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Latest updates, now that it's spreading around official media outlets: a suspect is wanted, Vance Boelter. He has ties to Tim Walz and the greater Democratic Party. Still no released motive.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/14/democratic-lawmakers-minnesota-shot
A man masquerading as a police officer is shooting politicians in their homes. The why is debatable; the theories I see floating around have to do with these two Democrat's recent voting records, and breaking from Dem consensus to support the Republicans. I don't know if this is true, I didn't check their records -- I share only because it's what I heard.
The why is also, I think, insignificant. There are so many reasons to be violent in modern society, if you're not intrinsically against violence itself -- punishing defectors, rallying your side with a show of force, intimidating people and politicians on the margins. I don't care what specific social ill or rage drove this would-be assassin.
More interesting, to me, is that we're seeing assassinations and their attempts more and more. It seems that way to me, at least -- I'm going off vibes and a gut reckoning with the numbers, not a reasoned analysis. Maybe I'm entirely wrong! But the vibe I get is the willingness to use violence on one's enemies is becoming significantly more normalized by the day, and eventually, I suspect, we're going to hit a turning point where no one pretends they don't want the other side dead and we get to it.
I don't particularly want that end result, but I find it hard to argue against murderous force on principle. The arguments supporting it seem obviously correct; the protests against it seem sincere, well-meaning, and completely wrong.
It makes me think. We're materially better off than ever. We're spiritually dead. We have more freedom than ever. We're trapped in our heads like anxious prisons. We solved hunger, and crippled ourselves with food.
We don't build. We don't conquer. We prosper, sort of, the numbers on the charts go up and the useless shit is really cheap -- but the precious things are rarer than ever.
I dunno. Nobody died this time, I guess that's nice. And the future, rough beast that it is, continues to slouch toward Bethlehem.
edit: scratch that two died, I guess that's less nice. RIP.
I would argue that "it is fine to shoot a few state senators" is far out of the overton window for both MAGA and the woke left.
Political violence can surely further a cause (See the Nazis or Mao, for example), but in the US, the murderers of elected officials will generally strengthen the side of the victim, and end up being condemned rather than celebrated by their own side.
This means that the perpetrators of political violence against elected officials are unlikely to be rational, committed followers of one of the big political camps who are willing to risk their life and freedom to further their cause. Instead, they are more likely to be parts of much smaller fringe movements, crazy, driven by bloodlust, or wanting to achieve eternal infamy through their deeds.
(Of course, this also leaves the door open for people being celebrated for other political violence. For example, imgur loves that Luigi guy. And the German RAF had quite a few supporters on the slightly more mainstream student left.)
I have seen 10 times more comments from the left mad that the Trump assassin missed than I have seem from leftists mad he tried in the first place. I think the only reason that guy has not be lionized is that he failed, a few inches to the right and the left would be trying to build statues of him.
Ditto Luigi Mangione.
Not everyone on the left was celebrating the guy, but virtually nobody was shushing the ones who were, and nobody took up the "please don't murder CEOs" cause.
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