Everyone is wrong about why Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump.
People on the right blame overheated rhetoric on the left. People on the left condemn the right’s historical support for political violence. But this all misses the point. There are three long-term trends in human society that made sometime like Thomas Crooks’ actions virtually inevitable – the rise of loneliness, the normalization of political aggression, and the decline in social trust – and animal rights presents compelling solutions to all of these problems.
As Tolstoy wrote over 100 years ago, “As long as there are slaughterhouses there will always be battlefields.” Until the world recognizes this truth, there will always be political violence.
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Chapter 1 00:00 Introduction, the three long-term trends
Chapter 2 02:11 Let's start with what happened and the response
Chapter 3 09:09 How this misses the systemic factors
Chapter 4 10:25 Loneliness
Chapter 5 19:39 Normalizing Aggression
Chapter 6 31:36 Decreasing Trust
Chapter 7 37:23 Imagine a different world, Final Thoughts
Chapter 8 39:31 Outro video - Thank you for watching! Please Subscribe. Acknowledgments to the Podcast Team: Joe Allman, Adam Durand, Chloe Leffakis, & Jeremy Loeb