I think we get away from meaningful discourse about violence, not "violence" when we start throwing out words like justification.
Strangely, in this case the definition of the word justification is a contradiction when we talk about violence.
Justification: the action of showing something to be right or reasonable.
Does exposure to one form of violence make responding with another form of violence right? No.
I think we can all agree, no.
Does it make it reasonable? Yes, if we’re talking about reasonable expectation and consider that we are all hard wired to defend ourselves against threats, real or perceived. The battle to control this impulse is life long for all of us. Nobody is immune from the possibility of their limbic system taking over when their cage gets rattled. Ergo, people who deliberately provoke KNOW they are taking a risk of a violent response. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous.
Further, to place physical violence so far above all others arbitrarily is one reason for a lack of societal justice. Using our latest example, I personally would much rather be slapped by Will Smith than be driven crazy by gaslighting which is psychological abuse, be raped after being drugged which is sexual violence, be disenfranchised which is economic violence, be driven to suicide by Christian bullies because I was gay which is spiritual, emotional, and verbal abuse, or have my right to reproductive health denied which is emotional, financial, cultural, spiritual, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
I’d rather have my butt grabbed by some drunken Random Barney at a bar (sexual violence) than have my date knock my teeth out (physical violence).
Everyone acting like an open handed slap that didn’t even leave a mild bruise is worse than all of that? Are you kidding me????
A little perspective, please. Every form of violence exists on a spectrum. It’s useless to place one category above all others without acknowledging where it fits on it’s spectrum within that category and how the categories can "stack". For example, is being murdered via a bar fight worse or better than being murdered via lynching or being gunned down at a protest? The first is a series of bad decisions that led to an encounter of physical violence. The second is an eruption of physical violence due to long term sustained cultural violence. That act of physical violence wouldn’t have happened without the cultural violence that created the conditions.
We miss important conversations about how one form bleeds into another. Until we can do that, no form of violence will ever end.
We have to recognize they’re all related and they overlap or we’re just spinning our wheels and trading off one form for another to make ourselves feel better and congratulating or condemning each other accordingly. Which, of course, is an act of violence as well. What do you suppose that will lead to?
