How Can We Prevent Societal Rifts From Expanding into Violence

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

Stevew said: ↑

This thread is a companion thread to the one I created earlier regarding Russian efforts to sow and encourage division, discord, and violence in our country. How Should We Respond to Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence. . . . (snip)
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This isn't rocket science! You are engaged in the classic distraction the lying liberal media has been doing for years. The FBI has been well aware of attempts at Russian and other country's attempts to influence our elections, FOR DECADES. This phony crap only became a political football after Clinton lost the 2016 election.

It has come to light that corrupt bureaucrats in the FBI used phony election campaign research to illegally SMEAR a sitting president in order to remove him from office, blaming it on Russian collusion, and none of the so-called collusion has been proven enough to make a legitimate case.

A few weeks ago, democrat leadership sat on the Ford letter since July and waited to let it out at the most opportune time for maximum impact to stop the confirmation of a supreme court nominee, again using unfounded SMEAR TACTICS to destroy opponents.

If you really want to know the truth, look at the election history SINCE 2010. Dems have lost well over a 1000+ seats ACROSS THE BOARD at local, state, and federal levels of power since 2010. This clearly shows dems have a major problem with the American PEOPLE, not Trump or the republicans, the American PEOPLE. THIS is the REASON dems are using SMEAR TACTICS. It's desperation!

And dems REFUSE to change after losing elections to the point where they are now at the same level of power they had in the late 1920s. It's 89 YEARS of power change in less than a decade.

Instead of blaming the Russians, blame it on the democrat party LEADERSHIP! That's clearly where the blame belongs. And let's rid ourselves of these corrupt bureaucrats as well. Dems certainly won't do that.

If ever a PREQUEL to Orwell's 1984 were written, it would be exactly what has been going on here in the U.S. by the democrat party, the lying liberal media, and corrupt bureaucrats.

Steve
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What are you talking about? It sounds to me like you may want to go back and reread the OP.
I repeat, this thread is not about Hillary, Trump, or who helped who win the 2016 election.
Nowhere in the OP is any of that even mentioned.

Again, what this thread is about are the concerted and deliberate efforts by Russian agents to sow discord, division, and violence within the U.S. and other western countries through a variety of means, including posing as extremists on both the left and the right, setting up opposing protest groups for the purpose of getting them to fight one another, instigating violence in person and online, coercing citizens, hooligans, people on the fringes, and possibly even politicians to do the instigating for them, and just generally trying their best to pit us all against each other in the hopes that violence and chaos will eventually ensue. And more specifically, this thread is about what if anything we ought to be doing in order to prevent or mitigate that violence.

So do you have any opinion on the actual thread subject?
What would be your proposed solution to preventing and or limiting mass politically motivated violence in our streets??

-Meta

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

doombug said: ↑

Start cracking some skulls. That usually settles down the trouble makers.
Click to expand...

Please read this post.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...g-into-violence.543729/page-3#post-1069758441

-Meta

yiostheoy · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

This thread is a companion thread to the one I created earlier regarding Russian efforts to sow and encourage division, discord, and violence in our country. How Should We Respond to Foreign Attempts at Sowing Discord and Violence.

In contrast to that one, which is geared towards asking what we should do in response to such subversive foreign measures... the purpose of this companion thread is to instead more specifically ask exactly What we should do to prevent, respond to, and or mitigate the violence which may occur as a result?

In the previous thread I gave several examples of the variety of tactics the Russian government uses to divide us and push us towards violence. Some of those tactics being completely virtual, while others involving in-person actors, be they Russian agents themselves or even local citizens contracted to sow the discord and violence on Russia's behalf via coercive means or by co-opting pre-existing extremists within a target country such as our own. Speaking of which, here is one more example of the sorts of things the Russians have gotten up to in other countries and what they now appear to be perpetrating within the U.S.

"On June 12, Macedonian and Greek officials announced that the country would change its name to North Macedonia to end a three-decade dispute with Greece, which saw “Macedonia” as implying territorial aspirations over a Greek region of the same name.

Once the country became North Macedonia, Greece would lift its veto on the country joining NATO. A formal vote to adopt the new name was set for late September.

Moscow was not pleased. At a conference in Athens three days after the agreement, a top Russian diplomat issued a stark warning to the West about the plans to invite Macedonia into the alliance.

