Political violence is not the answer. It never has been and it never will be. ✋ Every time violence is used as a political tool, it deepens the cycle of fear, division, and retaliation. It gives more ammunition to extremists, more excuses for crackdowns, and less room for the rest of us to fight for justice in ways that actually move us forward. We can condemn violence without hesitation — and we should.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: condemning violence doesn’t mean we are required to mourn every victim of it as though they were a hero. Death doesn’t cleanse a person of their record. Death doesn’t erase the years of damage done to communities, or the rhetoric that fueled division, or the cruelty aimed at the marginalized. Someone can be both a victim of political violence and, in life, an active perpetrator of harm.
We’ve seen this cycle before: the moment a public figure dies violently, especially one aligned with power, the media rushes to soften their legacy. Suddenly, the “facts” about their career are scrubbed of their bigotry, their cruelty, their relentless attacks on those already struggling. We’re told we must grieve, that anything less than reverence makes us the monsters. But let’s be clear: refusing to mourn someone who spent their life demeaning others is not the same as celebrating their death.
What we can hold together is this:
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Violence is unacceptable. Full stop.
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We do not need to glorify, sanitize, or pretend to mourn people who dedicated their lives to causing harm.
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We must stay focused on the systems that continue to radicalize people and create the conditions where violence feels inevitable.
The true tragedy isn’t the loss of one figure — it’s that our country is drowning in extremist rhetoric, political gaslighting, and structural violence every single day. The true tragedy is that ordinary people are being crushed under the weight of policies designed to strip away our rights, our safety, and our futures.
So no, I won’t glamorize someone who was cruel just because their life ended violently. But I will fight like hell to make sure that violence isn’t normalized, excused, or perpetuated as the way forward. Because what we need is not more martyrs to hatred — we need a world where nobody has to live or die under its weight.
✊ No to violence.
✊ No to rewriting legacies of cruelty.
✊ Yes to staying focused on building a future where justice and truth matter more than sanitized obituaries.