{"id":7446,"date":"2017-09-03T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2017-09-03T02:08:39","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T02:08:39","slug":"charlottesville-prevention-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2017\/09\/charlottesville-prevention-of-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Riots in Charlottesville and the Prevention of Violence \u2013 Article by G. Stolyarov II"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/rationalbusinessjournal.rationalargumentator.com\/tophatwhitesm.jpg\" alt=\"The New Renaissance Hat\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><big><big>G. Stolyarov II<br \/>\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><big><span style=\"color: #000080;\">September 2, 2017<\/span><br \/>\n<\/big><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">******************************<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>I admire the courage of Ford Fischer, who reported the events of the Charlottesville street riots directly from the scene and obtained close-up, highly informative documentary footage regarding the tragic events that transpired. He was even a victim of collateral damage; some of the pepper spray aimed at the fascist marchers instead found its way to him.<\/p>\n<p>I recommend that everyone watch his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sTJDPorywkY\">23-minute documentary<\/a>\u00a0in order to have a better understanding of the facts on the ground.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sTJDPorywkY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>My impressions, based on Mr. Fischer\u2019s reporting, are that the entire situation was a volatile powder keg \u2013 with tempers running high and many regrettably radicalized, armed, and incensed demonstrators looking for a fight. \u201cWho started it\u201d was often difficult to discern in the various brawls \u2013 although clearly the murder was committed by a detestable and ruthless alt-right white supremacist. More generally, though, past a certain point, once the violence is in full swing, distinguishing between legitimate self-defense and the initiation of force becomes nearly impossible in the din and chaos (a confusion readily taken advantage of by opportunistic fanatics who relish violence).<\/p>\n<p>This is why, to the extent possible, the infrastructure of society should be configured to prevent such \u201cpowder keg\u201d situations from emerging in the first place. Once civil discourse (which could include heated but peaceful and polite debate) is replaced with the shouting of expletives and threats by lines of armed rioters, it only takes one particularly unhinged individual to commit an atrocity. Most people, I hold, are decent and inclined toward peaceful behavior; this probably included most protesters \u2013 even on the alt-right side (who probably just wanted to hear their leaders speak). However, events such as these necessarily attract the minority of persons who\u00a0<em>temperamentally crave<\/em>\u00a0violence \u2013 and those people, irrespective of ideology, rile up the rest until the chaos is uncontrollable. For them, ideology is epiphenomenal, and violence is an end in itself.<\/p>\n<p>In the immediate moment, police should have taken a more active role in\u00a0<em>separating<\/em>\u00a0the demonstrators. The right of free speech, even obnoxious or heinous speech, should be protected as long as it remains speech only. However, there is no reason for \u201cin your face\u201d confrontations between two incensed opposing sides. Mr. Fischer noted that the police initially took a largely \u201chands-off\u201d attitude with respect to brawls. This was a mistake on the police\u2019s part; each brawl constitutes assault and battery \u2013 criminal acts. Both the protest and counter-protest might have ended peacefully had a line of police remained between the opposing sides at all times. What was interesting is that a contingent of\u00a0<em>private\u00a0<\/em>militiamen was also present and impartial, desiring only to keep the peace and aid those who were injured. There is a role for this kind of citizen initiative (but only to keep the peace, and only to help), and I wonder if this might be part of the solution for future events where the police fail to protect life and property.<\/p>\n<p>In the long-term, though, what is required is a revival of cultural standards of decency and tolerance in discourse \u2013 the prizing of civility and the search for constructive common ground, rather than the complete denunciation and demonization of those who disagree with one\u2019s point of view. Because of deteriorating norms of conduct and a toxic media culture that has fomented political insults as entertainment, we have reached a crisis point where too many people have become radicalized beyond the condition where they even recognize that common ground might exist. So they try to beat one another with sticks instead of beating one another in debate. But words can still work. Words can change the culture \u2013 not right away, but with enough perseverance. This will be the work of decent persons who abhor violence and desire for precious lives and infrastructure to be preserved.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gennady Stolyarov II is Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator and Chairman of the <a href=\"http:\/\/transhumanist-party.org\/\">United States Transhumanist Party<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>This essay may be freely reproduced using the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike International 4.0 License, which requires that credit be given to the author, G. Stolyarov II. Find out about Mr. Stolyarov<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/about-mr-stolyarov\/\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>G. Stolyarov II September 2, 2017 ****************************** I admire the courage of Ford Fischer, who reported the events of the Charlottesville street riots directly from the scene and obtained close-up, highly informative documentary footage regarding the tragic events that transpired. He was even a victim of collateral damage; some of the pepper spray aimed at the fascist marchers instead found its way to him. I recommend that everyone watch his\u00a023-minute documentary\u00a0in order to have a better understanding of the facts&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2017\/09\/charlottesville-prevention-of-violence\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5310,2363,5121,5317,5299,362,40,62,151,1729,1309,1734,1285],"class_list":["post-7446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-charlottesville","tag-civility","tag-discourse","tag-documentary","tag-ford-fischer","tag-free-speech","tag-g-stolyarov-ii","tag-peace","tag-police","tag-protest","tag-riots","tag-tolerance","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7450,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7446\/revisions\/7450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}