Dan Carlin addresses the rising tide of political violence and a polarized America in his latest
Common Sense podcast. A few highlights:
* Recent attacks are the 'canaries in the coal mine' that show how far gone America is down the route towards legitimizing political violence. Right now a few whackos are motivated by the climate of hate. Ratchet the heat up a few more degrees and the number of participants will get bigger.
* Over 14 months in 1969-70, there were 40,000 political bombings, attempted bombings, and bomb threats in the U.S. (over 80 a day), killing 43. With today's media, how would Americans cope with that number of incidents? How many freedoms would they surrender? How long before they sought out totalitarianism to save them from chaos?
* There's no real possibility of a resolution to this undeclared civil war. Not even a clear goal for either side, besides expressing hate. The system isn't set up to resolve emotional conflicts.
* The media makes billions from stoking anger and polarization. Although they don't really want to foment violence, they can't pull back as long as their business model is based on selling heat and not light.