Technically, extremely technically, politics is possible without violence.
In practice this is basically extremely rare over any appreciable time scale, but bleh.
Now… the state?
The state literally is the formalized use of violence, by definition.
Like, Poli Sci 101, the state is precisely that.
Anybody who says ‘violence has no place in politics’ is either … an anarchist… or … they are extremely lost in the sauce, the propoganda that states produce to normalize and justify themselves. The latter are thus being disinegenous by way of either ignorance or active rhetorical fuckery.
To point toward a currently ongoing example that can illuminate this -> go to youtube right now and look up ‘bricks and minifigs’.
Long story short, Mormons constitute a gang, a mob, a mafia, that has legitimized itself as the state. Laws exist to protect wealthy property owners, the cops are corrupt and work for them, the legal system will bend over backwards to protect those in the gang, and steal from, gaslight, punish and harass those that sufficiently annoy the mob.
Its really honestly shocking how incredibly sociopathic and brazen the entire scenario is, but it really is a great example of … how the state actually works.
The same country that teaches you for a dozen years how fucking badass the founding fathers were for standing up to injustice with a violent revolution, how America saved the world by killing every Nazi and nuking Japan twice to win WW2, will turn around and tell you violence isn’t the answer.
I mean it certainly seemed like a central theme to those endeavors. We didn’t peacefully protest independence from the British. There wasn’t a drum circle to stop hitler.
We are a nation born of violence, steeped in violence, and our government and corporations practice such mundane everyday violence against us we’ve become completely numb to it.
Rare footage of americans “peacefully resisting” the british
The fuck did you think the American revolution was, exactly? A dance competition?
Its the monopoly on violence for me. Police can throw you to the ground for standing in the wrong place at the wrong time but if you dare push back you are in cuffs.
Even “democratic” countries have that problem. There was a incident where a Finnish police officer stomped on an immigrants face. He got away with a fine.
Exactly. ‘One law for thee, and another for me’
Fuckin’ THANK YOU!
“Duuh… we don’t condone violence here nor should anyone incite anybody to violence.”
Meanwhile…
If I don’t pay my taxes, the government will use violence against me.
Money is quantized violence.
Money is speech.
But silence is also speech.
But if money is speech, and silence is speech, then not paying taxes is speech…in which case, using violence against my unpaid taxes would be suppressing my right to free speech. Checkmate, lawyers.
Violence isn’t the answer. It’s the question. Right now the answer seems to be “poor people and minorities”. We should change that answer.
