It’s Not Political Violence If It’s Against Your Oppressor

Photo by Mike Von

I love how America selectively gains a moral conscience, especially when it's for people who are actively pushing oppressive agendas against those who are disenfranchised. On Saturday, July 13, there was an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a MAGA rally in Pennsylvania. The news waves flooded and evoked selective moral compassion regarding political violence. Whereas political violence is entirely unacceptable, America's selectiveness remains inconsistent. 

For a nation that had to rely on leadership during a pandemic from a president who suggested drinking bleach as a viable option to easing COVID symptoms, where is the outrage for themselves? With the false narrative about “rapists, murderers, and terrible people” that are jumping over our borders, where is the outrage for people of color who experience the brunt of that prejudice? And where is the outrage for women who are constantly under attack for what they do with their bodies? 

What if America saw political violence for what it is?

Political violence doesn’t only apply to officials being targeted but also to civilians being targeted as well. Political violence includes policies that deliberately profile vulnerable communities in attempts to push agendas. But why is this so hard for Americans to see? That would require Americans not to have acute amnesia. That would require Americans to work on their Stockholm syndrome deliberately. And America loves its abusers! They love their racists, rapists, and homophobic leaders that put them at ease when things become too “woke” or change the heteronormative pattern too quickly. 

Remember January 6?

It's safe to say that it isn't lost on anyone who remembers President Donald Trump inciting his supporters to start an insurrection in Congress in an attempt to disrupt the vote of President Biden winning the 2020 presidential election. Among the lives lost by those who fought to protect members of Congress, there was a sense of compassion for political violence for members of Congress who were targeted in the process. 

Sure, there was a committee that had hearings about whether or not Donald Trump was liable to be charged for his involvement in the insurrection. Still, the spirit of moral empathy for the lives lost and those at risk seemed to dwindle in counter-arguments of "voter fraud." Who remembers these trials? And does it even fucking matter now? No. Why? Because America chooses who deserves compassion and understanding and who doesn't. 

“Patriotism” is for Patriarchy

Why is it so hard for Americans to lack empathy for those who remain at the bottom of this fucked up, heteronormative, capitalistic hellhole? Why do Americans only feel a sense of patriotic compassion for those who go out of their way to oppress them? It’s because America has always been sympathetic to the patriarchy. 

Patriotism is for patriarchy. And in the context of America, in its current social climate, nationalism that has always remained as an undetected ingredient in this bullshit “melting pot” is no longer diluted in how it expresses itself now.  Patriotism, the pride of America will always be committed to the pursuit of domination of a heteronormative leader who gets others who look like them to buy into it. Patriotism is only interested in pride and devotion to the people it cares about. And those who perpetuate the patriarchy are always inclined to fight for it. The oppressed will always be overlooked in their constant exploitation, disenfranchisement, and subjugation. And what’s worse is that their plight in the eyes of typical citizens will never be perceived as political violence. 

Instead, the oppressed will remain oppressed because America justifies its oppression to others as it always has. America specializes in subjection and prizes itself on it while denying that it behaves that way. America doesn’t have the validity to discuss political violence, while it strives to overlook so many vulnerable communities whose lives are directly impacted by the same violence. Whether it be slavery, Jim Crow, unarmed Black teens, or Palestine, America will always have space for rhetoric that excuses these events behind policies, perceptions, narratives (aka political violence) to justify it.