i suspect our definitions of what qualifies as "it" will differ greatly.

    There are times in history where ideological violence has gotten way out of hand, and i believe we can avoid that if we try.

    I think that's naively optimistic, though having it as a goal isn't the worst thing we could be doing.

    Also there are times in history where blind optimism has let toxic and harmful ideologies fester and take root.

    Think "Paradox of tolerance".

    And if we instead encourage it then we will have another cultural revolution or holocaust like in China or Russia or Germany.

    That's a hard, giant leap in logic, you'd need to at least have some evidence of direct causation before I'd even consider that as a reasonable line of thought.

    But that is only my opinion, with all that entails.

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