Violence starts when wages stagnate while rents skyrocket, when police shoot first and face no consequences, when governments strip rights and call it “order.” It starts when budgets are passed that leave people hungry and homeless, when voices are silenced by censorship, and when whole generations are told their futures must be sacrificed to... See more

Violence will not leave politics until justice enters it first. If we want fewer funerals, we have to build peace on justice, not on someone else’s suffering.

Violence is also what happens when systems quietly grind people down

Riots and assassinations aren’t the start of conflict — they’re the bloody finale of years of systemic harm.

Across all of these cases, the through-line is legitimacy. People no longer believe their governments will protect them, share power, or even keep them alive. When the ordinary avenues of change are blocked, some turn to extraordinary ones from torching parliament buildings to assassinating political figures.

But we can’t miss the bigger picture: when fear becomes the default setting of politics, everyone loses. When people expect threats as part of public life, they withdraw from school board meetings, from city councils, from running for office. That withdrawal is the point. Violence is not just killing people; it is shrinking the public square until... See more

This is where privilege hides: in the ability to see violence only when it disrupts comfort, not when it defines someone else’s daily life. For Black Americans living under the threat of police stops, for trans youth watching their healthcare disappear, for immigrants fearing the next raid — politics has always been violent.

“Violence has no place in politics.”

It’s a comforting phrase, but it’s almost always delivered too late, after the glass is already broken. It’s never said when the budget cuts are passed that close hospitals. It’s never said when laws are written to force pregnancies, gut voting rights, or criminalize protest. It’s never said when corporations... See more

ne side has built an entire political brand around permission for violence. When leaders call immigrants “invaders” and political opponents “vermin,” they aren’t just talking but issuing an open contract for someone, somewhere, to act.