“Sure, we will not shoot nuclear bombs,” said Vladimir A. Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union. “But,” he added, “there are errors that have consequences.”

Mr. Chizhov’s threat prompted a series of diplomatic cables back to Washington from Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the American ambassador to Greece who was at the same conference, to warn that Moscow was going to try to stymie the upcoming referendum. The State Department, the C.I.A. and the Pentagon’s European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, were already on the case, officials said.

By then, opposition to the referendum had already surfaced in Macedonia. Over the summer, there would be hundreds of new websites calling for a boycott of the vote and Facebook posts urging Macedonians to burn their ballots — classic disinformation, Macedonian and American officials said, directed by Russian-backed groups.

The day of the agreement, there were also violent protests outside the Parliament building in Skopje, the Macedonian capital.

Enter Mr. Savvidis... As the owner of the Greek soccer team, PAOK FC in Thessaloniki, he famously stormed the field during a match this year against an Athens team while armed with a holstered handgun and surrounded by bodyguards. The Athens team’s players left the field over concerns for their safety and the match was abandoned.

In June, American officials determined from the intercepts of his communications — email, texts, phone calls or a combination — that he had been paying the protesters.

One senior United States official said American agencies were able to easily collect financial data that put Mr. Savvidis behind payments to citizens and soccer fans to incite violence against the Macedonia referendum.

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative reporting organization, Mr. Savvidis paid opponents of the campaign to rename Macedonia at least 300,000 euros, or about $350,000.

Those who received the money included Macedonian politicians, newly established radical nationalist organizations and Vardar club soccer hooligans, who staged the violent protests in front of the Parliament building in Skopje, the project reported." U.S. Spycraft and Stealthy Diplomacy Expose Russian Subversion in a Key Balkans Vote

In summary, a Russian agent was caught paying off local Macedonian citizens and politicians to stage violent protests. One has to wonder given such a scenario whether or not some of our own fellow citizens and or politicians may be being payed off in a similar manor. And at any rate, there is certainly ample evidence that Russian tactics are one way or another beginning to manifest in very worrying ways here in the states.

I'm sure by now most of you have all already heard for instance about recent events involving vandalism, and the subsequent Proud Boys incident. I'm actually not particularly familiar with the specifics of these events myself as they only just occurred, and its difficult to tell just how much involvement Russia may have had in either case,... but its clear that clashes like these are just what one would expect from a targeted campaign of foreign 'active measures' geared towards sowing discord and fomenting violence. The question, again, is what are we, the peace-loving citizens of this country going to do about it? Hopefully we don't reach the point of assassinations, poisonings, and or disappearing journalists.

As previously proven in the Charlottesville case, these sorts of situations can easily lead to death, we can't just ignore them, and note that even that situation was heavily influenced by Russian trolls simply stoking the flames of violence online with “a strategic goal to sow discord.” As I noted in the previous thread, Russian efforts to get us to start killing one another can and likely will (if they already haven't) go much farther than that, potentially to include Russian agents, and or American citizens who have been contracted/influenced by Russia, intermingling among disparate protest groups in order to spark conflict.

Russian Trolls Swarmed The Charlottesville March — Then Twitter Cracked Down

And if history is any indicator, there is a high probability, despite potentially being made up almost completely of Americans at this point, that groups like the Proud Boys and AntiFa may actually have been created themselves by Russian agents specifically for the purpose of pitting them against each other and sparking violent conflict more broadly. I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but these groups did seem to almost come out of nowhere, I do not recall ever hearing about AntiFa prior to just a year or so ago when people suddenly began talking about it almost non-stop, and the Proud Boys, similarly a complete enigma until just recently. Just speculation of course, but their spontaneous and seemingly improbable creation does appear to be highly suspect and they don't really strike me as the type of things Americans would go out and create on their own.

Even so, it should be noted that "...The American public is bitterly divided with or without Russian trolls," and we need to consider how we tamp down on violence in general, as well as what to do in response to violence if things start to get out of control. In other words, regardless of what their origin is, groups like AntiFa and the Proud Boys are here, and we have to consider what to do about them if we want to prevent them or other groups from getting violent/what to do if they do.

We should also consider I think, why it is that people join such groups in the first place. I for one wouldn't ever participate in groups like that, but just looking at their stated ideologies, it isn't difficult to see why many Americans might find them appealing.

