Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have heard of the news that at a rally in Pennsylvania, there was an assassination attempt upon Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. After having seen the live and raw feed from Fox News, initially I thought that this was an attempt with small arms fire like a pellet gun but having seen reports that this was from further away than what I would have expected, the grain size of the bullets and the fact that someone behind him was killed, we have to conclude that this was by rifle fire of a much higher powered device.
The gunman, who I will refuse to name because he deserves no glory whatsoever, was within five minutes found on the roof of a nearby building and then killed by secret service detachment. This in itself is expected because they have eliminated a very clear and present danger who not only did intend to but did exact death on someone, but a little bit problematic in that with the gunman dead, we will never actually find out any reasons for his motivation for doing so.
As expected, in plain sight, the media immediately attempted to use this for political capital; because having been presented with such an obvious gift, the media could immediately pin this on their political enemies before the truth could even be known. Especially if you are the rightwing trashmedia, you can push out all kinds of lies and blame your enemies because you can immediately claim that speculation is not truth.
However the truth that has transpired has immediately defied all of the narratives which the rightwing trashmedia was hoping to deploy. What we know about the attempter killer is that he was a registered Republican voter, an NRA member, likely attended a mainline Christian church, and was white. As far as the rightwing trashmedia's expected narrative goes, this is the worst of all possible worlds. They can not blame black people. They can not blame latino people. They can not blame an illegal immigrant. They can not blame a liberal. They also can not lie back on their favourite stupid little god and say that the right to bear arms was a good thing there, because that would then immediately concede the point that they like the idea that this knave should have the ability to carry a gun.
Perhaps the weirdest set of comments came from Sky News Australia's commentatorati imp Rita Pahani.
Iconic?
What sort of messed up ghoul do you have to be to make this comment? The fact that Donald Trump got shot at is awful. I hardly think that 'iconic' is the word here. Admittedly she might immediately admit that this was in the heat of the moment and that it might have been in bad taste but given the sheer bulk of her reportage which actively laughs and sneers at her political enemies as though she was running a clownshow, this was not a mistake.
Of course she'd blame "the left". This frequent race-baiting conscienceless crumbmaiden will spout any kind of verbal sewage in the name of driving revenue.
Granted, I do not like Donald Trump, or his political persuasion, or his refusal to follow the law, or his insane narcissism, or most of his policies, or the fact that he has ruined any kind of sensible judicial outcomes in the United States for conceivably the rest of my lifetime, but none of that justifies killing him. To see someone die is awful. To wish someone to die is evil. To wish that your own talisman suffers harm and actually revel in a weird sadistic joy from it is bizarre and strange. I though that the celebrations on the streets in the United States when Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden were both killed, was gauche and ghastly. I likely would have though that hearing news of Adolf Hitler dying would have been something of a relief but in no way does that warrant joy.
I do think that it is right and just to pray that Donald Trump heals. I also think that it is right and just to pray that Donald Trump withdraws from the Presidential race. I do not think that it is right and just to wish harm on him, or anyone else for that matter.
I also do not think that this pustule should have had a gun in the first place. Just because there is a Constitutional right does not make that right good, just, fair, sensible, or even proper in a civil society. I do not think that under any circumstance in civil society, that any citizen has the unilateral right to kill someone else, including in matters of self-defence. Moreover, I will also state that I think that anyone who argues this, is making an evil evil argument. Really the only actual justifiable reason why anyone should have a gun at all, is in defence of the nation. I think that if push came to shove, I could very easily point a gun at an enemy and kill them. The fact that I would be in uniform, and under the orders of someone and in fact the state itself, would absolve me from a lot of the moral responsibility of doing so. However it should very much be pointed marked, that the moral negation of what would otherwise be murder only happens because the authority to demand same, and more importantly the moral responsibility of same, lies with the executive of the nation. In no way, is this anything remotely like that at all.
Unfortunately now that the gunman is dead, we will have no ability to question him and find out what his motivation was. Clearly it was a stupid and ill-thought out one, but beyond his actions, we shall find nothing. The thing is that you can not even apply the theory that this was a lone wolf operating in a vacuum, given that the United States has more than three billion guns and given the fact that it has a murder by firearms ratio per capita of more than fifty times that of my country. Also given the events of January 6th, and the fact that more than 8% of United States' Presidents have been assassinated by gun fire, this runs very deep in the culture.
Had he been successful, yes the world would have been shocked, but given the level of veneration for Donald Trump by a cult following of people who have turned him into their god, he would have become a political martyr. Mr Trump now goes on to the Republican National Convention carrying the visible wounds of a life-threatening experience; which unfortunately has only galvanised support behind him. Instead of political martyr, many sections of the Republican now have a partly immortal god for whom their veneration can be amplified. As the United States sleepwalks and goosesteps ever closer to open fascism, I shudder to think what kind of horror would have been unleashed; now I can only help but shudder to what kind of horror will be unleashed now that this idiotic event now acts as mandate for whatever schemes that Mr Trump's handlers will put forward. Every single aspect of this, from every single angle, when viewed in every single light, just looks more and more and more awful and horrible.
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