People of a certain age have fetishized MLK's nonviolence for decades, while totally ignoring that violence is quite effective and has been since time immemorial bsky.app/profile/labs...
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Also, iirc, he was starting to change his mind about the nonviolence thing around the time he was assassinated
sep 2, 2025, 11:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Yep! Nonviolence mass protest is typically a segment of the strategy and the movement, it ain’t the whole ballgame!
sep 3, 2025, 5:40 am • 0 0 • view
Nonviolence is a very effective tool for individuals and small groups in the face of extreme government violence. I think violence, as a tool of resistance, can also be effective. But if you're going in, you have to go all the way and en masse. We're getting very close to that point.
sep 2, 2025, 10:59 pm • 4 0 • view
Too few people know that the British suffragettes invented the letter bomb.
sep 2, 2025, 11:09 pm • 4 0 • view
MLK didn't have 13,000 guardsmen under his command. Pritzker does.
sep 2, 2025, 11:00 pm • 8 0 • view
Politicians in that day also had the sense to be shamed by their actions. Today that isn't the case.
sep 2, 2025, 10:58 pm • 2 0 • view
And even when MLK was non-violent, he was still assassinated anyway. It was just as much his work as Malcolm X and others that got is where we are today. I’m not advocating for all out revolution, but just that history is certainly written by the winners…
sep 2, 2025, 10:59 pm • 7 0 • view
Not to mention, MLK specifically chose nonviolence because he didn't have an armed state militia at his disposal.
sep 2, 2025, 11:06 pm • 1 0 • view
There seems to me -- in my limited personal experience and wisdom -- a notion held by many "left of center" people that any of "us" who acknowledge kinetic/armed response/conflict as a logical (even effective) escalation is equivalent to endorsing or wanting it.
sep 2, 2025, 11:01 pm • 9 0 • view
Pretty sure that observation is more about the center than the left. Just ask antifa or the black bloc.
sep 3, 2025, 12:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Fair! Again, based on personal experience. Predominately conversations w/"liberal" friends/family who, when catching so much as a whiff of discussion re: physical response, community defense, etc. (Lord help you if 2A comes up) suddenly clam up and aggressively spout off about MLK, Gandhi, et al.
sep 3, 2025, 1:43 pm • 0 0 • view
My experience with the ideological left and propensity to violence centres on the idea they are willing to escalate and ‘take a beating’ if necessary as opposed to the right who more fetishize ‘giving a beating’ to make a point.
sep 3, 2025, 2:05 pm • 1 0 • view
This would be news to pretty much every successful insurrection movement in history bsky.app/profile/adis...
sep 2, 2025, 11:04 pm • 142 4 • view
Yep: "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms." bsky.app/profile/chuc...
sep 2, 2025, 11:10 pm • 103 4 • view
ok. So what? bsky.app/profile/cale...
sep 2, 2025, 11:11 pm • 66 0 • view
I think something significant will unfortunately eventually happen on this front and I sincerely wonder what elected dems do when it does
sep 2, 2025, 11:17 pm • 0 0 • view
One must bear in mind that Donald Trump is stupid and sometimes the things he wants are bad for him
sep 2, 2025, 11:18 pm • 5 0 • view
Also, he wants the violence to be completely one-sided. At their core, our particular fascists are cliched bullies, and every time they’ve met real, credible, committed resistance, they have blinked.
sep 2, 2025, 11:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Idk how they'd even expect to move around the area. The traffic in Chicago isn't as bad as Los Angeles but it's still pretty bad bsky.app/profile/wqsa...
sep 2, 2025, 11:15 pm • 69 4 • view
Illinois should insist that the Texas do grounds keeping in city parks (just kidding, Illinois should insist Texas gtfo)
sep 2, 2025, 11:18 pm • 8 0 • view
No. The ability to get enough people aligned for a national strike at the same time enough to be noticeable is nonexistent. It's the same reason organized boycotts are largely ineffective these days. bsky.app/profile/kenc...
