Siderea, Sibylla Bostoniensis on Nostr: I entirely agree with you, but Look, I once watched a video about people living in ...

I entirely agree with you, but

Look, I once watched a video about people living in the shadow of a dam that was not well maintained and if it let go, would just wash the town away in an eye blink. The interviewer asked if they were concerned, and, no, sir, they were not. They were certain they had nothing to worry about. They had all sorts of mental gymnastics to prop up that attitude. And I figured that engaging in that kind of mental exercise was necessary to keep living in that town. Anyone who didn't would either move away or lose their mind.

We Americans have that same attitude about state violence. We convince ourselves that the state will never misuse violence to allow us to keep living in the shadow of the state's monopoly on violence.

That's the difference: the people setting the cars on fire aren't the state, the people disappearing immigrants are. A whole lot of Americans who object to the former look at the latter and are like, "the dam is FINE. FINE."