[ihsw2]

> There's been progress on that front with several Trump administration officials confronted while dining for example.

Normalizing the harassment of elected officials is dangerous and it puts us on a direct path towards politically-motivated random acts of violence.

[jacquesm]

You mean like when the now president of the United States did it?

[mieseratte]

> You mean like when the now president of the United States did it?

Is this in regards to the "birther movement" or was he harassing politicians in the real world?

[ihsw2]

There is a difference between exercising your freedom of speech and the social justice warrior crusading that the parent commenter is advocating.

Nobody is above criticism, that much is certain, but we shouldn't cross the River Styx into a world where random acts of violence is the preferred method of political expression.

[s73v3r_]

"There is a difference between exercising your freedom of speech and the social justice warrior crusading that the parent commenter is advocating."

Tell us, what exactly is that difference? What's the difference between going up to Scott Pruitt (when he was the EPA director) and telling him what an awful job he's doing, and when Trump tweets out a gif showing him performing wrestling moves on a personified CNN? Or when he calls journalists the "enemies of the people"?

"Nobody is above criticism, that much is certain, but we shouldn't cross the River Styx into a world where random acts of violence is the preferred method of political expression."

And where the hell is violence being done? Last I saw, the calls for violence have been from the Trump camp.

[Jonnax]

Sure. But when the government is forcibly separating asylum seeking families up, and putting the children in cages.

And the response from the government is that either it's fake news or that they just don't care.

To a lot of people this is an injustice. And they have no avenue to demand change.

These people ruin lives. Imagine what kind of mental trauma these children will have for the rest of their lives.

And they get upset that people don't treat them with respect when they go about their lives.

[aseipp]

It's a slippery slope to "politically-motivated acts of violence" in this country. Boom. A direct, slippery, direct path. We better watch out. Yelling at a bad person eating in a Mexican restaurant could be the new Fort Sumter.

Anyway, gotta jet and get home. Probably gonna walk past the only abortion clinic within 500 miles that has bulletproof glass windows and got firebomed for like the 30th time last week and over the past 20 years by right-wing terrorists. This is normal and not strange at all. I do it every day I'm not working from home.

[commandlinefan]

> politically-motivated random acts of violence

Or see it headed off by declaration of martial law.

[staunch]

It's the exact reason the Roman Republic failed!

The powerful political actors realized they could just physically intimidate and impede their opponents with gangs. No one that believes in a functioning society should support politically motivated violence of any kind.

[sincerely]

What do you think a war is, if not "politically motivated violence"?

[staunch]

Politics in this context clearly means internal politics but there are many different causes of war. Many wars have been fought in self-defense, for example to challenge a foreign invasion.

[ihsw2]

Do you believe the US is in a state of civil war?