After Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro was nearly burned to death in his mansion, that was his statement: “This kind of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it,” Mr. Shapiro said in his first public comments since Sunday morning.
That’s always such a convenient statement. It’s always made by the elite power players who are being targeted by the people.
When the state has all the money, media, weapons, and power, history shows that violence becomes the only language some people feel they have left. That doesn’t make it right. But it makes it inevitable.
So, when politicians say ‘This kind of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it,’ are they also condemning the people who tried to assassinate Hitler? Is there really no context, ever, where violent resistance to authoritarianism is justified?
When we did it against the British in our own revolution, we preferred to call it Freedom Fighting. It’s the same thing. Just so I don’t fall prey to being swayed by propaganda, I’m going to try to refer to ALL people who use these terror-filled attacks as “freedom fighters.” That doesn’t mean I always support their cause. I just want to be careful not to artificially influence the conversation by using emotionally charged terminology that instantly labels people as bad. We MUST decide for ourselves if we agree with a person’s actions or ideology. We can’t let the media and the government decide for us before we ever have a chance of deciding for ourselves.
Governor Shapiro is complicated. First, he’s a Jew. I feel like we must be extremely sensitive and careful for our Jewish brothers and sisters. They may be the longest-standing hated people in all of time. We are conflating anti-semitism with anti-zionism. Those are two VERY different things. This attack on Shapiro doesn’t help that problem. You can be anti-Israel and not be anti-Jew. That is critically important to define these days. I believe that merging all Jews to be synonymous with Israel could lead to another bad backlash against Jewish people.
But, the VAST majority of politicians in both parties are demanding that we swear complete and total allegiance to Israel.
Here’s the Democrat leader’s stance on Israel:
FUCK THAT!!!
I have a hard enough time trying to stay pro-USA (although I ultimately am, and this Freedom of Speech that I’m exercising here is a big reason why I am pro-USA – with many reservations – that’s my American right. Thank you, America.)
They, as usual, aren’t swearing this allegiance to Israel because they have some moral commitment to Israel. As always, it’s just a valuable pawn in our global economic empire. Iraq was always just about oil. And Israel is about having nuclear bombs in the Middle East, because, you know… OIL!
I am not pro-Israel at all. I don’t agree with it. I think it was a bad idea from the beginning. The British handed it off to them and ran away as fast as they could. They knew what kind of clusterfuck was coming. And that should be evident to everyone on planet Earth.
Here’s the very little I know about Governor Josh Shapiro:
In high school, Shapiro participated in a five‑month service program in Israel, working on a kibbutz farm and at projects on an Israel Defense Forces base—though he was never involved in combat or military operations The Times of Israel. As a 20‑year‑old college student in 1993, he penned an op‑ed titled “Peace Not Possible,” expressing deep skepticism about prospects for Israeli‑Palestinian peace and writing that “Palestinians will not coexist peacefully” and were “too battle‑minded” to establish a peaceful homeland of their own The Times of Israel.
I happen to agree with 20-year-old Shapiro. Peace isn’t possible. But it’s not just because the Palestinians are dicks. The Isrealies have been total assholes from day one. They’ve been going tit-for-tat the entire time. I really had hoped maybe the Israelis would have learned something from the Holocaust. But all they learned was “mite makes right,” and genocide is a good idea. (Again, this is not a declaration on Jewish people or even all Israelis. But it certainly is a declaration on the people in power right now. (I can’t promise you that I’m going to write a disclaimer every single time I say something that someone might misrepresent what I say. It just screws up the flow of the writing and it’s tedious for me to have to keep typing out.))
But Shapiro evolved.
Shapiro has said his views have evolved considerably since that youthful piece. He now publicly supports a two‑state solution, declaring, “I have said for years, years before October 7, that I favor a two‑state solution — Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully side‑by‑side, being able to determine their own futures and their own destiny” The Times of Israel The Independent.
Unfortunately, Cody Balmer, who attacked Shapiro this week, appears to be a nutjob. So many of these guys get a tunnel-vision obsession. You see it all the time. I think the vast, vast majority of people can easily rationalize that these kinds of raids are a bad idea. Harriet Tubman called in sick to the raid on Harper’s Ferry that day. And Fredick Douglas noped the fuck right out. He knew it was going to fail.
Even Luigi Mangioni looked pretty fucked up in that McDonald’s when they caught him. He apparently suffers from brain fog. But at least, like John Brown, his heart was in the right place, while his execution was questionable.
While I’m on it, let me say this about this Mangione attack: If someone grew up watching their parents get denied life-saving care while healthcare CEOs made millions denying claims… I wouldn’t be surprised if they felt like they had blood on their hands. That kind of anger is real. And it doesn’t go away just because we don’t talk about it.
It’s possible all these violent freedom fighters have a few screws loose. I mean, that’s not for me. I am too lazy to organize a violent attack on anything. I don’t even like posting stickers up as an act of defiance. It all involves me having to put on my shoes and walking around trying to not get caught. It all just feels like a lot of trouble, and for what? So I can get 72 hours of vitriolic hatred and then be forgotten for the rest of eternity? No thank you. I’ll just stick to blogging. Fortunately, authoritarian dick-head rulers are super thin skinned. They HATE people standing up against them in writing. So, I’m pretty confident I can make a change sitting here on my porch in my slippers. Plus, I hear El Salvador is nice this time of year. (In case you are reading this at another time in history and don’t get the reference, Donald Trump has been flying people to a torture prison in El Salvador against the orders of the Supreme Court. We are now all talking on Facebook about how Hitler built Auschwitz — a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps — was not in Nazi Germany but Poland.)
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that following your dharma—your sacred duty or destiny—is one of the highest spiritual callings. It’s not just a good idea; it’s the path to liberation.
But it’s not destiny in a Western, deterministic sense. It’s not about fate controlling you. It’s about the truth of who you are, and the courage to live it fully, regardless of outcome.
This is what following your dharma means to me:
- Listening deeply to your inner truth
- Acting even when it’s uncomfortable
- Letting go of ego, fear, and attachment
- Serving something bigger than yourself
It’s a radical, sacred commitment to being who you really are, even when it costs you something.
I promote this idea all the time to my houseless friends. Just be true to yourself and fuck the haters.