There is a way for pacifism, but you don't do it by asking nicely. You say, "give us rights, and we're blocking central square completely. Do it before the local economy feels the hit!"
But it is important you're ready to face violence yourself. Because the town might decide to send the police on your protest. In this game, you have to bank on the nation having a conscience, especially the government. Considering the government is as evil as they are stupid... probably not a good bet.
This. The comic is dead on accurate. There has never been a point in history where violence wasn't necessary to take back rights from oppressive rulers. If the ones above you are willing to spill blood, there is no alternative but to spill it back. They aren't gunna give up power just because you ask or tell them to stop.
Except there are cases where non-violent disobedience DOES work. The obvious cases would be Martin Luther King and the 1950s - 1960s Civil Rights movement in the USA, and the movement to get the British out of India in the 1930s and 1940s, with Gandhi being a major proponent. Extra bonus points to Gandhi for stopping a fucking genocide in Calcutta by means of a hunger strike after the British left.
It's all very circumstancial and depends as much on the nature of the oppressors and their willingness to openly be the bad guys - it's very far from a universal solution, but your sweeping statement that violence is always necessary isn't correct.
Its almost always a "peaceful protest" that gets put in the history books and then you check wikipedia and there was burning buildings, bombings, and death threats on the side.
Peaceful protests work by the implied threat of them no longer remaining peaceful. If there's no threat, they can be safely ignored. I think whole generations of us were taught that being peaceful was the point, like that has any power in and of itself, but it only serves to give us the illusion of our voices being heard
Yes, but that campaign largely hurt the movement and set it back. As public opinion and government support turned increasely against them, the Woman's suffrage bill introduced after the campaign did significantly worse than one before it. Rather the biggest factor in later introducing Women's Suffrage was the consistent non-violent lobbying by the NUWSS and the efforts of Women during World War 1.
Sure lets put people who are trigger happy and prone to violence as our leaders im sure histoty shows that has always worked
Now seriously, if you must join a violence recistance be careful who you put at the front, times like those are perfect ground for evil and greedy people to take advantage of the anger and disconfor, the Revolution will eats its children if not careful
And if the people currently in charge are already trigger happy and prone to violence, just let them stay in power forever and ever of course! Just ignore it, those types of leaders are famously receptive to peaceful protest and quiet resistance
that requires both the protestors and the ones being protested to agree on that principle. when peaceful revolution is made impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable.
It's possible for pacifists to fight without shedding blood. Should they stop as soon as they're threatened with bloodshed? Should John Lewis have stopped his walk from Selma to Montgomery? Instead of stopping to pray and getting his skull fractured should he have left as soon as state troopers threatened him and his people with nightsticks?
It was video and photos of that bloodshed that helped pass the Voting Rights Act.
Not when only one side is concerned by the bloodshed. ICE shootings and the response thereafter are pretty much proof that the government is okay with killing to quell dissent
Yep, keep moving the goalpost. Much easier than accepting that you were wrong. Go ahead and tell that dead man's family how well "it worked" to do nothing.
Your argument is so frail that you have to resort to the stupidest logical extremes I've ever seen to get it across. Nobody is shooting at ICE but they're still killing people.
Less prominent because it's no longer as shocking as the first few times. It still happens occasionally but it's more of a footnote instead of headline news now.
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u/aarontgp Jul 28 '26
There is a way for pacifism, but you don't do it by asking nicely. You say, "give us rights, and we're blocking central square completely. Do it before the local economy feels the hit!"
But it is important you're ready to face violence yourself. Because the town might decide to send the police on your protest. In this game, you have to bank on the nation having a conscience, especially the government. Considering the government is as evil as they are stupid... probably not a good bet.