Nonviolence As Compliance - TA-NEHISI COATES

[dreamnightwind]

7. Hmm, conflicted, but I think violence helps to justify the police state

Non-violent civil disobedience would be my preference. There is nothing passive or complicit about civil disobedience. One thing you have to do to get their attention is you have to stop "business as usual", which means either multitudes clogging the streets, or smaller groups engaged in strategic blockades.

Our nation is well equipped to put down violence, and the people being put down will win no support when the media showcases their violence. It's playing right into the narrative of the establishment and the racists. Both MLK and Gandhi understood this.

Things like general strikes, disrupting the flow of traffic required for corporations to operate, shutting down the business district, occupying city hall and courts, these kind of actions are nonviolent but not complicit in any way. They create conditions where society cannot function normally without addressing the grievances of the protesters.

I'm not saying it would be easy, or even that it would necessarily bring about reform, it takes a lot of very determined people to bring the system to its knees, and they won't give up the police state without being brought to their knees. But violent actions will feed the forces they seek to change. There is no end to the violent machinery of the state and its resolve to use it to preserve the status quo, which while bad for the 99% is seen as good for business.