• Themistocles
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    7 hours ago

    Yeah but have you seen how public sentiment has shifted thanks to the heroic protesting from the people of Minneapolis? They have managed to keep it peaceful and they’ve gotten the broad support of the country and ICE is being forced to pull out. If they had started rioting the government would’ve used it as the excuse to ramp up and assert control over the chaos. They WANTED people to riot. Don’t take the bait! Don’t cede them all the power. This is a battle for the support of the people

    • swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      Minneapolis has lasted a lot longer and gotten more people killed than Portland. The real take is: you need both. MLK Jr. gets no traction without Malcolm X.

      • Themistocles
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        6 hours ago

        There were far more ICE agents deployed in Minneapolis than there were in Portland. Why was the image of the self immolating monk so powerful in protest to the Vietnam war? Malcom X’s ideology actually softened over the years before he was killed, he even saw that all out violence is not the answer. Peaceful protest is the only way this ends well for any of us

          • Themistocles
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            5 hours ago

            King’s commitment to nonviolence never wavered. He truly believed in peaceful disobedience. He became disillusioned with gradually progressivism but that’s not the same thing at all. Of course Malcom X still rejected nonviolence but his philosophy is a dead end and it was already falling apart in his lifetime

          • Themistocles
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            5 hours ago

            What are you talking about? The most successful movements in the last hundred years were peaceful protests. Mandela, Ghandi, MLK, were they just trying to appease the upper class??

            • swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              5 hours ago

              Completely discounting the fact that all the socialist revolutions were kneecapped by US hegemony, yes that’s exactly what I’m saying. They begged the ruling class for privileges, that we are now seeing dismantled, rather than fighting for actual rights that couldn’t be taken by anyone. In doing so, they co-opted broader movements that would have seen more permanent change. This is a common tactic, any time a groundswell of support comes for a leftist movement, liberals come along to make sure it doesn’t have any real teeth.

              • Themistocles
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                4 hours ago

                You cannot deny that Ghandi was effective in ending British oppression in India and that Mandela was effective in ending apartheid in South Africa and that MLK was effective in winning civil rights in the US through means of nonviolent civil disobedience. It’s like you’re arguing that if you’re not being violent then you’re doing nothing. Our rights have whittled away over the last 50 years because the masses have been complacent and allowed it to happen. That has nothing to do with violence or nonviolence even. It has to do with people being apathetic. Now that things are coming to a head we stand to gain more support from the masses through non violent civil disobedience. Just because you are not throwing bricks does not mean you aren’t stopping the powerful from doing as they please