From day-to-day, it’s hard to keep up with whatever insanity is going on. Time and time again, we see more and more stupidity flowing all around this great country. It’s like the world is running overtime just to push more and more of what we’re seeing all over the nation.

On Monday, Cam wrote about how groups on both sides in Utah are arming up.

More and more, guns are working their way into protests. As Cam noted, though, when the two sides talk, they tend to find out the other side isn’t completely awful and can have a civil conversation. The problem is, though, people are still viewing one another as existential threats. Groups like Utah, or the NFAC squaring off with the Three Percenters, all represent an escalation that should have us all concerned.

However, it’s not just the armed groups that may stir things up.

Indeed leftists are showing their solidarity with Portland militants by staging riots of their own in various U.S. cities — and things heated up over the weekend in a smaller Oregon city as well.

Hundreds showed up in Eugene on Saturday night — less than two hours from Portland and with only 177,000 residents — and set off fireworks at a county jail and federal courthouse while attacking businesses with employees trapped inside, Fox News reported.

In the end seven adults and one juvenile were arrested, the network said, after which an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist group of teens that became known amid the Portland rioting appeared to raise money for the jailbirds. The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front’s unverified account retweeted messages directing people to use mobile payment service Venmo to send bail funds, Fox News added.

The report also included this tidbit:

This was in Eugene, Ore. yesterday at the violent antifa gathering. They blocked off the streets and prevented a driver from using the road. When they surrounded him, he brandished a gun. One of the far-left protesters then brandished a gun back. pic.twitter.com/WY1TgdI738

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 26, 2020

From there, it went about as you would expect:

The pair jaw with each other in the clip, and the driver appears to say “get the f*** out” while the militant quickly replies “no.” Fox News said it wasn’t clear if either man in the video was among the arrestees.

Now, I don’t actually blame the guy in the vehicle. Especially troubling is the fact that the door is open. The report doesn’t say who opened the door, but if it was the “protestors,” then we’ve got even more reason for the driver to pull his weapon.

In fact, this situation could easily have ended up much like Austin. It didn’t, but it could have.

Look, folks, let’s be clear here. This mess is quickly getting out of hand. The worst part is that I don’t feel right telling anyone not to carry a gun to a protest, especially if they feel like they’ll need one. The right to keep and bear arms applies to us all regardless of ethnicity or ideology.

On the same token, I can’t help but feel like some folks are carrying guns to protests not because they feel threatened, but because the hope they’ll feel threatened. They’re hoping to spark off something and get a chance to shoot their enemies.

That’s not good, but how does it stop? How do we put an end to this without sacrificing what matters? I ask because I’m not a “peace at any cost” kind of guy. Some prices are too high, after all. The question is, can we stop it without having to give up everything that matters to us?

I’m afraid we all know the answer to that one.