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Comment by maxharris | Hacker News Reader

I read 538 daily. The violence that "protester" engaged in is directly contributing to Trump's re-election prospects, to the detriment of us all.

Violence is not the answer.

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Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle - when people are convinced of the overwhelming importance of a higher cause, they find little problem with resorting to violence and evil. Watch The Baader Meinhof Complex if you want a historical example.

Exactly, "the overwhelming importance of a higher cause" is how terrorists are made.

Your conclusion doesn't make sense. There are many people who do good things because they are convinced of a higher cause. People go into medicine, or help at a charity, or go into law for a higher cause all the time.

The morally reprehensible stuff is justified by their perceived higher moral cause.

It's powerful, dangerous stuff that works as motivation for good and bad.

That "protester" is involved with a cause that preaches armed conflict and the destruction of the US of A. A bunch of jerks like him are being encouraged and protected by powerful politicians who hold the same ideas. Maybe it's past the time we wise up and start evaluating where the detriment of all of us really is.

> is directly contributing to Trump's re-election prospects

Yes. As does the nomination of a 77 year old candidate with visible signs of dementia, and his choice of the least likeable primary candidate as his VP based solely on her gender and skin color.

> to the detriment of us all

Trump is the best thing that happened to the United States in the last 30 years. You just don't see it yet. His second term will fix that.

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