At an extremely high level, Proud Boys basically stand for let boys be boys and girls be girls, while AntiFa, the Anti-Fascists, in contrast stand for... well... anti fascism. As a matter of fact, such stated positions are so broadly appealing, that there are likely many Americans out there who could in theory identify with either group and likely do to some extent hold many of the same beliefs of both groups combined even if only in part. And yet, suppose I am one such American, and I want to join one of these groups... which do I join? In the end it may simply come down to a coin toss, and yet the way things are set up now, as soon as I join either group, wham, I have essentially made enemies of the other group despite probably agreeing with 99% of what they purport to be all about. This is why putting people into such boxes is so destructive. The more established or concrete the box, the worse off things will be. To use such organizations as a means to instill division and incite violence,... is really quite ingenious... but...

...What the Russian government is doing, these so-called 'active measures' as well as the actions of those who emulate them, instigating and or perpetrating violence in our streets, to put it bluntly, it is nothing more than terrorism plain and simple. Imagine ISIS or Al Qaeda with the only difference being that instead of making a point to take credit for the terrorist acts themselves, Russia instead tries to get us to blame them on our neighbors. Strong words, I know, but they fit the bill and something must be done. Still though, our response to such things must be measured and sensible at the same time.

So again, What should we do to prevent, respond to, and or mitigate political violence? Simply standing around pointing fingers at each-other while doing nothing else hasn't worked, likely wont work, and is actually just what the Russian government wants. Are you, my fellow forum posters, going to fall head first into their ploy? Will you contribute to the violence and division? Or are you going to be a part of the solution?

Further reading:

Mob of white nationalist ‘Proud Boys’ brutally beat several men
Russian Facebook trolls pushed for race-based violence
How a Blunder Unmasked 305 Russian GRU Agents

-Meta
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More guns.

More guns always discourages violence.

doombug · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

Please read this post.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...g-into-violence.543729/page-3#post-1069758441

-Meta
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I offered a pretty simple solution. You seem to over think things.

Belch · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

You've read a few of my other threads right?
In about half of them I ask members to supply ideas before posting my own latter.
And of course I want for violence to be avoided! Are you suggesting you don't?
But I am not an I alone can fix this type of person. Like @thinkitout was saying
in the other thread, this is an issue that we need to be trying to solve together.

And of course, the issue will not get fixed if no one tries to fix it. So if we want it to be fixed,
we should make the attempt to come up with ways to fix it. Apathy and or defeatism is not going to help anything here.
The Russians are trying to get us to view our political opponents as evil. But more people should take to heart the old saying,
that 'true evil only triumphs when good men do nothing'.

-Meta
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Of course I want to see violence avoided, but so did Neville Chamberlain. Even Churchill would have liked to avoid it, but sometimes you have to be realistic. When the other side are beating on the war drums and people, that's time to call the diplomats back and circle the wagons.

I wouldn't call it apathy, but rather a real problem that isn't going to be settled without bloodshed. There's already been a few skirmishes, but it's heating up fast.

Lesh · Oct 18, 2018

Belch said: ↑

Of course I want to see violence avoided, but so did Neville Chamberlain
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Belch said: ↑

a real problem that isn't going to be settled without bloodshed
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Talk out of both sides of your mouth much?

You LOVE the violence obviously

Stevew · Oct 18, 2018

Stevew said: ↑

This isn't rocket science! You are engaged in the classic distraction the lying liberal media has been doing for years. The FBI has been well aware of attempts at Russian and other country's attempts to influence our elections, FOR DECADES. This phony crap only became a political football after Clinton lost the 2016 election.

It has come to light that corrupt bureaucrats in the FBI used phony election campaign research to illegally SMEAR a sitting president in order to remove him from office, blaming it on Russian collusion, and none of the so-called collusion has been proven enough to make a legitimate case.

A few weeks ago, democrat leadership sat on the Ford letter since July and waited to let it out at the most opportune time for maximum impact to stop the confirmation of a supreme court nominee, again using unfounded SMEAR TACTICS to destroy opponents.

