Quick summary: You know the news: the biggest private health insurer’s CEO was shot down and the nation seems ready to pull itself apart. This weekend, let’s unpack what’s fueling this boiling point and why even the public’s darkest responses make sense, featuring reporting from Sahan Journal and India Currents.
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Hey, y’all,It is one interesting time in the United States right now, isn’t it? The nation is on the heels of now President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection. Holiday cheer, for some, is at full tilt. Glitzy, jolly Christmas carols seem to pour out of every loudspeaker in public — yet just ten days ago, a health insurance CEO was murdered on the street by a gunman-turned-folk-hero, sparking a saga that is surely nowhere near finished. How do we process something like this? Any act of violence is no cause for celebration — especially gun violence, an epidemic that needs no further stoking in this country. Still, a common reaction to the shooting has been callous, comedic, even celebratory. Many have been quick to criticize these as knee jerk, unfeeling responses, and granted, there is plenty to be explored as to what they say about our public psyche. However, dismissing them as simply unempathetic is perhaps the least accurate reading, and the least productive path forward. People feel this way for a reason.It all comes down to how we understand violence. A shooting such as this one is an example of direct violence committed by a person. This violence is the most widely recognized kind in our culture — but we need to think of it as the tip of the iceberg.
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