Thursday, January 7, 2021

On the Summer's and Winter's Violence

The summer protest riots vs the Capital riot? 

They are not morally equivalent but they were both bad.

The riots this summer had a just cause but (with the exception of that police building) mostly attacked innocent people and innocent people's property. It is wrong to hurt innocent people and their property even if you rightly mad about an injustice other people committed. 

The violence yesterday did not have a just cause. (If the facts were different--if the election were actually stolen--then it would have had a just cause. But the election was not stolen and it is not reasonable to believe it was.) It did however plausibly target the right thing, though without cause. (That is, had the election been stolen, it would perhaps have been right to storm and occupy the Capitol to prevent the bullshit certification of fraudulent votes and the fraudulent transfer of power).
The riots this summer caused far more harm and damage overall than what happened yesterday, so far. However, it's possible that the long-term consequences of what happened yesterday will be much worse, and that those consequences will be attributable to the protesters yesterday.
So, no, they are not equivalent, and neither were good. They were both bad and bad in different ways and degrees.