If you really want to know the truth, look at the election history SINCE 2010. Dems have lost well over a 1000+ seats ACROSS THE BOARD at local, state, and federal levels of power since 2010. This clearly shows dems have a major problem with the American PEOPLE, not Trump or the republicans, the American PEOPLE. THIS is the REASON dems are using SMEAR TACTICS. It's desperation!

And dems REFUSE to change after losing elections to the point where they are now at the same level of power they had in the late 1920s. It's 89 YEARS of power change in less than a decade.

Instead of blaming the Russians, blame it on the democrat party LEADERSHIP! That's clearly where the blame belongs. And let's rid ourselves of these corrupt bureaucrats as well. Dems certainly won't do that.

If ever a PREQUEL to Orwell's 1984 were written, it would be exactly what has been going on here in the U.S. by the democrat party, the lying liberal media, and corrupt bureaucrats.

Steve
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Meta777 said: ↑

What are you talking about? It sounds to me like you may want to go back and reread the OP.
I repeat, this thread is not about Hillary, Trump, or who helped who win the 2016 election.
Nowhere in the OP is any of that even mentioned.

Again, what this thread is about are the concerted and deliberate efforts by Russian agents to sow discord, division, and violence within the U.S. and other western countries through a variety of means, including posing as extremists on both the left and the right, setting up opposing protest groups for the purpose of getting them to fight one another, instigating violence in person and online, coercing citizens, hooligans, people on the fringes, and possibly even politicians to do the instigating for them, and just generally trying their best to pit us all against each other in the hopes that violence and chaos will eventually ensue. And more specifically, this thread is about what if anything we ought to be doing in order to prevent or mitigate that violence.

So do you have any opinion on the actual thread subject?
What would be your proposed solution to preventing and or limiting mass politically motivated violence in our streets??

-Meta
Click to expand...

You are IGNORING the "root cause" as pointed out to you in post after post.

Let me put it ANOTHER WAY. The U.S. intelligence services are adept and experienced in circumventing political leadership in many banana republics. They are now using these same techniques against the American PEOPLE to not only save their own butts, but also the dem party's butts as well.

EVERYTHING that started investigations against Trump began with corrupt intel people sending CRAP to the MEDIA which they gladly published.

Corrupt bureaucrats (FBI) CANNOT let one political candidate off the hook for her crimes (CLINTON), and then turnaround and try to remove the opposing candidate from office without evidence (TRUMP). That is banana republic politics and corruption.

If ever a PREQUEL to Orwell's 1984 were written, it would be exactly what has been going on here in the U.S. by the democrat party, the lying liberal media, and corrupt bureaucrats.

Steve

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

DarkSkies said: ↑

I agree, the constant demonization of one another in both the media and elsewhere is a problem.
But what specifically should we be doing about it? Is it just a matter of spreading the word more broadly that
demonization of political opponents is harmful to our social cohesion and needs to stop, or is there more that should be done?

Also, how do we identify harmful demonization vs legitimate criticisms?

-Meta
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What should we do about it? I don't know, the decline in support for certain media should work. While support for certain outlets are decreasing and their antics seem more desperate, they'll eventually lack the audience needed to keep them going.

They have to become totally irrelevant though. People should make each other aware of the MSM and its propagandists' needs to inflame the public and offer each other alternative media sources.
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So call out the bad sources, tell you friends about them, and also tell them about the better sources? Yeah, that could work. What criteria should we look for when choosing/sharing these alternative sources, and how would we judge and identify whether such criteria was met?

BTW, I totally misread what you and @One Mind where writing earlier. I kept looking at the screen and seeing the word demonization, when you both were actually writing dehumanization. Lol. But its all along the same lines, right? And I do still wonder, how we should go about identifying harmful demonization (or dehumanization) vs legitimate criticisms?

-Meta

Stevew · Oct 18, 2018

Here's the latest casualty of bureaucratic corruption against Trump, and these things are the "root cause" of "societal rifts" in the U.S.

Treasury employee (IRS) charged with leaking financial info on Trump team arrested with flash drive in hand (Oct 17, 2018 )

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/treasury-employee-charged-with-leaking-financial-info-of-trump-team

That IS ILLEGAL! And useful idiots believe they can break the law.

