My friend, I totally understand what you meant. You’re just being “the Good Guy” - which is what most of us are anyway. You’re watching something, in horror, as it unfolds, and trying to rationalize it, as any sane person WOULD do.
The problem is, the other side doesn’t CARE. That mob coming at you can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be intellectualized away, and it won’t be bargained with either. They see YOU as the personae of everything they hate, and they are going to take that rage out on you at that moment.
You have three choices:
1. Run away if you can. Likely, they catch you (unacceptable).
2. Submit to the beating and possible murder (unacceptable).
3. Shoot the loudest, most aggressive motherf’er amongst them right in the face the second his hands come near you, and then move to the next until they cease their hostile behavior, or you’re dead yourself. Or if lacking a firearm (you SHOULDN’T be if you live in a State that recognizes your right to defend yourself) you grab whatever is handy and shove it right in the most accessible and most painful spot - and KEEP shoving it.
After that, if you’re still alive, well, then it’s fine and dandy to try an rationalize it any way you see fit.
We are we are right now because of exactly the situations you outlined, no doubt. But that doesn’t change that we ARE where we ARE, and WHY they’re doing it.
They’re doing it, and that’s all that matters, and you’re on the receiving end (hopefully not).
“My point is that there are conservatives of every racial and cultural stripe who are also afraid of what is happening, and they don’t feel safe either. ...”
Definitely so, and those folks need to step up and declare loudly and vehemently their displeasure and outrage. Silence is tacit agreement. Sort of like the Muzzies not turning in the Jihadis amongst them - you know, those evil “extremists who hijacked a “peaceful” religion”.
“The dividing line between us is not race, but ideology.”
I submit that the moment before the first fist, kick, or brick hits your head, it’s DEFINITELY about race. Most of these morons are too stupid to even understand the left-right political spectrum discussion.
I have ZERO in common with street thugs and gangstas. I grew up poor, in N.Philly, and I did NOT turn out like that. Same environment, same circumstances. What’s the excuse?
Not jumping on you, friend, and my apologies if it seems so. You sound like a decent person, which we all try to be. I’m just a pragmatic realist that refuses to let myself get the hell beat of me by a bunch of rampaging animals - of ANY color.
It just so happens that these folks do it over and over and over again, ad nauseaum, and it’s getting old hearing folks talking about understanding, etc.
I have a family to support, and I WILL survive - by any means necessary.
We’re on the same side, brother. Just looking at it differently.
As the English would say: By jove; I believe you’ve got it...