I categorically reject social and political violence and encourage everyone else to do the same.

There’s been a growing acceptance of violence on the political left in America, however.

The person who allegedly murdered two Israeli embassy employees in an antisemitic attack in Washington, Elias Rodriguez, appears to have been steeped in far left political activism in Chicago.

But it’s not just random extremists. A poll found that 55.2% of left of center people felt it would be at least somewhat justified to assassinate Donald Trump. Keep in mind, there have already been two previous attempts to assassinate him.

The NY Post article discussing this poll noted that Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has become something of a folk hero on the left.

The same poll also found 48.6% of left of center people thought it would be justified to assassinate Elon Musk, and 57.6% thought destroying Tesla dealerships was partially acceptable.

There in fact has been a wave of attacks against Telsa facilities and vehicles. This echoes the widespread riots from five years ago after the death of George Floyd.

Even highly placed anti-Trump figured have essentially endorsed violence. Former FBI director James Comey posted this “8647” meme to his Instagram account.

The terms “86” referrers to cancelling, banning, getting rid of, or destroying something. Donald Trump is of course the 47th president.

There are contexts where a term like this would not necessarily be linked to violence. During the 2020 campaign, for example, I saw a yard sign with “8645” on it. The obvious meaning was to vote Trump out of office in November.

In this case, with Trump just having taken office for his second term, my opinion is that the the obvious interpretation of this is as a coded statement of approval for an assassination of Trump. Comey denied knowing what “86” meant, but I don’t think there’s any reason to believe him.

And Rick Wilson, nominally a Republican but a leader of the rabidly anti-Trump Lincoln Project, not long ago posted on X, “The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. True then, true now.” Something tells me he wasn’t talking about Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.

Of course, there’s a history of right wing violence as well. A difference is that left wing violence is often explicitly or implicitly approved of by mainstream institutions and authority figures.

For example, a man caught vandalizing at least six Teslas in Minneapolis will not be prosecuted. The same prosecutor had previously charged a 19 year old with no criminal record with a felony for simply keying a co-workers car.

There’s obviously long been a policy of not arresting, not charging, or under charging people who engage in left wing violence. They basically have to kill somebody, seriously assault a police officer or engage in some other such major crime to get the book thrown at them.

Suffice it to say, if you are on the right, this won’t be the case for you.

In a polarized environment like the one we live in, it’s important for us to stay self-controlled and reject political and social violence. For the following reasons:

1. It’s the right thing to do. The anger of men does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

2. A world where extra-judicial violence is common is one I don’t think most of us don’t want to live in. A study from a while back found that every murder in a city was associated with 70 fewer people living there. There’s a reason for that.

3. Engaging in violence causes a loss of moral authority. The violent riots after George Floyd had a negative effect on the credibility of the BLM movement. Recurring violence by Antifa linked groups severely harmed the economy and brand of Portland, Oregon.

4. The consequences of violence are asymmetric. People on the left can likely get away with some level of political violence in blue jurisdictions. (The Trump admin is starting to bring charges against some of these people like Tesla terrorists, so we’ll see how that turns out). That’s definitely not the case for people on the right, even in red jurisdictions, which tend to be very law and order oriented.

I say political and social violence because this obviously doesn’t apply in cases of bona fide self-defense, or serving in the police or military (or in extremely unlikely cases like a Russian invasion or a complete social collapse or genuine civil war).

I’m not a pacifist. Nor am I opposed to using legitimate power or force to advance proper goals. But I don’t see that the turn towards violence in America is likely to accomplish anything good.