Adam Serwer

And Alex Pretty.

They're the ones who have proven to be tough, who have proven to be brave, who have been willing to defend, you know, the redeeming ideals of Western civilization, like due process, like equal protection under the law.

like individual liberty, those are the things that are being defended by the people on the ground in Minnesota.

They are not and cannot be defended by men with masks and guns who have, quote unquote, total immunity to exact violence on a civilian population.

It's just not possible.

The person who is staring down a gun

with empty hands is always braver than the person with the mask and the gun.

But what has happened is that MAGA has adopted this juvenile definition of masculinity where it's simply a question of dominance.

They've replaced every redeeming quality of traditional masculinity or the traditional masculine ideal that they talk about, heroism, sacrifice, bravery.

And they've replaced it with, you know, a capacity for violence and domination.

That's it.

I've had loved ones who have been on multiple deployments.

But what is a reality is you cannot have people with masks and guns who are not accountable to the public because we don't know their identities, who have total, quote unquote, total immunity to use lethal force.

That is just not compatible with a democracy.

Because the lifeblood of democracy is accountability.

And if you give someone ultimate power, the power over life and death, and you say they can never be held accountable under any circumstances, then you've defeated the purpose of democracy in the first place, which is to find what the will of the people is and execute it.

Yeah, look, I think when a lot of MAGA-aligned people talk about the West, they're not talking about great literature.

They're not talking about great art, although they may sometimes invoke classical literature or classical art that they haven't read or cannot appreciate in order to defend what they really mean, which is the West is a racially defined thing.

It's defined by white people in the presence of people who are not white is therefore an attack on the West.

But what the people in Minnesota are defending,