The U.S. is a nation built on a foundational idea directly opposed to your point of view: that freedom is the highest ideal, and it is justifiable to seek it ev

The U.S. is a nation built on a foundational idea directly opposed to your point of view: that freedom is the highest ideal, and it is justifiable to seek it even at the expense of blood. For that reason, it's my opinion that the rage experienced on the American political stage is not due primarily to the news media, but due to authoritarian political strains on both the left and the right. Everyone feels attacked from all angles because we have politicians trying to spy on your phone calls and internet activity, make the encryption that keeps you safe and free online less secure, ban you from getting married via constitutional amendment, force you to say or not say certain words, force you to get vaccinated, force you to accept political messaging from the leadership without being allowed to respond in kind, force you to serve in the military longer than you agreed (stoploss), force you to carry a pregnancy to term, force you force you FORCE YOU! to comply with the ruling orthodoxy of the day. The root problem isn't that people want to respond to this with violence. The root problem is that people don't recognize the violence being perpetrated by the state. The Louisville chief of police directs a no-knock warrant, Breonna Taylor ends up dead in the inevitable clash, and the low level officers executing the warrant are made scapegoats instead of putting the politicians who made this happen into the electric chair. I pray every day for this country not to erupt in further violence. But I fear with every fiber of my being that it will be inevitable unless the political leadership takes stock of what they are doing to the people.