A.R. Moxon: Are You Brave Enough for Nonviolence?

[Nevilledog]

https://www.the-reframe.com/are-you-brave-enough-for-nonviolence/

*snip*

OK. How have we been going about it? Far too many of us have been going about it by trying to work with supremacists on solving the problem of supremacy. It’s hard to find a solution with somebody who wants the problem; nevertheless, that’s what I mostly see from those who are most empowered to seek solutions. Maybe you’ve heard that what Americans want more than anything is bipartisan solutions with ideas coming from "both sides." Maybe you’ve heard that we ought to become “more culturally normal” in a way that defines “normal” the same way bigots do. Maybe you’ve heard that we need to unify, without much talk about what we would unify to accomplish, or who would or wouldn’t be allowed to participate in this unity. Maybe you’ve heard that we need to not focus so much on the human rights of this group of people, or this one, or that one, so that we can win. Or—stop me if you’ve heard this one before—maybe you’ve heard from our leaders about how we need a strong Republican Party. Well, we sure got one. I haven’t noticed much healing. I’m mostly noticed a renewed commitment to un-realism and ignore-ance.

Un-realism and ignore-ance. There’s a thing that supremacists do, I’ve noticed, which is to take a laudable outcome that they clearly oppose—equal representation for all under the law, for example—and treat it as if it is an accomplished fact, rather than a yet-to-be-achieved goal. Having established this premise, they utilize it in insidious ways to destroy any laws, practices, and norms—voting rights protections, for example—that have been established to help achieve this goal, a destruction enacted under the risible justification that laws which acknowledge the existence of discrimination actually create discrimination. This allows supremacists to subject any group they marginalize—Black people, for instance—to the full force and effect of existing supremacist institutions and laws and norms and practices, so that they can do their often silent and submerged discriminatory work. And this allows supremacists to cast all the blame for the adverse effects of that work upon that marginalized group as if it were a deserved result of a bad choice by a demonized minority, and a rationale for increasing the existing abuse and discrimination. And in the public square, far too much of our media and far too much of its audience treats this meretricious premise and its risible justifications as true and valid, or at least credible. And when it is put to a vote, far too many of our leaders do the same and vote for bills based on the same premises, and work with people who have shown that they do not want the equitable outcomes they claim to want, and vote to approve judges who will rule in the same supremacy-accommodating way, who ignore what is in favor of what is not, who block any remedy in the name of remedy. And far too many of us vote for such un-realistic leaders in the name of being realistic.

Shorter version: Supremacists, under auspices of wanting to treat all people as equals under the law (which we should), demand that we treat all people as if they already are being treated as equals (which they are not) in order to further decrease and accelerate inequality, and to treat any attempt to establish the equality they oppose as opposition to equality. And, increasingly, our institutions (and far too many of us) accommodate this topsy-turvy point of view of ignore-ance.

Some people are being abused, and others are doing the abusing. If we would seek equality, we have to acknowledge the inequality that exists in reality. If we would increase inequality, we ignore it. If we would seek the healthy outcome of equity, we would seek different treatments for people based on who they are and what ails them. This is paradoxical for those who want to see a paradox, but this is rather obvious for those who want to create a culture of healing. You don’t treat a healthy brain for liver cancer. You don’t give radiation to somebody in remission. You seek an understanding of where people are and what their present situation is, and then apply the correct remedy. People who are abused need to stop being abused. People who are doing the abusing need to have the ability to abuse removed from them. Healing cannot progress while the wounding is ongoing.

*snip*

[Kid Berwyn]

1. It's our country. Way past time We the People act like it.

On one recent sad day in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave



An unidentified federal agent fires a chemical weapon into Rev. Jorge Bautista's face during a protest outside of Coast Guard Island in Oakland on Thursday Oct. 23, 2025. Credit: David Bacon

“Those of us that showed up as clergy, we believe in always standing on the side of love – and for the love for migrants in this case, knowing that migrants are members of our churches, members of our communities, and that they also deserve to live in peace and with full dignity...We knew what these ICE Agents are doing around the country. We knew how they’re harassing and taking people away, separating families, and really hurting them. As clergy, my job, I believe, is to make sure people are experiencing joy in their lives and that they are being respected and not abused, and to remind all of us that we’re all divine beings on this earth, and therefore we all should be respected.” -- Rev. Jorge Bautista

Source: https://www.ucc.org/ucc-pastor-shot-by-federal-agents-with-pepper-round-speaks-about-standing-on-the-side-of-love/

[FalloutShelter]

2. Understood...

But I also know why young people are not lining up to perform civil disobedience.
I was arrested for civil disobedience during the Vietnam War protests... more than once. Small fine... no record.

The difference is, we trusted that our government would not put us in a detention center, or on a plane to god knows where.

[Solly Mack]

3. ...