The Lack of Moral Equivalence

This is a follow-up on my piece yesterday about the pipe bombs sent to Democrat officials, the news media, and public figures who have been critical of Trump.  The number of people is now up to 12.  Not to worry, though.  I'll keep this reasonably short -- because it shouldn't be too difficult to grasp. 

For all the conservative apologists who refuse to blame Trump on him inciting far-right conservative Republican supporters by trying to conflate the current news with "bad manners" throughout politics -- never mind that Trump not only began it all and has continued it relentlessly for 2-1/2 years while others have been put in a position recently to fight back and defend themselves:  there is actually a huge difference between yelling at public officials when they eat in a restaurant and sending someone a pipe bomb.

Perhaps the difference isn't clear to conservative apologists, so I'll explain.  Yelling at someone in a restaurant forces a person to find another restaurant to eat in or dine at home.  Getting a pipe bomb in your mail box risks it exploding and killing whoever opens it and is in the vicinity, whether the intended target or an unrelated innocent victim.

I didn't think this would require an explanation, it seems pretty basic to human existence, but sometimes some people need to be walked through the obvious.

It's also worth noting that as much as the conservative apologists want to dismiss this difference and the reality that pipe bombs are terrorist attacks, some of the conservative apologists even laughing about it, that all this is no big deal -- it's important to keep in mind that SO FAR none of these pipe bombs have exploded.  Terrible as the story is right now, the story suddenly becomes an overwhelmingly horrifying one if just a single bomb goes off and kills someone, whether the intended public figure or someone unrelated, blowing them apart.

There is something else I didn't think would require an explanation, but it seems to.  So, to be clear, there is no moral equivalence. The former act of yelling isn't a more benign version of the latter.  Taking the time and effort to learn how to make a pipe bomb, put one (or 12) together, and then send it takes a totally different mind-set than yelling at someone to vent, it takes an incitement to want to physically harm fellow humans, to make the effort to kill people and terrorize others.

By the way, I suspect it would also be a much bigger deal to the conservative apologists if one of the pipe bombs had been sent to a Republican, to themselves, or to "Fox News."  Much bigger.  Much.  And not something especially to quip about.

So, to summarize: The end result of yelling at public officials in a restaurant is that, at its very worst, it can be rude and inconvenient.  Sending a pipe bomb to public officials is an act of terrorism that can kill human beings.

There.  That was easy.  Not that conservative apologists want to acknowledge it publicly to the far-right conservative Republican supporters, mind you. But I think most other people are sane and get it.

One last thing.  I've called the people who Trump has been inciting with violence "far-right conservative Republican supporters" rather than just "his base" -- because they're not merely "his" base, they're the base of the entire Republican Party.