buzz
Sitting outside at the general store across from the post office on Islesboro as people come and go and chat with each other, the Hallmark stories write themselves. The island of 600 residents is quiet and charming. With Jinx and Peg, we were visiting the Alice Pendleton Library, because that librarian and I are both pursuing Sustainable Libraries certifications and both starting LoTs ( Library of Things ). The ferry fills up fast and coming back we were the last car on, as the ferry loader person waved a truck aside and said send me the little red car, and carefully guided us into the last small space. Ok, the ferry thing is unfamiliar and next time we would make reservations although they say you don't have to. So now island libraries is a thing and Vinalhaven may be next.
This was the week many of us first got to see the "dark underbelly of the internet," where right wing podcasters make millions radicalizing young men. A follower of one group, Groypers, a group of alt-right, white nationalist, and Christian nationalist activists led by Nick Fuentes, assassinated Charlie Kirk, a leader of another group, Turning Point USA. Kirk, apparently was not right wing enough. The fact that it was a sniper shot from a distance suggested Day of the Jackal type stuff, but it was just a young man with a lot of gun experience. White on white, right on right violence. I shared part of a FB post by the Hungry Black Man and it pissed off a couple of conservative friends. If you haven't watched the Netflix series Adolescence, now might be a good time.
Charlie was not a figure of grace or empathy. History will not remember him as a voice of unity or a champion of justice. He will be remembered for the words he chose, words that often wounded and divided. As he lay bleeding out onstage, those words, once weapons, became dust.One poster compared her feed of information--the racist, misogynistic stuff-- to that of her conservative friend who was only shown the more positive quotes and videos. Is that the algorithm? Divide by selective information? It's definitely working.
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So what do we do with a legacy like this? First, we tell the truth. We acknowledge what he said, how he said it, and the hurt it caused. Second, we resist the temptation to let violence beget violence. For if this act tells us anything, it is that political violence has become a siren call to the unhinged, a spark they would gladly use to ignite the tinderbox of racial and class resentment. Today it was a conservative voice silenced. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be a progressive one. We must not let this become the currency of politics.