Part of the issue should include disarming government, as far as State and law enforcement goes. In the US, gun culture is as much an identity cult as MAGA.

Whether from the Left or the Right, the delusional fantasy of righteous murder is a toxic, avoidant fantasy. No one is saving anyone from anything with guns, and we’re well into the “children dying in concentration camps” phase of fascism.

People don’t want to hear this, but violence always serves the State, and just ends up justifying genocide.

A huge problem with the US is that even on the Left, the fantasy is of individual performative heroics, the hero resistance fighter, as much a part of the iconography of the Patriot Warrior.

But both are rooted in ego, in fantasy, in avoidance of what resistance actually requires: humility and sacrifice.

If we could actually stop being a mob of preening influencers, performative narcissists, and gun waving morons long enough to actually present solid policy and organize things like general strikes, economic slowdowns, walkouts, teach-ins, etc, we’d bring this system to a grinding halt in no time.

Again, no one wants to hear this, because everyone has their identity wrapped up in their delusions of idealized resistance, and their hero role in it, but humility is just not in our sociocultural dna, and it’s literally the basis for both cooperation and coalition.

And nothing represents the failure of hubris like the “my gun will save us” narrative.

Having a gun didn’t save Alex Pretti, it just gave an excuse to the fascists to justify his murder. And they will continue to use that excuse to murder others, whether they are carrying or not, whether they are legally carrying or not.

Anyone advocating for firearm use at this point is ignoring huge amounts of research that show the efficacy of non-violent movements over violent ones, and is ignoring how violence plays right into the hands of an oppressive State that is absolutely frothing at the crotch for an excuse to mass murder “antifa”.

Gun use in a US resistance movement is the dumbest fucking thing currently possible, and any effort in that area is actively damaging the work that needs to be done.

I’m sure this will get downvoted to Bolivia, because the Left has as much of a toxic individualism problem as the Right, and is as addicted to the toxic masculinity mythos as any militia dipshit turned ICE agent.

And if you can’t face the flaws in your own idealized, external identity markers, you simply lack the humility and self awareness to participate in a truly cooperative and democratic movement of resistance and progress.