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Violence Can't Change Minds [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-09-11
My daughter is nine years old. Her favorite cartoon is an absolutely amazing bit of TV called Steven Universe. No matter how old you are, do yourself a favor and watch it. It’s a coming-of-age story about a boy name Steven. There’s a magical destiny, there’s a super-powered team out to save the world, classic cartoon setup. It also has incredible LGBTQ representation and powerful themes about accepting differences in others and yourself.
But the biggest thing that sets Steven Universe apart from the cartoons I watched as a kid, like Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is that rarely are problems solved by violence. Steven defeats his enemies by helping them, and turning them into allies. And by doing this Steven learns the “monsters” he started out fighting are actually just people, like his super team of caretakers. It turns out those “monsters” are people who have been hurt by a war fought long ago and lost their ability to reason. They’re not evil, they’re damaged.
I’m so glad this is my daughter’s favorite cartoon. Her second favorite is Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which another young boy with a magical destiny befriends one of his greatest enemies on the path to victory, and in the end refuses to become a killer in order to win.
This is the kind of person I want my daughter to be. I want her to believe that enemies are just friends we don’t understand yet. Often they’re hurt; just like the Steven’s gem monsters or Prince Zuko in Avatar. Maybe their damage is visible on the outside, but more often it’s hidden, inside. But compassion and learning about each other builds understanding and turning enemies into allies is the most permanent form of victory.
Killing someone can’t change their mind. Few, if any, who shared Charlie Kirk’s beliefs are going to reflect on their hate because he was killed. They’re going to double down on their “Us vs Them” mindset. They’re going to hunker down ideologically, in the face of the threat of violence, and find justification in the idea that people who don’t agree with them are their enemy, and a threat to their existence.
Charlie Kirk was a bad person. But we can’t make bad people into better people with violence.
Steven Universe is a very musical show. The final scene of the final scene of the show puts Steven on the beach with his friends and he shares a song he wrote:
I don't need you to respect me, I respect me
I don't need you to love me, I love me
But I want you to know you could know me
If you change your mind
If you change your mind
If you change your mind
Change your mind
[END]
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