A few words about the fascist rioting by Q-Anon and racist insurrectionists in Washington, D.C. four years ago.
The problems we have with white racists in this country is a failure of PUNISHMENT.
Instead of jailing and hanging traitors and insurrectionists in 1865, at the end of the Civil War, we jailed no one.
The same occurred for the next 125 years as racists used police fascism to enforce Jim Crow laws, and as police actively winked at lynchings and cross burnings, while manufacturing crimes and escalating confrontations with people of color.
Cops were never punished and Klansmen were almost never jailed.
What’s this have to do with dogs?
Quite a lot.
Training is going on all around us all the time.
So too is bad behavior.
Most of the time, however, bad behavior is put in check, not by rewards but by aversive consequences.
Two men raining blows on each other will stop fighting pretty quickly once the police come, and they will not be quick to fight again after the police haul them to the station, book them, and they have to explain to their spouse, children, and boss why they have to go to court, pay a fine, and spend three weeks in jail.
No policeman ever said: "We have to know why they are fighting in order to change their behavior"
No policeman ever said: "It will take a long time to teach them not to fight."
Police and the criminal justice systems know something; Fighting is a self-rewarding behavior.
Sometimes it feels good to get the adrenaline up and pop someone in the nose.
The Proud Boys and Q-Anon yahoos are mostly in this to feel important and to swagger with impunity.
The impunity is the problem.
Most of us color within the lines of civility because time and experience has shown us that staying calm, engaging in rational discussion, and walking away when mad results in a better long-term outcome almost every time.
When did we learn that? Was it second grade when we were pulled down to the principals office and our parents were mortified because we were suspended for a day?
That didn't take? Then the penalties got higher until they did. How much do you want to lose? Your allowance? The car? Your freedom? Your job? Your future?
Our entire legal system swings on penalties to stop self-rewarding behavior, whether they are penalties for simple assault or robbery, sexual assault or embezzlement.
Why is our legal system focused on penalties?
Because they work.
Rewards are great for encouraging people to show up early, study hard, and help paint the gym, but none of those behaviors are internally self-rewarding, which is why they have to be externally self-rewarding.
How do you stop internally self-rewarding behavior, and how do you stop it pretty damn quick?
Punishment. The "P" word.
And does punishment work?
Like new money.
So, to bring it back to the craziness and violence in Washington: all of it is due to lack of punishment.
Senator Susan Collins said she thought Donald Trump “learned his lesson” when he was impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate.
Trump DID learn a lesson, but not the one Susan Collins imagined.
He learned he could engage in treason and open theft without consequence.
He learned that the politicians and the press corps are confused, divided, tentative, and WEAK.
So how do we fix things now that Trump has been elected President a second time and is nominating disease spreaders. poisoners, and foreign operatives to key posts overseeing health, environment, national security, and defense?
What do we do with a violent animal that has only been rewarded for rape, theft, threats, and violence?
What do we do with an old animal that threatens us all?
We shoot the dog
At this late date, nothing else will work.
You don’t “click and treat” when the pit bull is coming up your arm. You shoot the dog.
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