There is a deep American tendency to think violence can either be deplored or explained. But we don’t have the luxury of either-or. We’re going to have to do both in the age of system pessimism and go-it-alone violence that is upon us. open.substack.com/pub/anandwri... - ThreadSky

anandwrites.bsky.social • 74 days ago

There is a deep American tendency to think violence can either be deplored or explained.

But we don’t have the luxury of either-or. We’re going to have to do both in the age of system pessimism and go-it-alone violence that is upon us.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/its-the-conditions-stupid?r=16zaj&utm_medium=ios

Comments

ruzie11.bsky.social•73 days ago

We need universal healthcare. Just as we have public education. We need a fully accessible public healthcare system.

peter-sneider.bsky.social•74 days ago

Have you said anything about the ten of thousands of dead Palestinian children? Just curious.

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

Deploring individual acts of political violence is right on. The problem is the common tendency to have one’s thinking stop there.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/its-the-conditions-stupid?r=16zaj&utm_medium=ios

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

The establishment habit of deploring the individual deed and soldiering on oblivious to surrounding conditions is going to get more people killed.

We endanger our leaders and ourselves when we huff the fantasy of the bad apple, the lost scion, and fail to see people as the social biopsies they are.

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

If you are willing to think, actually think, not just tsk-tsk people who break the rules, you cannot separate this one act of apparent political violence from the state of healthcare in this country — a system that millions experience, every day of their lives, as a kind of bureaucratic violence.

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

No more than you can separate the January 6, 2021, insurrection from the conditions of greed-fueled, lie-filled, hate-for-profit media that pump skulls full of disinformation.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anandwrites/p/its-the-conditions-stupid?r=16zaj&utm_medium=ios

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

We have to be brave and wise and curious enough to deplore the symptoms of the disease while also taking on the disease.

anandwrites.bsky.social•74 days ago

There is simply no question that that an America full of loneliness, isolation, despair, stagnation, status anxiety, revivified hatreds, undereducation, corporate cruelty, media collapse, and rampant disinformation is an America where desperate acts and political violence are more probable.

diannamjames.bsky.social•74 days ago

The capture of our courts and elections by wealthy elites contribute to the helplessness felt by Americans, because there literally is nowhere to turn.

judypete.bsky.social•74 days ago

I like former Labor Secretary @rbreich.bsky.social in the way he deconstructs and analyzes the predicating circumstances of how we arrived at this hellscape. What I loosly call a "Let'm eat cake economy"

marionsd.bsky.social•74 days ago

The way I've tried to put it is: Some people are awful and deserve to be held accountable. None of us can self-appoint as judge, jury and executioner. But we MUST demand that our institutions step up. UHC, e.g., is still a terrible company that has likely caused 1000s of premature deaths.

ksjacobson.bsky.social•60 days ago

The US sets a bad example. Violence was condoned by DC for Bin Laden, Kirillov, and when Israel blew up the cellphones. They were threats, so it was Ok. Easy to see healthcare the same way. We lionize mass murderers like Billy the Kid and Jesse James. + Heroes in movies solving problems using guns.

daemonaac.bsky.social•74 days ago

Well, shit - they've been doing it that way for decades where school shooters are concerned. I just......don't expect that to change with the current set of legislators (and people empowered to act)

70retired.bsky.social•74 days ago

As usual you did an excellent job of articulating the bigger picture, thank you !

sosayu.bsky.social•74 days ago

Well said. Thank you.

davidsquared.bsky.social•73 days ago

unregulated corporate capitalism applied to healthcare celebrates maximizing shareholder value by causing pain, suffering and death. "it's just business". Mass media & both parties defends this. What are people to do? Fighting back was always inevitable

clayblasdel02.bsky.social•73 days ago

The interview with Katy Tur = homerun

juandefuca.bsky.social•73 days ago

of course you are here proposing the impossible, in the perspective of the top 5% wealth owners who control 100% of the political agenda. Yes, the system conditions need to be addressed, but where is the incentive when even its victims blindly vote in its champions of the status quo?

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