Let's take this out of the realm of abstraction and talk in concrete terms. Cathy's whole thesis about guillotine jokes or displays or memes is that it speaks to some sort of demonization and dehumanization of one's political opponents.
But I would say portraying your opponents as a mass of people who are collectively violent and unhinged is the definition of demonization, which is exactly what Cathy is engaging in here. And that leads to real actual violence.
Specifically she cites an example of a person defining CHOP in a speech with a reference to the French Revolution. I was at that march. I heard it myself. It's a daily march that has been going on for months now and they basically let anyone speak.
That same march engages in nonviolent civil disobedience aimed at pressuring our local Seattle leaders. It operates constructively within the current system to effect change. Nevertheless it has been violently attacked on multiple occasions.
A car hit it while it was occupying the highway killing one person and critically injuring them. An SPD police officer had assaulted them with her car that same night.
A random person attacked one of their bike escorts with a blunt weapon. When they marched in Snohomish to the police chief's home they were met with an armed posse that pointed guns at them.
Just to give you some context. The majority of this group are young women in their early 20s who aren't the least bit physically intimidating engaging in peaceful protests, yet they're constantly being attacked in the streets because they are hyped up as a threat.
The right has been posting memes about running over protesters since well before Charlottesville and just in this year alone, there have been hundreds of vehicle attacks on protesters.
On a side note, the person who shot (or at least distributed) that video that Cathy is referencing is Katie Daviscourt, an associate of the Proud Boys, i.e. the gang of violent thugs that travels around attacking leftists.
Go on Twitter and search hashtags like #BlackLivesSplatter or #BLMisTerrorist and see the sort of unhinged violent things people are saying about the left.
Again, there is a very real tangible connection between the right's violent ideation and actual violence that there just isn't with guillotine memes.
It's not even remotely in the same ballpark.
