We May Be At This for a While
We May Be At This for a While

talkingpointsmemo.com
We May Be At This for a While

We have a new model in which we no longer have parties of government of right and left but rather a civic democratic party and an authoritarian populist party. There’s a good chance they’ll be contesting elections for a while, even as the authoritarian populist party is trying in various ways to end them or radically change how free they are.
I think he's sorely underestimating how much authoritarians love the idea of widespread violence, and how it justifies their worldview in a sorta circular way.
Conservatives are violent by nature. They are violent when they lose and they are violent when they win. They do not value the lives of others the way normal people do.
Do your part. Train, teach and prepare. Join educational groups like The John Brown Gun Club. Conservatives are not going to stop themselves. Pacifism has never defeated conservatism.
Not nature, no. It's a nurture vs nature thing. I have gotten through to some on occasion, and to do so, you have to try to understand the nurture elements they are responding to, how they got that way. It's not their genetics, or their race, or their gender, or their socioeconomic status. It can be any of those. It's not nature though, it's environmental, usually stemming from abuse without being provided a way to understand it imo.
Additionally, I would point to Indian Independence and the work of Mahatma Gandhi to put forward an example of a very rare case where pacifism defeated conservatism.
It's rare though, and it is good to know how to defend yourself. Even just in general.