Guns and the folks in charge and the limits of voting.

Most if not all of you have already heard we had a school shooting here in Madison yesterday—the city's first, as far as I know. A 15-year-old female student named Natalie Rupnow (who went by Samantha, the newspaper says) killed a teacher and another student, and injured at least five more students and another teacher. It didn't happen close to our house, but close enough—about three miles away—that you could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles responding, which went on semi-continuously for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, according to my parents and Julia, who did not have their earbuds in at the time. (I did.) Thanks to everybody who texted or called to check that we were okay.

In other, completely unrelated news, journalist Ken Klippenstein shared a clip from CNN yesterday about the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson. As part of a story about a safety summit Governor Kathy Hochul is holding today with business leaders, the network said it "has learned the safety concerns among executives are so widespread, New York State may create a special hotline just for CEOs to call in threats." (Italics mine.)

What is there to say? It's 12 years this week since the Sandy Hook shootings, which left twenty 6- and 7-year-olds dead. Since then, restrictions on guns in the United States have only loosened, despite consistent majority support for more gun control. However you feel about guns, you should see there's a disconnect there. On the other hand, it hasn't been two weeks since Brian Thompson died, and the governor of New York is already assuring the wealthiest, most powerful people in the country that the government will spend extra tax dollars to protect them. This comes on the heels of numerous essays and op-eds scolding the American public for not properly mourning the man who got paid $10 million a year to authorize his own customers' deaths in the name of profit. The folks in charge are not hiding whose side they're on.

My response to this is not to exhort you to vote harder. Voting matters, you should vote—but my read of the landscape is that we cannot simply vote our way out of the mess this country is in. To instigate real systemic change, we'd all probably need to vote for Democrats, and not just Democrats, but Democrats who wouldn't sell us out to corporate interests. Besides the presidency, we'd have to win a majority in the House and at least 60 seats in the Senate, and again, every Dem involved would need to be on board with packing the Supreme Court. The soonest we could do this is…in four years. And some people aren't even sure we'll have an election then. Unless something changes, I just can't envision how this sporadic exercise of mercurial power ever generates enough oomph to transform society.

I don't think we should resort to violence. But if we want to leave this country and world better for our kids and everyone else who comes after us, those of us who just get up and go to work every day, hoping things will somehow improve on their own, need to start thinking hard about annoying shit like nonviolent protest and collective action (e.g., unionizing). It's the worst, because who wants to do any of that? There is so much good TV on right now. And yet, I can't honestly say I see any other choice.

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✍️ Elad Nehorai published a good piece yesterday arguing that revolution is coming, and the real choice right now is whether we want it to be violent or not. In the simplest possible terms, when large numbers of ordinary people start to feel hopeless and unheard by the government that is supposed to take care of them, they will take action. And: "You cannot keep destroying nonviolent movements without popularizing violence as an alternative."

🛟 And if you want to send financial help to Abundant Life Christian School, where yesterday's shooting took place, the United Way of Dane County has set up a fund.

📋 Weekly Survey

We'll look at last week's survey results on Thursday, and then we'll have a new weekly survey on Monday, as I figure out how I want these weekly surveys to work.

😎 The Fun Part

As funny as this is—and it is funny—I'm starting to wonder if I've been watching too many Saturday Night Live videos over the last few years and not given enough attention to other kinds of comedy. Maybe you guys don't even care. Regardless, if you read or watch or see or hear anything that makes you laugh and want to share it, shoot it my way. It's not your job to write this newsletter, but it is fun to spread the joy of laughter.

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Hit me up at joshwimmer@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, thoughts and feelings, tips, and politely worded corrections and criticism. If you think someone would be interested in this newsletter, forward it to them.