I'm not counter protesting again

[politicat]

33. Yeah, it would be nice if that was true, but...

I have to agree to disagree. It's like a bike helmet. 90% of the reason I wear one is not because I think I'm going to skid out, it's because there's a good chance someone in a car is going to hit me, and mass plus acceleration equals brain pulp. It's protecting myself, not being aggressive against someone. Or again, we're back to abusive relationship: sheltering behind a textbook (have done it) or on the far side of a door (also) is technically allowing a violent person to smash their hands into a heavy, solid object, but it's their choice to throw the punch.

A shield is not a weapon. A shield is the very opposite of a weapon. They're purely defensive. The other person always has the option of Not Doing The Hitting. A shield does not stop a person from hitting. It doesn't subvert their agency. It just prevents them from doing as much damage as they want to do. (Holding a shield still hurts.) I have a right to not take whatever damage someone wants to deal out. But if you're going to say shields aren't okay in your perfect expression of demonstration, then are you also going to say kidney protection, knee pads, elbow pads and throat protection are out? Because Bloc uses those, too -- usually repurposed from skating. Bloc doesn't start the violence, but they're the ones taking the pain, and most don't have really good insurance that will cover failing kidneys or broken hyoid bones from a beatdown or a strangling. And those do happen. They happened today. Or what about goggles? Or respirators? Those are also defenses.

It would be nice if Nazis were rational creatures. They're not. I really, really hoped that my generation would be the last generation to have to use anything other than purely demonstrative action. For about 10 years, I thought maybe we'd turned that corner. Apparently not.

The Women's Marches were lucky, and they were non-violent because they were first. Please recall that the Edmond Pettus Bridge (Bloody Sunday) was not the first civil rights march. And Kent State was not the first anti-war march, nor was the Khilafat movement without British violence. Those in authority (or those who want to present themselves as in authority, as with Nazis) will usually let the first events go by, hoping those silly noisies will get it out of their system. When we don't, they get aggressive, because they want to exert control and force their world views on others. I didn't write the authoritarian playbook, but this is how it works. Wish it wasn't, but wishing doesn't make it so.