Republican signal. Republican noise.

That Republican leadership likes to incite its following to violence and has become increasingly open about what they’re doing isn’t up for debate.

Neither is the fact that they regularly succeed in getting at least one jackass to act on their repeated cries of “Be a shame if somefink were to ‘appen” comments.

However, the fact that Republican leadership has spent a lot of resources on making sure that the tools of extreme violence are available to practically anyone is also not up for debate.

Result: The U.S. is a country where practically anyone can become a mass murderer and everyone is a potential victim.

Because freedom.

So yes, there is a very real threat of violence by Republican assholes who are enraged because Their Fucking Goon wasn’t declared King God Emperor of the Republic Not a Democracy States of America.

But so is the very real threat of violence by some dude who lost his job and thinks the obvious next step to meeting his career goals is to murder his former co-workers and supervisor.

Or some dude who was grounded because he was suspended from school.

Or, some abusive fuck who kills his girlfriend, wife or ex-girlfriend or ex-wife and often anyone who happens to be in her vicinity.

Or, to take the example of the deadliest mass shooting in the land of the free (at least in this century, at least as of the moment I typed this) – for reasons that were known only to the murderer.

So, another fact that isn’t up for debate is that in this society, where mass murder is as common as days ending with Y (because freedom), the threat of death or damage by someone who has been huffing on a bottle of Republican rage is relatively speaking, extremely low. Especially for people who are not on the standard list of bigot targets. For those not on the list, some other violent asshole acting on some other impulse is more likely to get them first.

Because of the aforementioned freedom. Yay?

The Republican response to the more common type of violence, call it Republican enabled violence to distinguish it from Republican enabled and provoked violence, gives normal people insight into their true motivation: To have there be as much fear, misery and suffering as possible. Because the Republican response to the violence that they insisted must be possible is “Deal (and don’t blame us or we’ll cwy).”

That is, unlike Republican enabled and provoked violence, Republican enabled violence doesn’t bother with the pretense of any sort of demand.

Unless victim-blaming bullshit like “The murder victims should have been walking around with guns grafted to their hands;” racist fuckery that is an excuse for more state-sponsored violence like “We need tanks and snipers’ nests on every corner of every low income neighborhood where more than two Black or brown people live;” or fetid cerebral sewage such as “We should train tots to rush at the person who is murdering them” count.

They don’t.

Republicans want everyone to shut up and put up with constant violence to the extent that in some states deeply insecure and short-sighted people are able to go to the grocery store geared up like Rambo. Ostensibly so they can be the Good Guy With a Gun when a Bad Guy With a Gun looks over the group of victims-to-be and decides “I won’t blow that guy away first, he’s armed!” but really so normal people can be reminded that they could be murdered at any moment and elected officials approve of this arrangement.

When violence inevitably strikes, Republicans insist that everyone get over it as quickly as possible. Take your thought and your prayer and get lost.

Dare to suggest that maybe if it had been slightly harder for the murderer to get their mitts on weapons intended for the battlefield your child, parent, spouse, cousin, friend, classmate, teacher, coworker wouldn’t be dead, and these goons will leave off masturbating in front of their shrines to D.C. Stephenson or whatever and take to the telecomms to shriek that you hate America, want to take away everyone’s guns and there wasn’t actually any shooting anyway, crisis actor.

This is all sounding familiar, right?

Of course. This is essentially how abusers operate because that’s what Republicans are. Although the Republican Party having less collective impulse control than a coked-addled bro on Spring Break has left a few details out of their cunning plan.

At any rate, it is very important to remember that the abuser’s only motive is to hurt people. Yes, they want their victims to think that there is something they can do – or not do – that will stop the asshole from hurting them, but that’s le grand mensonge that is all part of an abuser’s sick idea of fun and one that enablers gleefully accept.

Like the wise man said, the cruelty is the point.

That’s it, end of story, nothing else to see here so don’t bother looking. A second spent trying to figure out what besides the peace of the grave – marked or otherwise – might soothe the savage Republican breast is a waste of a second of your precious lifetime that you will never ever get back. A minute spent doing it is a minute spent legitimizing their bigotry and violence.

Today’s Trivia: People who post OT comments don’t wash their hands after they use the toilet.