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For Saturday protests (midwest.social)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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Cross-posted from "For Saturday protests" by @seahorse@midwest.social in !ohio@midwest.social

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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't know how to feel about that.

I think there definitely are forms of protest that objectively just hurt any movement. A few people looting stores, setting random stuff on fire and most forms of violence will make the whole crowd appear violent and scare off the general public. If you protest against Trump and then steal stuff from a local store, the vast majority will neither see that as related to Trump nor as an acceptable form of protest. Less people will protest and, more importantly, Trump can use the videos etc. to justify his behavior.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Trump does not require any justification for his behavior.

    A riot is the language of the unheard. The middle class is not the target of that messaging. It is the working class. Factories can be torn down, businesses can be destroyed. The institutions of power can be dismantled. We are not powerless. They are vulnerable to us. The ruling class cares more for their property than for the lives of workers. This is not new tactics. It has been used effectively since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The more the state colludes with the ruling class to inflict political violence upon us, the more we inflict revolutionary violence on the institutions and the infrastructure of the state.

    Educate others instead of propagandizing as a counter revolutionary. Those who would be swayed by fabricatdd news stories about violent BLM and ANTIFA protesters are already too far gone and they are not the people we need to reach.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Trump does not require any justification for his behavior.

    Trump needs a certain level of support from the general public. If he sends the army in face of peaceful protestors, he sets that support at risk. But if the news show videos of protestors looting and setting random stuff on fire, the audience is much more likely to believe his narrative and support his actions.

    A riot is the language of the unheard.

    When it comes to violence, I always try to take the perspective of my political opponents. I see myself as pretty left leaning but in a democracy I have to accept that there are also different opinions on how a society should work.

    That does not mean that I see all right wing concepts and ideas as acceptable and if a conservative person wants to be respected by me, I expect them to also draw a line and distance themselves from the radical, far-right extremists. If a conservative person supports right wing violence, that's an absolute no go for me.

    But likewise, if I want my opinion to be respected by moderate conservatives, I have to distance myself from protest forms I don't support. And if people randomly destroy foreign property that is not at all related to the protest, I just can't get behind that. If I then keep protesting along such people, but condemn others when they just look away or go away from far-right extremists, as recommended here for a left-leaning protest, that's double standards for me.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    I think there definitely are forms of protest that objectively just hurt any movement. A few people looting stores, setting random stuff on fire and most forms of violence will make the whole crowd appear violent and scare off the general public.

    I do not agree with this. The George Floyd Uprising / protests started violent and it still became massive and actually dangerous to the status quo.

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