No one gets sympathy from protestors who fire the first killing shot on the authorities. Syrian peaceful demonstrators turned rebels have sympathy from the world because they were fired at first by Assad. Many people soured on the French Revolution at the time when The Terror occurred after the people started executing just about anyone deemed enemies of the revolution.

No one is against violence if it has to come to it, but on Lemmy it is the usual suspects (I probably don't need to mention what political ideology they tend to be) who want to pull the trigger first on the army and police without ever thinking of consequences (they wilfully ignore the existence of Insurrection act). They are like the 2nd amendment right wingers, looking for any opportunities to fire their guns and live their fantasies, but on the opposite extreme end of the political aisle.

Or, it could be anti-Western actors stoking violence on Americans to maximise political divisions because it will tremendously help if US is thrown further into chaos.

Dont we all wish magic was real?

But it would really be amazing if the fighting WOULD stop. Even for a little while. We've all been at the breaking point for a long time (liberal, republican, and everyone in between). We are all paranoid about so many different things and suspicious of our own government.

While the meme is just a silly joke, magic would be nice.

Aren't the libs fighting back now in LA

Democrats drove away all the fighters by attacking anyone who was the slightest bit controversial or politically incorrect for the last 40 years. Basically the party was taken over by fools and cowards. This is our opposition party, and this is why we're screwed. Ban Fox News.

We could have just voted for Harris last year and things would be pretty good right now.

I need to say this. If you are capable of going to a large protest in a major city you are privileged. Please exercise that. I would love to go to the ATL protest, but it is impossible unless I pay exorbitant parking fees (which I can't).

I agree that we have reached a point where things will only continue to get much, much worse without widespread and overwhelming violence against the authoritarians. Both those in power and those following them.

The problem is that authoritarians are primarily motivated by the irrational fear of violence. This fear justifies their violence, but nobody else’s. And they currently control the government, military, etc and therefore overwhelmingly more violent force than any resistance is likely to muster. On the other hand, authoritarian followers are predisposed to accept what they are told by the leaders of their in-groups, so when peaceful protests are called “violent riots” they will believe it unquestioningly and nothing whatsoever can or will change their minds. Hence, peaceful protest is no defense against the accusation of violence and subsequent right-wing violence. This is why abortion is such an easy topic for social dominators to leverage when inciting their authoritarian followers: it’s “evidence” that their opponents are inherently violent, against babies.

And again, reason and rationality have no part in this. The followers want to believe their out-group is violent and evil, they fear violence, so they will believe it because it reinforces their existing beliefs (a fear of violence, etc).

BTW, Democratic politicians in Missouri were assassinated this morning, and it’s not currently being widely covered by the news. So that take that how you like.

question

I've been thinking today.

it's illegal to block the road, you can get in trouble for a sit in, or by parking on the road.

but how about just driving on a road and respecting the speed limit?

how many drivers do you need to all agree to drive on a specific road, in circles to congest it and create a nightmarish traffic jam.

it's better to be strategic and do so during rush hours. 50 protesters could easily halt the traffic of some main arteries. and really hurt the economy.

What's the winning strategy? If violence is escalated until everybody is incarcerated not much will change.

Peaceful protests are more likely to succeed and no peaceful protest that drew in 3.5 percent or more of the population has ever failed.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world

Once you use violence, they will use that to justify using violence and putting down the movement.

You want to win people’s hearts and minds. You do that by being peaceful. Your opponent will make a mistake, but you stay peaceful. Remember MLK Jr.’s successes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUe-HcdEnzo