Steve

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

Ideas so far:

-Remove Press Protections such as the Actual Malice Standard
-Relax Inciteful Speech Exception to 1st Amendment and base it off audience size
-Hold Politicians to Higher Standard for Inciteful Speech and impose stiff penalties & fines on violators
-Impose Civil Liability statues on state and local jurisdictions which do not enforce breach of peace laws
-Get Politicians and other leaders to tone down their rhetoric in general [1][2]
-Stem violence by addressing inequality, healthcare, low wages, homelessness, and automation induced job loss
-Hold our emotions in check and remember that we are all Americans and that propaganda is meant to divide and not unite
-Eliminate the electoral college
-Mandate that electoral college votes be apportioned by the popular vote
-Eliminate Sunshine laws in order to grease the wheels for congressional compromise
-Eliminate Gerrymandering and political involvement in drawing voting districts
-Eliminate soft money, PACs, corporate & union campaign contributions and control self-contributions to reduce voter cynicism
-Get Main Stream Media to discontinue demonizing opposing factions [1][2]
Click to expand...

Observing said: ↑

So give the left everything they want and everything will be ok.
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garyd said: ↑

So your solution to divisions is to create a totalitarian state? Thanks I'll pass.
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I haven't posted my solution yet. All the ones you've quoted are from other members,
and from what I can tell a mix of folks from both the right and the left and middle?...
Not that I try too hard to keep track of everyone's various political affiliations...
doing so would be kind of pointless. For discussions like these,
its much better to judge ideas based on their individual merits.

@garyd, you say the ideas listed so far are totalitarian...
Certainly you don't believe that to be the case for every one of them... right?

And on that note, what would you guys suggest we do instead?
What solution(s) would you propose for limiting division/preventing
and or mitigating politically motivated violence in our streets??

-Meta

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

opion8d said: ↑

Okay, you make a good point, but what to do about it. We need new leadership on every level. The operative word is leader. We don't have that now. A good leader paints an ambitious inspiring vision and empowers others to achieve it. A leader shares credit for successes with others, takes responsibility for mistakes, and unites, never divides. A leader uses the word "us" not "I" or "Me." A leader projects quiet strength and rises above slights or criticism. A leader is a listener and respects other voices. Most of all, the leader is a uniter, never a divider.

Find those, and we may surmount our current situation.
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Great idea! And very detailed and specific description.
Will be sure to add this one to the list.

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

yguy said: ↑

...the only way to stop the violence is to heal the rift.
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If that's the case, then what exactly do we need to do to heal the rift?
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Disempower the diabolically inclined.
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Um, what exactly does that mean?
How exactly can I tell if someone is 'diabolically inclined'??

-Meta

garyd · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

I haven't posted my solution yet. All the ones you've quoted are from other members,
and from what I can tell a mix of folks from both the right and the left and middle?...
Not that I try too hard to keep track of everyone's various political affiliations...
doing so would be kind of pointless. For discussions like these,
its much better to judge ideas based on their individual merits.

@garyd, you say the ideas listed so far are totalitarian...
Certainly you don't believe that to be the case for every one of them... right?

And on that note, what would you guys suggest we do instead?
What solution(s) would you propose for limiting division/preventing
and or mitigating politically motivated violence in our streets??

-Meta
Click to expand...

Taken in toto as it were the ideas are totalitarian, and none them, taken together or separately will do a damn thing to end divisions within society and most would serve only to increase not reduce violence.

Any group containing more than one person is going to have divisions within it. That like it or not is unavoidable. The only way to limit out breaks of violence is to make sure that those who provoke or incite violence pay a very heavy legal penalty. And the further up the political food chain you are the heavier the penalty ought to be.

Le Chef · Oct 18, 2018

I think people are frustrated today in part because they cannot commit violence. Most of us have a little Viking and Saxon blood. And as Poca-con-us shows, a bit of Indian. War is a natural state. I don't say beneficial or virtuous, but natural, yes.

Who here hasn't fantasized about committing violence. Except me, of course.

yguy · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

I think @Belch answered your question far better than I could.
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Well that's pretty sad, given that his answer was hopelessly idiotic.

Labels like that are irrelevant
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How about the conduct they represent? Is that irrelevant as well?

and ad hominem name-calling in general is unnecessary.
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Actually in a great many circumstances it's absolutely imperative.

We should deal with ideas,
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You're under the impression that ideas cause societal rifts and violence?

Meta777 said: ↑

Um, what exactly does that mean?
Click to expand...