sep 2, 2025, 11:24 pm • 70 3 • view
Well, there's Target. Thank Black women for that one.
sep 2, 2025, 11:30 pm • 4 0 • view
How much of that is boycott and how much is tariffs and uncertainty?
sep 3, 2025, 12:29 am • 0 0 • view
It was boycott. The tariffs came later.
sep 3, 2025, 12:31 am • 4 0 • view
I'm not sure I could point to any national organizing of the Canadian boycotts. We just all did it. No one misses Jack Daniels. Or going through US customs 🤷
sep 3, 2025, 1:31 am • 2 0 • view
And y'all are right to do so! Whole goddamn world should boycott us.
sep 3, 2025, 1:32 am • 0 0 • view
Those guys are going to learn what wet Italian beef is by getting splattered with it. No, I will not explain that sentence. If you know, you know.
sep 2, 2025, 11:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Also people are living paycheck to paycheck or worse, they look at their livelihood and have to weigh whether their family can do without in order for them to make a stand. This is all by design.
sep 2, 2025, 11:30 pm • 0 0 • view
No way a National Strike could happen today or tomorrow but “by design” works both ways: a concerted effort to design and build mutual aid infrastructures (not just food, transport, healthcare etc but eg free collective legal support for those doing rent strikes etc) would make it viable.
sep 3, 2025, 8:18 am • 0 0 • view
The Target one made a dent. But that was a single store brand that a lot of Black people shopped at suddenly saying F you to Black people. A boycott related to Trump and protecting democracy is way less focused. Only thing to boycott is Republicans in the next election.
sep 2, 2025, 11:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Literal LOL 😂 bsky.app/profile/orci...
sep 3, 2025, 1:12 am • 37 4 • view
That's definitely part of it too. But the living paycheck to paycheck also contributes to being aware of a potential strike, before even having to decide whether or not to participate in it bsky.app/profile/alos...
sep 3, 2025, 1:13 am • 28 1 • view
I immediately thought of your photo of the train tracks being set on fire to thaw bsky.app/profile/alis...
sep 3, 2025, 1:16 am • 58 4 • view
Yep. White folk haaaated MLK, and hated him more over time until he was murdered MLK's favorability in polls after his non-violent March Against Fear with James Meredith was worse than Donald Trump's favorability now bsky.app/profile/kxw2...
sep 3, 2025, 1:25 am • 55 5 • view
A large portion of my posting here is dedicated to trying to get the left to understand the philosophical value of closing their crazed-maniac-deficit with the right. bsky.app/profile/john...
sep 3, 2025, 1:49 am • 2 0 • view
Yeah, wasnt a big part of the civil rights movement’s success because the government was afraid of the peaceful protests turning into violent massacres towards local government officials?
sep 3, 2025, 1:38 am • 4 0 • view
My mom often takes the dog out in the morning, middle of January and ground covered in snow, in just her pajamas and boots. 😂
sep 3, 2025, 5:02 pm • 0 0 • view
Stalingrad 🤝 Chicago
sep 3, 2025, 1:18 am • 5 0 • view
To be fair they do that on Long Island too.
sep 3, 2025, 1:28 am • 1 0 • view
"How I conquered this entire country with nothing but willpower, a strong constitution, and that 200,000 man army."
sep 3, 2025, 1:14 am • 0 0 • view
sep 3, 2025, 1:14 am • 0 0 • view
Especially if the guard starts using their trucks as porta-potties when they arrive.
sep 2, 2025, 11:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, Naval Station Great Lakes is a solid 35 miles north of downtown Chicago, in a different county, closer to the Wisconsin border than the city center.
sep 2, 2025, 11:41 pm • 3 0 • view
That and the fastest way to get to Chicago from there isn't going to be the highway unless they commander it, it's Metra and freight trains for their equipment and we know how they feel about trains. Also, the class 1s are politically aligned with them but they can still be pretty mule like to...
sep 3, 2025, 8:42 am • 0 0 • view
...get going in the direction you want them to. To a certain degree, the railroads do what they want whether or not politicians, the military, or law enforcement want them to.
