I’m just waiting for the moment that shots are fired by one side or the other, because once that line is crossed we can finally get real change.

So much energy expended on discussions of violence. Do not worry about if you should or should not do violence. Violence is merely a question of who has the power to allow or forbid it. And if you protest long enough to make political progress, violence will find you, doesn’t matter one bit how you personally feel about it.

Non Violence only protects the state and state approved protest means nothing. The most violent people are police at protests. Dr. King’s character is always stripped down to the peaceful Black leader, and look how that went for him. He was still assassinated.

Um, a lot gets done without violence, including regime change. In fact, nothing swells the numbers of a movement like state brutality on peaceful protests, and that is amplified with the ubiquity of the cell-phone camera and the internet.

This is not to say a movement by violence is bad, just that it can detract sympathizers.

But don’t worry, when the regime has to choose between giving up (say in the face of a general strike) and sending out the goons, they’ll always choose the latter. No one tosses the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. It’s the same paradigm that leaves us with senile geriatrics unwilling to relinquish the power of office until it is pried from their cold, dead hands.

Usually, by then, the military has realized the regime is illegal and as luney as Aerys II Targaryen (The Mad King, who Jamie slew, SoIaF) and is willing to do the wet-work. By artillery if necessary.

Then again, destruction of property like burning the Waymo cabs, is a common necessity. That wasn’t the act of rioters, but saboteurs. Waymos are snitches and have been reporting to ICE the location of targeted civilians.

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.

Here we go again,

The Peaceful LA Protests of June, 2025 worked. We’re all talking about it now. If the LA protests weren’t peaceful, we would have different talking points for this weekend’s protests and protesters would have been killed. This administration wants this.

YSK - That there is a lot of trolling and brigading starting to happen around the LA peaceful protests to start violence. Here is a roadmap from 2015 on how they do it.: https://sh.itjust.works/post/39873361

Also, this:

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/22/protest-trump-resistance-power

This liberal will be fucking armed and on target tomorrow. Do with that information what you will.

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.

God, I can hear these guys having this conversation in that lilting Kiwi accent. This is exactly the sort of absurdity they used to lampoon.

Ah yes, Marxist revolutionary larpers preaching for violence on Lemmy. Come back when you don’t freak out over funko pop collections.

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.

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 my 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. 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.

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

I am a proud liberal, I am supportive and willing of violence against ICE if the prospects of winning are good.

However, there are those among us who want violence against state and federal congress and town halls. Who want to dismantle every police station. Thats not gonna happen.

The MAGAts have to be killed. It’s that simple. That means the politicians and the media talking heads and your dumbass drunk uncle who ruins Thanksgiving and your parents who never get off the couch. There’s shitloads of people standing around waving signs all day in huge mass gatherings but none flooding the halls and studios of their local Fox affiliate or Sinclair station or Salem Media Group broadcaster. They’re cheerleading chants and platitudes that will all be forgotten in a week because no e of them are armed up.