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“Choose peace rather than confrontation. Except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, or we cannot move forward. Then if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence.”
—Nelson Mandela, Gaza (1999)
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
—John F. Kennedy, Address on the First Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress (1962)
I also like:
"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force."
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
To add:
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” -Assata Shakur
Nonviolence declares that the American Indians could have fought off Columbus, George Washington, and all the other genocidal butchers with sit-ins; that Crazy Horse, by using violent resistance, became part of the cycle of violence, and was “as bad as” Custer. Nonviolence declares that Africans could have stopped the slave trade with hunger strikes and petitions, and that those who mutinied were as bad as their captors; that mutiny, a form of violence, led to more violence, and, thus, resistance led to more enslavement. Nonviolence refuses to recognize that it can only work for privileged people, who have a status protected by violence, as the perpetrators and beneficiaries of a violent hierarchy. -Peter Gelderloos
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." -MLK
I just don't believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression. -Malcolm X
"So we're going to take up violent action then, right?"
"Oh, God, no, we're just going to sit here and sneer at those who are trying to change the system without violence, or without enough violence."
The problem with violent action is that, to have a chance to succeed, you need a critical mass of support. Not like 50% or anything, but enough that you can’t be easily quelled. The only way you build that support is by suggesting violent resistance to people who scoff at you and accuse you of being unserious until the last straw finally breaks their back and you don’t sound so ridiculous anymore.
I haven't seen a Flight of the Conchords reference in 13 years.
I know! This meme format has serious potential
Get your hand off my tail, you'll make it dirty
Any time violence is used, one fantasizes they are on the winning side
When violence is witnessed, one fantasizes that it is always unjustified.
Not me. I'm fully willing to lose as long as I make some impact.
Launch my dead body through a billionaire's front window. Thanks.
Trebuchet or cannon?
The point isn't about you and your body, it's the belief that violence will bring about YOUR ideal change
Liberals: The Christo-fascists are violently taking over!
Also liberals: Give up your guns!
This liberal: Uh, no? I'll keep my arms thank you very much.
"Liberals" aren't saying "give up your guns." The democratic presidential nominee and vice president are literally both gun owners, and the presidential nominee said she'd shoot a home intruder to death less than a week ago. They're saying something more like "restrict future purchases of particularly dangerous guns and get reasonable rules, regulations, and licensing in place for them like we do for cars."
But I understand that doesn't make for a good dramatic post.
Exactly right. Honestly at this point I think the Dems should just drop gun control entirely as an issue.
Let me preface this next section with the fact that I’ve been largely supportive of common sense gun control laws and think they would be a net positive. But give me a minute because this is a slightly more nuance point (the danger of bringing nuance to gun issues in America is apparent to me)
Why? Let’s say they were successful and made it harder to purchase guns that we categorize as especially dangerous.
So the cost benefit just makes no sense. As a political issue the cost is enormous and the realistic potential benefit is basically nothing. I wish we had a population that cared more about this, but from a pragmatic point of view we simply don’t.
I think it was sandy hook that really cemented this for me. If a grade school full of children gets shot up and the reaction from a significant portion of the population is apathy or to double down on gun rights, that’s not an issue you are winning.
Look, if school children need to die so I can larp in my Meal-Team 6 outfit with my Gravy Seals friends, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to force them to make!
I am less worried that a liberal is armed than I am at which direction the weapon is pointed.
And my legs too
And, you know, most of my body, if at all possible please!
I don’t know any liberals asking for anyone to give up their guns, but saying so sure makes you appear heroic!
No... by wisdom and strategy.
by wisdom
The wise man once said, "Ow! My nose! Owie ow ow ow! He hit me right in the face!"
and strategy
Ever try to win a chess game without taking a single piece off the board?
Yeah, magic.
ig put me on your terrorist recruitment signup or whatever
Lot of delusional people out there on both sides who think that an armed uprising is actually viable and would lead to better outcomes.
As if we wouldn't have to share the country with the other half of people who don't want you to uprise shit and will hate you even more if you try.
No, you don't want an uprising. You don't even want to get off the couch, so lets stop lying to ourselves. You want better management of the system so you don't feel so hopeless and tired that you rather just melt into the couch every day.
We got here because they made you unwilling to get involved in your community and your local politics. If everyone cared more for changing their local communities, then we would have a much better federal system with our rights being upheld. You don't kick money out of politics on a federal level, you do it town by town, county by county, state by state. But most people are so lazy that they think they can sit inside as everyone does an armed revolt outside and then the world will be better.
Nah dog, you gotta get out and make changes with the tools we have. Stop believing in magic.
i agree that wisdom and strategy have their place in violent movements. any violent movement without those two key ingredients is doomed to fail.
Its true violence is going to happen which is why non violence requires being ready for it to fall on you. If the majority of folks do not follow the system it will fall apart but in falling apart many of those who do not follow it will suffer and die but also those that do.
also that guy: "burning down an empty police station is violence btw"
Sometimes you get what comes around.
Sometimes you are what comes around.
Good looking girls on the street!!!
Depending on the street.
seeing how anti guns some people are,i wonder how that's gonna happen.
It's kinda sad that we'd die side by side on the battle feild but voting side by side in the voting booth is a bridge too far.
both are effective. it doesn't have to be an either/or discussion.
for example, you can neutralize your opponent in the polls when there are less of their supporters to show to up to vote.
Bret, you got it going on.