Well, that was depressing
I actually expected a different result from the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, at least that he’d get the recklessly endangering safety one even if he didn’t get homicide.
And, ok, just to get inappropriately self centered for a minute here — this is really fucking up my zen. Like, I see we have a deep problem with polarization in this country, and I’ve been spending some time trying to like, consider ways to understand the conservative point of view, or think of how to overcome this political divide. But, it is *really* hard to feel empathy for people who seem like they want to kill you.
I mean, maybe this is unfair — I hope it’s unfair — but… it really kind of feels like conservatives just want liberals dead? Like, I’d heard that conservatives thought that the “liberal elites” hated them? And I was like, aww, that’s sad, I don’t hate conservatives — I just disagree with them.
But… I mean, regardless of how I feel about conservatives, it realllly feels like they hate people like me.
Like, I went to Black Lives Matter protests during the pandemic (all of which have been explicitly peaceful and non-violent, I might add) but I could have seen myself ending up in a situation like the Kenosha protests if I had lived nearby; I thought their cause was worthy.
And, it is really, really hard to maintain empathy for people who seem like they want to kill people like you. Because, at the end of the day, if Kyle Rittenhouse hadn’t had a gun, I don’t think anyone would have died that night. I think people were scared of Rittenhouse, because he was… carrying an assault rifle. I think the presence of that gun was provocative, first to a man with mental illness (who got shot first) then later to protestors who thought Rittenhouse was a mass shooter because… you know, he’d just shot someone.
It’s kind of like, showing up to a wedding in a white dress then acting scandalized when the bride throws her drink on you. Like… yeah, maybe she shouldn’t have done that, but like… you knew you were going to piss her off wearing a white dress. Like, ok, Rittenhouse “brought that gun for protection” — but, it’s fucking scary to be next to someone carrying an assault rifle and he knew that. In fact, I think that’s *why he wanted the gun*. Even if he didn’t intend to kill someone that night, I’m pretty sure what he wanted was that feeling of power that came with carrying a big gun around a group of people who would be intimidated by it. In fact, I think that’s kind of what all these militia people want; they want to feel more powerful than the unarmed people around them. And honestly, those are the last people I want to be carrying firearms.
So, to come out of that trial — with nothing changed, with no sort of deterrent for people who want to go and swing their gun-dick around — well, it’s pretty fucking terrifying, to be honest. Because, inevitably, some of these gun-dickers are going to kill a few people who would never have died, and I don’t think that’s an acceptable loss.
