With what structure are you going to exercise violent resistance to the current fascist government?
Right now, protests are how we get people involved to begin with in resisting this fascist shite. This is how we start organizing, since apparently a good third of the fucking country has been tuned the fuck out for decades, a third are fascists, and the last third is in a state of perpetual purge and counter-purge.
Violence against the state? My word, that’s illegal and therefore bad. Violence committed by the state, however, is very legal and very cool.
> we start organizing
> tuned the fuck out for decades
If you’re just now getting started with pacifistic resistance at the point where reporters, peaceful protesters, and members of the “opposition” party are each being arrested and shot, then peaceful opposition faces the same recourse as violent opposition so it’s best to just use the option that will actually stop some, if not all, oppressors. We’re also at the point where literal and direct calls for freedom itself are being criminalized as exemptions to free speech. The general cause in the US has been going since the country’s inception; if somebody’s not tuned in by this point, don’t hold your breath waiting for them to tune in before they believe it’s their own neck on the line.
> the last third
The state is already actively deporting, detaining, disarming, and ultimately decimating this opposition third. If there is no stoppage soon, numbers and means of exerting opposition will dwindle to a band of radicals too small and unarmed to effectively harm the state. The people remaining either won’t speak out due to fear of facing the same consequences of dissidence or they’ll think that they’re good and safe for cheering for the state.
Sympathy cannot be garnered from outside forces if they can miss hearing of and thinking about the instances and forms of oppression to begin with. The message against oppression would have to be clear and impossible for the media to avoid, and peaceful protests are both often ignored by those going on their own day unbothered and often represented on the news in a way that is neither accurate nor thorough.
Heaven forbid the opposition third quickly forms a covert and well-armed rebel group which utilizes strategy, stealth, and weaponry to reduce the numbers and armament of the oppressors and stunt their growth of power while the majority of the opposition third operates as a pacifistic front, ultimately leading to an eventual recapturing of the state by force in a coup that the majority of people now supports due to seeing the rebel group’s showy acts which unavoidably display the horrors of the previous state. That would just be terrible! If we’re lucky, the oppressive state will act fast enough to keep us safe from this peril by getting rid of such means of ever overcoming them by means of violent force and allow us to wallow in our peaceful protests that we can’t actually voice, report on, or pass legislation for without being shot or arrested.
FYI an RPG wont arm until a certain time/distance from launch so the metaphor is perfect here.
Peak “now I will fight” hype moment happening after the battle to take the castle was lost yesterday to the enemy while you were worried about the enemy interpreting your actions as threatening.
Hey how much would it hurt if a dummy rocket propelled grenade hit you in the chest at launch velocity?
Probably a lot, you think? Like maybe a fatal amount?
I suspect that even at muzzle velocity that round would punch an RPG shaped hole through this dudes chest, cook his ass as it exited, and arm on the other side.
I am not gonna lie, this is absolutely hilarious given the context of how we started this silly tangent, thank you!
Handguns shoot around 800 to 1300 fps, an rpg is apparently 300fps, even without arming and from a few feet away I imagine its like having a brick launched into your face.
300fps is about 200mph.
Twice as fast as an mlb fastball
So like having a pointy metal object shot into your face at 200mph from a few feet away. I’ll pass.
When you use armed resistance to fight a fascist government with a military. You are attacking your enemies greatest strength. Wouldn’t it be better to attack their weaknesses?
Wouldn’t it be better to attack their weaknesses?
Yes elaborate? I’m curious to find the path to success here
A general strike would be the most direct path.
An armed protest is about checking police involvement more-so then attacking the agencies. Usually an insurgency would attack infrastructure.
Let me put it this way, what wars has the US won against an insurgency on their home turf? And consider that these past wars were waged with an uncontested military industrial complex, technological advantage, uninterruptible supply lines, a functionally infinite budget, the vast resources of one of the largest countries in the world, a US hegemony and control over all markets. Complete intelligence dominance from the sea, land, air and space.
Then factor that the us has the single most armed citizenry of any nation on the planet by an unreasonable degree, a volunteer military, and the infrastructure to wage a war that is in the open protected only by societal contract and the threat of incarceration…
You will not be able to “check” police in an armed protest.
If you point a gun at police that are beating a protestor, the following things will happen.
- you will be killed
- reports of your actions will be used as an example of why a more militarized presences is required
- the regime will be vindicated
If you point a gun at police that are beating a protestor
Your hypothetical is contrived. The point of an armed protest is to have the police chicken out from beating protestors in the first place.
You have local police, ICE, DHS, and the national guard at these protests. I do not recommend a game of chicken.
You are factually wrong. Police do not push on armed protestors, they may be able to single out a single armed protestor but an armed protest does not get fucked with by police historically
An open carry protestor is not the same thing as one pointing a gun at police. If there is a situation where you felt compelled to use that gun, or to at least use it as a warning against brutality, do you really think police won’t shoot you on the spot?
Even in non violent protests, people with gas masks or supplies of any kind become a higher value person of interest and more likely to face arrest and brutality.
If you really want to bring a gun to a protest, then I suggest to keep it concealed until you think something worth your life will happen if you don’t use it.
If you shoot at police, prepare to get shot. If it’s legal to open carry then you should not expect to get shot by exercising that right. But that doesn’t change the fact that an armed protest forces police to strongly consider de-escalation.
They are brutalizing people in the streets and disappearing people for exercising their 1st amendment rights. Why would they respect the 2nd?
I hate to say it, but we no longer have rights. This is a struggle in which nothing can be claimed we are owed, not by law.
I disagree with your argument, not because I don’t want to fight them too. But because this method seems destined to lead to more death and a longer resistance then I hope to raise my child through.
Non-violent resistance is a proven method of toppling regimes. They need our obedience to remain in power and there are ways to deny them with less bloodshed.
I also recommend this book.
Bro! Did you just link me a free book!?!!
Holy cow you win Lemmy today!!!
May I introduce you to annas-archive.org
Wild thing, I think I love you.
