this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
36 points (100.0% liked)
Socialism
2819 readers
1 users here now
Beehaw's community for socialists, communists, anarchists, and non-authoritarian leftists (this means anti-capitalists) of all stripes. A place for all leftist and labor news and discussion, as long as you're nice about it.
Non-socialists are welcome to come to learn, though it's hard to get to in-depth discussions if the community is constantly fighting over the basics. We ask that non-socialists please be respectful and try not to turn this into a "left vs right" debate forum by asking leading questions or by trying to draw others into a fight.
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.