Yes, deplore violence. But let's not erase what is making violence ever likelier
(snip)
What the Unity Statement is attempting to reach for is worthy and righteous. But we must find a way to deplore political violence and call for a nobler, more dignified politics that doesn’t erase reality, deny causation, whitewash recent history, and give a free pass to those who have brought the American republic to this brink.
Yes, it would be great for us all to be nicer to each other, for this to feel like a more trusting and generous and loving country. But let not the formula of the Unity Statement distract us from the truth: Donald Trump is the head of a movement that has spent nine years pumping hatred and distrust and contempt and post-factualness and vigilantism and, underlying it all, a notion of America as a war of all against all.
So, please, find a way to send your prayers for his recovery while also being vigilant of how he has before, and will again, fan and exploit the perception of his victimhood to advance his fascist project. By all means, profess that political violence has no place in American life, while also being very clear that Trump’s stoking of it over these last years has changed the country beyond measure. Yes, remind people that we ought to resolve our differences at the ballot box, not through violence, but do so without forgetting that Trump set the example by helping to incite the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Bemoan that Trump fell victim to a rifle attack, but also hold space for the idea that his fervent opposition to sensible gun reform has made it so much harder to protect him from this kind of occurrence. Of course, insist on a thorough investigation and pledge to follow the facts where they lead, but do not skip over the fact that Trump’s assault on factual reality itself has made the country so much less capable of properly processing an event like this.
It is possible to believe that shooting leaders we don’t like is absolutely, incontrovertibly out of bounds and — and — that this event has a history and a context. It didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree. It is possible to wish a man a speedy recovery and to insist on the urgency of doing every peaceful thing humanly possible to prevent him from driving the country even further down this road to where what happened to him — even though it never should have — becomes unexceptional.
Full article:
https://the.ink/p/how-to-answer-an-assassination-attempt
OP inspired by post in Humor:
How to answer an assassination attempt
(Wasn't sure many people would realize the article got serious after the first half and was worth reading further)