- cross-posted to:
- socialism
- cross-posted to:
- socialism
The chorus of condemnation was predictable and not in itself a problem: There’s nothing wrong with desiring a world without stochastic assassination attempts, even against political opponents. But when you have Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Israel Katz of the fascistic ruling Likud Party, tweeting, “Violence can never ever be part of politics,” the very concept of “political violence” is evacuated of meaning.
The problem is not so much one of hypocrisy or insincerity — vices so common in politics that they hardly merit mention. The issue, rather, is what picture of “political violence” this messaging serves: To say that “political violence” has “no place” in a society organized by political violence at home and abroad is to acquiesce to the normalization of that violence, so long as it is state and capitalist monopolized.
As author Ben Ehrenreich noted on X, “There is no place for political violence against rich, white men. It is antithetical to everything America stands for.”
I think you’re viewing the issue from a strategic lens, whereas this article is looking at it from a moral one. Obviously, we can’t expect a state to be even-handed with its application of violence for the very reasons you state here. But obviously… that doesn’t make it okay.
In short, I don’t think you’re actually disagreeing with the article at all.