Did that show up in Romanian on your end or something?

How exactly can I tell if someone is 'diabolically inclined'??
Click to expand...

There is no "how". Either you can see it or you can't; and if you can't see, e.g., that those determined to vilify Brett Kavanaugh were diabolically inclined, then whatever you can see isn't worth seeing.

You're welcome.

Meta777 · Oct 18, 2018

Here's an updated list of all the ideas I have recorded so far.

Ideas so far:

-Remove Press Protections such as the Actual Malice Standard
-Relax Inciteful Speech Exception to 1st Amendment and base it off audience size
-Hold Politicians to Higher Standard for Inciteful Speech and impose stiff penalties & fines on violators
-Impose Civil Liability statues on state and local jurisdictions which do not enforce breach of peace laws
-Get Politicians and other leaders to tone down their rhetoric in general [1][2]
-Stem violence by addressing inequality, healthcare, low wages, homelessness, and automation induced job loss
-Hold our emotions in check and remember that we are all Americans and that propaganda is meant to divide and not unite
-Eliminate the electoral college
-Mandate that electoral college votes be apportioned by the popular vote
-Eliminate Sunshine laws in order to grease the wheels for congressional compromise
-Eliminate Gerrymandering and political involvement in drawing voting districts
-Eliminate soft money, PACs, corporate & union campaign contributions and control self-contributions to reduce voter cynicism
-Get Main Stream Media to discontinue demonizing opposing factions [1][2]
-Fight Back in Self-defense if you are Attacked [1][2][3]
-Ensure Open Access to Information, including Spin Narratives
-Elect New Class of Leaders Concerned with Problem Solving Rather than Politics
-Elect Ambitious Leaders who Empower and Inspire Others to Achieve a Vision
-Elect Leaders who Share Credit in Success and Take Responsibility for Mistakes
-Elect Leaders who Unite Rather than Divide
-Elect Leaders who project quiet strength, rising above slights, who listens to and respects other voices
-Elect Leaders like John McCain with Uncompromising Values who can be Respected by both sides and act as Umpire
-Recognize Ad Hominem name-calling and Commit to Avoid Engaging in it
-Deal with Ideas Rather than Pejoratives and Personal Attacks Towards People

garyd · Oct 18, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

Here's an updated list of all the ideas I have recorded so far.

Ideas so far:

-Remove Press Protections such as the Actual Malice Standard
-Relax Inciteful Speech Exception to 1st Amendment and base it off audience size
-Hold Politicians to Higher Standard for Inciteful Speech and impose stiff penalties & fines on violators
-Impose Civil Liability statues on state and local jurisdictions which do not enforce breach of peace laws
-Get Politicians and other leaders to tone down their rhetoric in general [1][2]
-Stem violence by addressing inequality, healthcare, low wages, homelessness, and automation induced job loss
-Hold our emotions in check and remember that we are all Americans and that propaganda is meant to divide and not unite
-Eliminate the electoral college
-Mandate that electoral college votes be apportioned by the popular vote
-Eliminate Sunshine laws in order to grease the wheels for congressional compromise
-Eliminate Gerrymandering and political involvement in drawing voting districts
-Eliminate soft money, PACs, corporate & union campaign contributions and control self-contributions to reduce voter cynicism
-Get Main Stream Media to discontinue demonizing opposing factions [1][2]
-Fight Back in Self-defense if you are Attacked [1][2][3]
-Ensure Open Access to Information, including Spin Narratives
-Elect New Class of Leaders Concerned with Problem Solving Rather than Politics
-Elect Ambitious Leaders who Empower and Inspire Others to Achieve a Vision
-Elect Leaders who Share Credit in Success and Take Responsibility for Mistakes
-Elect Leaders who Unite Rather than Divide
-Elect Leaders who project quiet strength, rising above slights, who listens to and respects other voices
-Elect Leaders like John McCain with Uncompromising Values who can be Respected by both sides and act as Umpire
-Recognize Ad Hominem name-calling and Commit to Avoid Engaging in it
-Deal with Ideas Rather than Pejoratives and Personal Attacks Towards People
Click to expand...

Same problem as before. Not only will it not work It will actual make things worse. People whose only recourse is adhominem attacks ought generally to be ignored. Some people just don't remember how thoroughly the Dems tried to trash McCain.

logical1 · Oct 19, 2018

Simple arrest all protesters in the streets illegally, and fine the hell out of them if they dont have a parade permit.

