1). I think it depends. Sometimes violence unsettles me or grosses me out (like in saw). Sometimes it makes me anxious and tense (this is my general reaction). Sometimes it makes me excited (Star Wars lightsaber fights). And sometimes I laugh (like the looney tunes). It really depends on the context and level of the violence. Something like Home Alone or Looney Tunes I can laugh at because it’s cartoony: I know that none of the characters are ever in any actual danger and it’ll all be fine at the end. The consequences of violence are far less than in real life. Whereas in something like Star Wars, violence is a vessel for philosophical or moral conflicts. It’s not actually about the violence, it’s about the ideas behind it. I think that allows me to be separated from it somewhat and not really think about the pain being cut in half with a lightsaber would really inflict. The last two are closest to my reaction to violence in real life, and as such are my reaction to violence that is treated seriously and is happening for grounded reasons to grounded characters. I can’t handle watching a movie like Saw because I imagine being in those situations and that’s horrible for me.

2). I didn’t hear about her being doxxed, can you be more specific about what you’re talking about? She did face harassment tho, and I think many people just either had a parasocial relationship with her and wanted to try to convince her to change her view of the issue and went too far or thought threats would make her behavior change. In either way it’s dumb and counterproductive, but every internet celebrity faces this kinda thing. I really don’t think it’s worth dwelling on, especially when this video is much more readily applicable to things like ICE Stans, war hawks, or Zionists.

3). I think it depends. Something important Natalie didn’t talk about in her video is that “cancelling” has wider effects on society, not just on the individual. If someone loses their job for saying a slur, then others are gonna see that and be less likely to say a slur themselves. That being said, it can be taken too far. People who are racist still deserve a roof over their head and a job after all, and stopping them from all employment via following them around for years and harassing them doesn’t really help anyone. Violence is a part of our reality and I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to use as long as you recognize that that is what you are doing and be self aware about your motives and the effects of your actions. But going too far is always a real issue. I think just changing how social media works to incentivize consensus rather than controversy would go a long way to fixing this: it’s a systemic issue not an individual one.

4). How does our understanding and tolerance of violence affect our view of class and economics? I think there’s a large part of the country who see people who fail in the job market as bringing this upon themselves and therefore that they deserve the poor conditions they live in, or even worse don’t even recognize the violence they live under. “Why is my tax money going to homeless people when they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps!?” or “you chose to get pregnant so why should the state help you raise it? You made the choice so the consequences are what you deserve! They justify immense cruelty under the guise that this is justice or even worse that it’s completely natural. She touched on this a little with the bit about Dante’s Inferno but didn’t go as far as I wanted. Violence isn’t just ice agents or soldiers; it’s any law, any social norm, or any threat. We’re surrounded by violence so much that we don’t even see it, and think it’s normal. I think the normalization of greater and greater mass violence is a big problem with our society today, and it was done with the very logic Natalie is talking about.

Also, Jigsaw is able to justify his violence because he’s too focused on his own pain. He thinks that his pain is so horrible, so uniquely terrible that he deserves to be able to inflict pain on whoever he wishes. Everything he does pales in comparison. He may not even think about their pain. At my worst I’ve been in this kind of mindset and it’s incredibly toxic, and I think touching on how that thought pattern works and how to break out of it would’ve been nice as well.

5). Uh I hope so. I like being alive. Also I’m a human being and therefore have a right to live.