(Nimue)
I saw a thought online recently to the effect that you should always back the child against the gun. No matter whose child. No matter whose gun. It's one of those things that I think should be entirely obvious, and yet somehow isn't to far too many people.
Most of the time I try to do my politics softly. I think it gets more done. I talk about alternatives and possibilities, I try to share things that foster kindness and that might inspire people to do better. On some social media that means I share on a lot of nature photography from other people. Relentless activism is exhausting, and often results in conflict. People who feel exhausted by other people's relentless activism are more like to shut down than to engage. I try and make it comfortable, and easy where I can. I'm having to change tack at the moment.
You should always back the child against the gun.
There's an awful lot I can't do. But I can share and amplify. I can challenge. There is never a moral case for killing children. Never. I don't think anyone should be trying to justify killing any civilians. Genocide is never the right choice. It shocks me that anyone needs to say this in any context.
Terrorism is hideous, but if you use it to justify genocide, what you've got is still genocide.
When humans do terrible things, there's always a justification. There's something we tell ourselves and each other that helps us feel justified and like it's ok somehow. We have to do this. We are good people. This is the lesser evil. I'm not sure how anyone can persuade themselves that the murder of thousands of children counts as a lesser evil, but that seems to be happening.
It's easier to do terrible things when you believe in the virtue of your actions. Making sacrifices is easier when you're sacrificing someone or something other than yourself. The people who strut about in public talking about the hard choices they have to make aren't usually the ones to suffer the actual hardness of the choices.
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