i'm sure everyone who reads this has heard this before but, it cannot be underscored enough: there is going to have to eventually be some kind of confrontation and reckoning with this kind of conservative-induced wave of threatened stochastic terrorism. this is not a healthy sign of democracy, or of society generally.
Golly, it sure is a good thing Target capitulated to the terrorists and removed pride merch so their employees would be safe. The second civil war has been under way for years now, this time around it’s self-activating right-wing militants against everyone. Anyone who thinks they’re safe or they can just abstain and be uninvolved are deluding themselves.
They think this IS their business. I say that not to excuse or justify them. But we can't appeal to their "better natures," because they think they're in the right, that we are all not merely wrong but evil. That leaves us no room to convince them otherwise, because anything we might say is inherently vile deceit - their own chosen information sources have long ago convinced them that everyone else is lying.
So we simply have to beat them. Identify them, prosecute them as criminals (not as enemies nor POWs), and lock them away. Or, when they make it necessary in the moment of their violence, our police forces need to kill them.