sep 3, 2025, 8:42 am • 0 0 • view
I thought Benjamin Dreyer’s post was you continuing the thread. I was very confused by the tonal shift
sep 2, 2025, 11:20 pm • 2 0 • view
The military trying to listen to a traffic report and hearing all expressways called the Edens, the Kennedy, the Eisenhower, the Boorman, the Dan Ryan, the Stevenson, the Jane Addams, the Veterans, the tollway, & the Bishop Ford.
sep 3, 2025, 12:35 am • 1 0 • view
The guard troops and extra feds in DC add up to about the same number as the total staff of DC MPD. To have the same effect in Chicago, Trump will need to send 11000 troops. As to whether Chicago PD will coöperate: I really hope we're not about to be shown proof that civilian control is a myth.
sep 2, 2025, 11:29 pm • 4 1 • view
Not entirely correct, he wants either violence or total submission. So we have to be strategic about where, when, and what kinds of violence we employ because lack of it will definitely be taken as total submission. (And as we all know, some things that aren’t violence will be taken that way.)
sep 2, 2025, 11:15 pm • 0 0 • view
There are other ways to thwart their efforts. If there is to be violence, make the feds initiate it against roadblocks, detours and simply getting in the way.
sep 2, 2025, 11:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Illinois and Chicago both have assault weapon bans and other restrictions on where firearms may be carried. For example, they are forbidden in buses, parks, universities... There are no exceptions for visiting Texas National Guard.
sep 2, 2025, 11:31 pm • 0 0 • view
He and his allies in the media will argue that violent opposition proves his (bullshit) point, that cities are dangerous and violent. And that argument will likely resonate. share.google/dffaVLcHIXTp...
sep 2, 2025, 11:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Actually I don’t think that’s true- he wants to show how strong he is. He thinks violence will do that.
sep 2, 2025, 11:27 pm • 0 0 • view
This is incorrect. Violence is what he thinks he wants because he's a fool. Violence will end very poorly for him.
sep 2, 2025, 11:13 pm • 7 0 • view
They want to live like mafiasos because they've forgotten what it's like to die like mafiosos
sep 2, 2025, 11:15 pm • 7 0 • view
This—so tired of folks warning about “violence is what he wants” like that means he wins? Why do you think that? You think entire US military is on his side? Nope 👎 it just gets the violence started so we can get on with this Civil War that is DEFINITELY going to require violence. 🤷🏼♂️👀
sep 2, 2025, 11:27 pm • 0 0 • view
As Sturgill Simpson so perfectly said: Compromise is made out of peace But history's made out of violence
sep 2, 2025, 11:16 pm • 2 0 • view
Thaaaaaaaaaaaat’s it. Thank you! That’s my favorite Heinlein book, so you’d think I knew the quote better.
sep 3, 2025, 12:57 am • 2 0 • view
“I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that” is a comeback that has been firmly lodged in my brain for decades.
sep 3, 2025, 1:21 am • 1 0 • view
“The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank!” — M. Scott.
sep 2, 2025, 11:13 pm • 2 0 • view
Like, I hate to be a guy who responds with just a meme, but this one is spot on and also true.
sep 2, 2025, 11:55 pm • 106 26 • view
The "by Luigi" part hits so different and hard now lmao
sep 3, 2025, 1:15 am • 25 0 • view
Right? I guess that's been there all along, but, uh...
sep 3, 2025, 2:42 am • 3 0 • view
those insurrections usually succeeded because they managed to gather a larger army.
sep 2, 2025, 11:05 pm • 0 0 • view
*sigh*
sep 2, 2025, 11:09 pm • 3 0 • view
It goes without saying that that's wrong, but I sense that this isn't going to get through.
sep 2, 2025, 11:30 pm • 1 0 • view
more period need to watch The Battle of Algiers
sep 2, 2025, 11:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Exactly.
