It is unfortunate, but not because the use of the imagery could reasonably be interpreted in any way as the incitement to violence the Sacklers’ legal attack dogs claimed. I don’t doubt that the family has been threatened seriously many times by leftists, but those making the threats generally suggest methods other than an 18th century device that hasn’t been used in the West for generations and aren’t pacifists who are opposed to violent revolutions (like Cory and the vast majority of the BB community).
If there was any legitimate leverage, Cory’s omission of “alleged” when he called them criminals was strong enough. Pretending that the historical political-economic phenomenon symbolised by the image of the guillotine (see above) doesn’t exist because it gives conservatives an opening to make disingenuous accusations doesn’t serve anyone who wants to see change. Denying what’s happened in the past when inequality reached these levels, or continuing to pretend we’ve reached the End of History is not something liberals or progressives should be doing.
[if you can come up with a better and smarter iconic shorthand for the phenomenon than the guillotine I’d be interested to hear it]
I hope that this incident will be an exception, and that Cory and the other Authors will continue to use both the admonitory guillotine imagery and the “guillotine watch” tag as they have in the past.
