this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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no, retributive justice doesn't actually fix anything. but at the same time i truly do not blame any comrades who crave it based on the disgraceful and violent world we inhabit (I crave it too, fairly often). and if it motivates someone to be a more active organizer and agitator, then eh, i guess it can have some use. but ultimately i'd say revenge (to the extent it's actually a reasoned and
position, which in most cases it's not - it's emotional and driven by lived visceral feelings of anger and hate) is more lib than the alternative. wanting to inflict pain and enact vengeance presupposes a certain Individual Responsibility and Personal Agency on those who do evil, rather than seeing them as products of preexisting material systems and cultural norms & hierarchies.
that said when i see videos of the Zionist Dinosaur bombing innocent people I crave divine vengeance, so i really do, truly get it even if its "ultimately wrong." the individuals perpetrating this shit are truly loathsome, even if Wrath for Its Own Sake doesn't do anything measurable to change that, and also ignores why they became so loathsome in the first place.
is it vengeance or is it preventing additional genocide? a ceasefire would be great, or the israelis simply going home would be great, but if they will not be so moved then smiting the IDF would be divine harm reduction.
i think there's a distinction between vengeance and violence as a means to an end/as a means of indirect self defense (which is what i'd argue a socialist rev would be), and yeah i think violence against the Israeli state and its jackboots is totally justified self defense. (also lmao i totally forgot i posted all that last night, i was Drinking Drinking huh...)