sep 2, 2025, 11:09 pm • 0 0 • view
the texas national guard is not even going to try to project force into a hostile Illinois, come on people
sep 2, 2025, 11:11 pm • 5 0 • view
Huh? Isn't that exactly what they are there for? These Reichstag fires aren't starting themselves, so he's got to get more aggressive to get the response he wants.
sep 2, 2025, 11:25 pm • 2 0 • view
Have any "reichstag fires" started themselves?
sep 2, 2025, 11:34 pm • 1 0 • view
.... No? He just does the things he wants. At what point has the man ever manufactured a pretext
sep 2, 2025, 11:45 pm • 3 0 • view
True, but I think he wants/needs one for his greater plans wrt military action on US soil.
sep 3, 2025, 12:20 am • 1 0 • view
Yeah, I grew up and live in Texas, both of my parents were from Chicago; I will bet my money on the Chicago Defense Forces.
sep 2, 2025, 11:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Quick, convince the invaders to ask for ketchup on their hot dogs
sep 3, 2025, 1:53 am • 0 0 • view
(pssst. Don't tell the Viet Cong, or more recently, the folks in Iraq who were not the invaders)
sep 2, 2025, 11:24 pm • 1 0 • view
you need the bigger army for that, and pritzker hasn't got it.
sep 2, 2025, 10:58 pm • 2 0 • view
Illinois + New York + California seems pretty big to me.
sep 3, 2025, 1:29 am • 0 0 • view
You sure don't.
sep 2, 2025, 11:00 pm • 2 0 • view
yeah, my army is me and my dog, which is also not bigger than the united states army.
sep 2, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Guess you should stand down and let others take up arms, then. Or join them.
sep 2, 2025, 11:02 pm • 2 0 • view
He's got more than enough where it matters (i.e., in Illinois) to refuse any deployment TX attempts.
sep 2, 2025, 11:08 pm • 1 0 • view
There are 11 thousand cops in Chicago alone.
sep 2, 2025, 11:01 pm • 5 0 • view
that's more likely to be 11 thousand jackboots for trump than anything else.
sep 2, 2025, 11:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Trump isn't paying them. Doomers man.
sep 2, 2025, 11:06 pm • 3 0 • view
Violence is what he wants.
sep 2, 2025, 11:08 pm • 0 0 • view
No, it's not. He wants to appease his narcissism by proving that he can do what he wants and bully those who don't worship at his altar.
sep 2, 2025, 11:14 pm • 2 0 • view
It’s what Hitler wanted as well, and not responding with it did fuck-all to stop him.
sep 2, 2025, 11:12 pm • 4 0 • view
No, what he wants is capitulation. He's simply willing to use violence to get it.
sep 3, 2025, 3:54 am • 0 0 • view
This might help: A free PDF of Ward Churchill’s Pacifism as Pathology symbioid.com/pdf/Politics...
sep 2, 2025, 11:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Isn't it blindingly obvious, Greg?! BLINDINGLY?! I think you need to take a second to think about this for five seconds.
sep 2, 2025, 10:59 pm • 1 0 • view
there are even well-written texts on how non-violence doesn't work against an enemy freely able to deploy violence: theanarchistlibrary.org/library/pete...
sep 2, 2025, 11:16 pm • 5 0 • view
Wasn’t it Heinlein who wrote: “violence never solves a problem? Wrong! Quick and brutal application of violence has solved more problems than any other method in human history.” I’m sure I misquoted, but I got the gist of Heinlein’s quote in Starship Troopers
sep 2, 2025, 11:00 pm • 8 0 • view
Also the system has an interest in promoting nonviolence to the exclusion of all else. This is obvious if you think about it for five seconds.
sep 2, 2025, 11:17 pm • 4 0 • view
Can’t we just start a national strike instead?
sep 2, 2025, 11:14 pm • 0 0 • view
MLK had Malcolm X out there presenting the alternative. But also, at the time, MLK wasn't winning over the pre-MAGA.
sep 2, 2025, 11:58 pm • 3 0 • view
.... I don't think they even understood the irony of what they are saying I really really wish that our education here wasn't so fractured
sep 3, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view