Hey Mods: FWIW, this comment wasn’t advocating violence. There is a stark difference between a call to action, and a call to apathy. It was tongue-in-cheek describing perhaps trying to make generalizations about certain methods of political change being ineffective with a sample size of one is just bad science. More data is simply needed.

More philosophically, I am vehemently against the idea that violence doesn’t solve problems or it is somehow taboo because it is a absurd to believe. These are comforting lies we tell ourselves when the state’s monopoly on violence is used all the time to solve problems. Not much happens in history without consequences that draw blood. And it is pants-on-head crazy to pretend that isn’t the true.

All of that said, of humanity’s previous attempts to enact social change, usually a lot more of the aristocracy needs to be personally affected in not so pleasant ways. I don’t really think this event was even an attempt at change. And since no one else has really tried to copy the alleged killer, and it is unlikely that anyone will, even if this was intended as change, no change is gonna happen. And so here we are, not really all that sad about the dead dude because of what he represents, but also not all that happy that there was another dude running around gunning people down, even if we’re pretty indifferent about who he gunned down