Just as managers and owners agreed to the compromise of unions in order to prevent the workers from dragging them from their homes and setting the factory on fire with them inside, governments should feel the fear of what happens when you treat people like shit and ignore their complaints.
A lot of people died to get the pittances we got from the ownership class. Decades of
- labor: we want to paid in real money, and work less than 12 hours a day 6 days a week
- owner: no
- labor: then we’re going on strike
- owner, to the state: HELP
- the state: sends police and troops to do violence to labor
The idea that peacefully asking for stuff on its own is effective is largely ahistorical. A happy myth sold by the people who would be receiving violence.
People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.
Ya know…everyone always tries to say violence isn’t the answer. It’s things like this that tells me those people are stupid. Violence is absolutely the answer.
Remember that the j6 rioters got everything they thought they wanted, and they got a pardon.
There are better answers. But the last 18 months have taught me that there is no way in hell the billionaire class will ever give up any of their wealth. Even when it in everyone’s best interest.
If they won’t play nice, don’t expect the response to be nice either. Violence still isn’t necessary, but they should be afraid!
Violence still isn’t necessary
I disagree. Show me a time in history where a population is being oppressed, and then that stopped without violence.
Disruption and obstruction can force concessions without explicit violence.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott achieved its goal without it by demonstrating the economic significance of black passengers. The Nashville Sit-ins won through the resilience of its participants without fighting back. The message in each case was “We’re going to continue being a problem until we get what we want.” The Civil Rights Movement in general achieved a lot of victories simply by being a persistent, well-coordinated nuisance.
Their discipline in staying non-violent even in the face or cruel injustice was a psychological weapon, which can win battles without firing bullets. It drew attention to that injustice, dominated news cycles until people could no longer look away. If media thrive on outrage, police violence is more effective than police suppressing terrorists.
The mistake that people make is to conflate peaceful, “polite”, lawful protest with non-violence: Protests need to be a problem. I can ignore people chanting whatever in the streets, but I can’t ignore them disrupting businesses and obstructing public places. I can try suppressing them with violence, but what if that doesn’t work, if they keep coming?
There’s a book on the topic, “Waging a good war” by Thomas E. Ricks that I found quite enlightening. The important takeaway is that there are multiple ways to win a war, and defeating the opposition’s will can work without actual violence, but the key part is still a military level of discipline and planning.
The people that tell you violence doesn’t work. Hold a monopoly on violence.
Violence is the last resort, but that’s where the billionaire dickheads are taking us.
If violence doesn’t solve your problem, it’s because you aren’t using enough of it.
the difference between violence as an act of aggression/dominance/establishing hierarchy, versus an equalizing force to regain autonomy/dismantle said hierarchy
I always see it like a game of tug of way. With 2 sides. there needs to be tension. If there is no pull at one of the sides then the other side just pull all the rope. These situations need a level of tension.
There’s two sides but three teams; don’t forget the centrists forever pulling for the right.
Centrists trying to cut the steel rope with plastic scissors
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Good. Scare the fuck out of them.
I wonder how many government officials, local and state, have been paid off to ignore public input, know they aren’t getting reelected, but don’t care because they’ve gotten enough to retire.
In my county they changed tune on data centers 6 months before running for re-election and won re-election. People have short memories or never knew to begin with.
The only government that works for the people is a government that is afraid of the people
That’s evidentially the only way, since the councils just don’t care
Violence can be an effective strategy.
Let them cool data centers with the tears of the Martin Luther King Jr that white supremacists invented.
Speak softly (peacefully protest) and carry a big stick (riot).
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
You need both.
Good. You weren’t elected to fuck over your constituents
Thats just awful.
/s
