•  Elise   ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 
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    5 months ago

    Don’t you think that’s kind of extreme? There’s countless examples of social change through peaceful protest.

    To name a few examples: Germany people got rid of the nuclear power stations through peaceful protest. The US civil rights movement. Women’s suffrage. LGBT. XR rebellion recently made a change by blocking a road in the Netherlands. Gandhi.

    I’m not saying violence never works or is never necessary. But it’s also an unstable component that’s best to be avoided if you want lasting change.

    You could even argue that violence is counterproductive, at least in some cases. Take the democratization of Europe in and after the Napeolonic era. Napoleon and co did plenty of unethical stuff, and eventually he repeated the same thing all over by becoming emporer, and in the end he lost to the monarchs and so it didn’t really last. But in the long term the idea stuck and did its magic everywhere, even in places they hadn’t conquered.