Meta777 · Oct 19, 2018

Silver Surfer said: ↑

The root cause of political violence in the USA is the liberal media.Their bias is simply unbelievable.There is no impartiality whatsoever. Spartacus,Maxine,Holder,Hillary etc...they called for violent actions against their political opponents and media simply gave them a pass.Furthermore, the language used to attack Kanye West by the liberal pundits was nothing short of a disgrace.Virulent racist insults I haven"t heard people using since 1980"s. No consequences.
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So your solution would be for there to be some sort of consequences for such talk?
What sorts of consequences??

Is it enough for others to simply call them out on that kind of rhetoric,
or do you think something ought to be done further than that?

-Meta

Meta777 · Oct 19, 2018

Silver Surfer said: ↑

Finally, the starter of the thread.All talking points are liberal talking points.Biased.
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Liberal talking points? What are you talking about??
Are you referring to the links in the OP? I made sure to include links from a variety of sources.
Though what's important isn't the political leaning of those sources, but whether or not what they report on can be verified or corroborated by other sources (which they can). Again, there is ample evidence of Russian efforts to encourage division and spread violence, both in this country and others, including plenty of indictments, and a few convictions as well. In fact, I heard that just today there was yet another Russian, Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, charged with funding the Russian operation to sow discord. Bottom line, this is a nonpartisan issue, and requires a bipartisan push to stop it.

-Meta

Meta777 · Oct 19, 2018

yiostheoy said: ↑

More guns.

More guns always discourages violence.
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Seriously...?

Well OK then... if the solution is more guns...
then how exactly should the guns be distributed and to whom?

-Meta

yiostheoy · Oct 19, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

Seriously...?

Well OK then... if the solution is more guns...
then how exactly should the guns be distributed and to whom?

-Meta
Click to expand...

Everyone should have their own gun.

Just like back in the Old West.

Meta777 · Oct 19, 2018

yiostheoy said: ↑

Everyone should have their own gun.

Just like back in the Old West.
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Wont that just turn our society into something akin to the wild-west?...
...except with more people, better guns, and general closer proximity...

I guess you could argue that instigators might be discouraged from doing
things in person if they knew everyone around them had a gun.

But remember, one of the Russian tactics is to get others to do their dirty work for them.
If they get someone who doesn't care as much for risks to their own life,
or who simply isn't aware of the guns, and they have them kick something off,
I think a higher prevalence of guns in that situation would make things worse. Not better.
Keep in mind, in a riot situation, one doesn't really know who around them poses a threat.
And some people might view everyone as a threat. But if you want, I'll still add your suggestion to the list.

-Meta

Meta777 · Oct 20, 2018

doombug said: ↑

Please read this post.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...g-into-violence.543729/page-3#post-1069758441

-Meta
Click to expand...

I offered a pretty simple solution. You seem to over think things.
Click to expand...

How so?

-Meta

Belch · Oct 20, 2018

Meta777 said: ↑

Wont that just turn our society into something akin to the wild-west?...
...except with more people, better guns, and general closer proximity...

I guess you could argue that instigators might be discouraged from doing
things in person if they knew everyone around them had a gun.

But remember, one of the Russian tactics is to get others to do their dirty work for them.
If they get someone who doesn't care as much for risks to their own life,
or who simply isn't aware of the guns, and they have them kick something off,
I think a higher prevalence of guns in that situation would make things worse. Not better.
Keep in mind, in a riot situation, one doesn't really know who around them poses a threat.
And some people might view everyone as a threat. But if you want, I'll still add your suggestion to the list.

-Meta
Click to expand...

The wild west was a very unique 30 year period of history that had a population that consisted primarily of young unmarried men, which is going to skew the stats considerably. The closest you can get to that type of population today would be in a prison. Hand the prisoners guns, fire the guards, and then sit back and watch the festivities from a safe distance.

What you can do is look at the demographics of gun ownership. It's mostly white male republicans living in rural areas who are armed.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/

then look at gun violence by race, and it's nearly double for blacks who overwhelmingly live in urban areas and vote democratic.
https://www.kff.org/other/state-ind...0&sortModel={"colId":"Location","sort":"asc"}

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