The Spectrum of Violence

Violence is not just physical

There is not just one way to look at violence. There really aren’t two ways to look at violence. There are more, and I intend to explore it.

We need to look at violence on a spectrum. I think we miss this concept. When someone says they are a nonviolent person, the reasonable assumption is that they mean it in the physical sense. But in my estimation, violence can be broken down into multiple categories, including physical, mental, historical, and willful ignorance.

The typology and the definition of violence are as follows.

“Four modes in which violence may be inflicted: physical, sexual, and psychological attack, and deprivation.”

I would consider these examples correct, but I believe there is still more.

Willful Ignorance

Willful ignorance is another form of violence. Easily proven facts that are then ignored based on a partisan point of view (opinion) can lead to indirect violence. If a politician goes on FOX or Newsmax and then actively ignores facts that are clearly proven, it can be considered violence.

Take climate change, for example. Many of these Republicans know that climate change exists, but they willfully ignore it, causing detriment not only to the planet but to the people as well. People have already been terribly hurt or even died because people refused to take climate change seriously.

So when a politician goes on the air and says that we can't prove climate change is real. Not only are they being dishonest to themselves, but they are also indirectly causing violence to people that believe them.

For instance, the children that died in Texas because of the flash floods. That may have been prevented had the politicians invested their funds in early warning systems. Unfortunately a lot of politicians in Texas say they don't think climate change is real.

Doing things that gaslight others and refusing to let justice take its course causes harm. It is indirect, but when we actively lie to evade the truth, especially on social media, it can cause harm on a huge scale.

When people are convinced that one side is right all of the time and the other is always wrong. It allows for people to accept more and more terrible behavior.

Let’s look at today’s Republican Party. They have claimed to be the party of family values. Values that adhere to mainly Christian ideals. I suppose there could be some exceptions, but since I have lived in this world, this has been the Republican stance.

Upon closer examination, however, I would say that some people adhere to these values, and I applaud this. The problem is that most of the politicians that claim these biblical values either have an extreme view of what the Bible says, or they only say they follow Christian ideals.

Psychological Violence

Psychological violence is another form of violence that we're talking about today.

I believe that when we do things like our current president does, like trying to erase our history. Trying to erase heroes like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Jackie Robinson is tragic and psychologically violent.

The amazing words from people like Martin Luther King and honest accounts from our gritty past that have unfortunately been perpetrated by our ancestors need to see daylight.

Indigenous Americans are included also. Their history must be told as well.They bled the land red that you currently walk on, if you live in the United States. The past needs to be remembered and displayed in places like the Smithsonian.

Unfortunately we have idiots like the one pictured above that probably never stepped in a museum in his entire life. People like him and his ilk know what he is saying here is disingenuous. He is a bigot of the worst kind. He is also under the control of big money donors like the Heritage Foundation, who want to do psychological violence against people to further justify their belief that the United States was founded and meant for Christians only.

Erasing the past leaves us unmoored from the lessons we’ve learned from the past. If our children grow up without those lessons, then what's left to guide them? What's left to keep us from making the same mistakes?

If our current president decides he doesn't like the Old Testament of the Bible because it was too violent.

Are Christians going to be okay with the removal of certain chapters? He already has made his own version of the Bible that is called "God Bless the U.S.A. Bible," endorsed by Donald Trump, which includes the King James Version of the Bible along with the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution (without amendments), the Bill of Rights, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the lyrics to "God Bless the U.S.A." It was first published in 2021, with a new edition promoted by Trump in 2024. The Bible's cover features a U.S. flag, and the book is described as a product of American civil religion and Trumpism, according to Wikipedia.

Historical Violence

I think we could call it historical violence because the government is currently trying to kill the past.

Once again these officials want to whitewash the past. They want to get rid of our gritty past and make it look like everything has always been rainbows and butterflies.

If you're not onboard, even though it's essential for us to learn from our past, we become the enemy of this administration. (Looks like I'm in trouble.)

How will our future children realize that our country was not always white, straight, and Christian?

They want to hide the fact that people came here and massacred Native American people.

Or locked up people in cages, or sent innocent people to concentration camps right here on American soil.

Or the Japanese people during World War 2. This is historical violence.hasn't learned that bigotry.

The president seems to be stuck on this historical violence. He is committing an enormous crime against everyone by denying us our past.

He does this along with his psychopathic buddies, Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, and Russel Vought. All these nationalists, people that are driven by extremist beliefs, strike me as the absolute failure of a people's ability to be honest with themselves, and so we have historical violence.

So this has been my little expansion on the definition of violence. A number of my examples may certainly fall under the umbrella of one of the original categories.

But I think we need to recognize the devils in the details of those things that can indeed be recognized as violence.

Love you all,

Erik

(Liberaldad)