I checked in on the Kyle Rittenhouse case today and left with a general feeling that things are about to get very bad in America. The judge stopped short of saying he’s in the bag for Rittenhouse, but when he wouldn’t even allow the people killed to be called victims in front of the jury and struck down any state of mind testimony that went against the defendant but allowed all state of mind that supported the defendant, you know it isn’t going very well. You really know things are bad when the Judge starts repeating off color jokes from FOx’s Hannity show. Here is the situation in a nutshell. A kid grabs his (illegal) gun and drives to another town in order to help protect and patrol streets that are not his own. He is there because he wants to ‘help support the cops’. Now mind you he is breaking the law by having this weapon and being out beyond curfew. An altercation occurs where he is pointing his gun at individuals. Later, a gun is pointed at him. He opens up on that person ‘in self-defense’. The crowd decides to attack and disarm him (as he is the active shooter) and he opens up on them, killing and injuring more people.
Now he is a hero of the right for what he did. Can you imagine if the tables were turned racially; if a random young black man were protecting someone else’s property and did what Rittenhouse did? There would be no trial. The cops would’ve executed the kid. In fact, the murder of a black man. All of that is forgotten in this trial–as is the illegal possession of the weapon and the fact that Rittenhouse had no business being there or efforting to ‘stand his ground’ This is about racial injustice. This is about protecting the idea that kids like Rittenhouse can do things like this and go on being okay and free. This is where a lot of the US wants our country to go back towards.
There is a precedent for all of this. While we tend to be ahead of the curve in a lot of things in this world we are socially backwards. Some of that is as a result of blowback from what we stir up across the globe. More of it is as a result of those in power seeing the impact of what happens across the globe and attempting to monetize it here. However, the real precedent here is the last pandemic. Following the 1918 influenza outbreak we experienced a terrifying ordeal of racially driven civil unrest. There is a link there, but it is too nuanced to explain in the time I have left. Long story short: Rage and fear walk hand in hand and can be directed at the easiest points of division.
The problem we are experiencing now is not new and the fact that people in power are being influenced in this way is not new. None of this is new, but none of this is good. What we are talking about is taking a giant step backwards and redrawing the battle lines of equality in a way that reinforces the idea of passing and reinforces the idea of self-defense being allowable for some groups but not others. This is dangerous. This is going to end very badly.