It’s educate, AGITATE, organize

edit: putting this at the top so people understand the basis for this:

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

Letter from Birmingham, MLK

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Reasonably speaking - how do you propose to do that? How do you propose to switch the primary issues of concern for the American electorate from domestic security (including the safety of LGBT folks, immigrants, and democracy itself) and economics (at a time when many are pressed hard by the current economic situation) to foreign policy?

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialOP
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      5 months ago

      Treating this as an honest question - by raising the issue so that it can’t easily be ignored.

      Just gonna put this here, because MLK says it better than I can:

      Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.

      Letter from Birmingham - MLK

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        That presumes that the issues you’re raising are going to raise tension above the tension of the aforementioned issues, which is extremely unlikely in the current circumstances.

        My point isn’t “STOP RAISING AWARENESS”, my point is “This is not the winning issue you think it can be; and threatening to hand power over to fascists if you don’t get your way is just going to hand over power to fascists”

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialOP
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          5 months ago

          “This is not the winning issue you think it can be; and threatening to hand power over to fascists if you don’t get your way is just going to hand over power to fascists”

          This is a contradictory statement.

            • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialOP
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              5 months ago

              It can’t both be

              • a losing issue and
              • an issue that threatens to let fascists win

              Either pushing this issue threatens the democratic base of support or nobody cares enough about this issue to make it a winning one.

              • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                It can’t both be

                a losing issue and

                an issue that threatens to let fascists win

                what the fuck

                That…

                that’s exactly why it IS a losing issue

                This isn’t some fucking game, where the sides are ‘balanced’ or someshit.

                We run in a system where victories are decided by a fraction of a fucking percentage point.

                • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialOP
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                  5 months ago

                  Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

                  I’m just going to keep quoting this back to you.

                  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    Uh, okay, you have fun with not understanding the difference between social change and an election coming up in a handful of months with tensions over key issues already sky-high, and ‘Foreign Policy tension’ being pretty fucking unlikely to top or come close to any of them regardless of how loud you make “Genocide Joe” chants.

          • bobburger@fedia.io
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            5 months ago

            I’ll try to clear it up a little.

            Here’s a recent poll showing that support for ending the invasion into Gaza isn’t widely supported

            There’s a lot of risk to Biden’s election chances if he withdraws his support for Israel, probably more risk than if he maintains his current actions. So withdrawing his support for Israel isn’t the clear cut winning decision that you seem to think it is.

            Your threat of withholding your vote for Joe Biden unless he changes policy to match what you want will most likely result in Joe Biden losing the election. If he changes course and withdraws support as you want then he’ll probably lose more voters than he gains, costing him he election. If he stays the course and you don’t vote for Joe Biden he’s likely to lose the election.