Well said yeah. There are definitely some nuances in the way to defend yourself in a country where everyone is armed to the teeth, and a whole lot of cynicism given the circumstances. My words are aspirational at best, I get that. In reality, I’m saying what I’m saying because I share your concerns for your people.
I have no concerns about defending yourself in your own home or even your neighborhood if it comes to door to door mob on mob like that.
If they open fire on unarmed civilians fracture is much more likely than if they open fire on an armed milita. I’m just looking to encourage avoiding giving the authoritarian side any excuse to claim the higher ground.
I’m saying you armed Joe citizen can’t win an armed conflict against the military. That’s all.
Victory worth having has to be won through peaceful civil disobedience, or there’s a very good chance a lot of people will die for nothing.
I’d like to hear arguments to the contrary, but so far it’s crickets.
Peaceful protests aren’t just performative. Not sure how I gave that impression. They are challenging authorities to demonstrate their commitment to the common good. Violence (even very mild violence) against peaceful people is unequivocally wrong unless they’re doing something that might directly harm others… like blocking an emergency vehicle route or something.
It also puts pressure on politicians to do the right thing.
Right now, against this government, we don’t know how effective protests will be in the end. We don’t know if military officers will remain loyal to the constitution and state leadership tover the orders of the dictator in chief.
There are too many unknowns and it’s far too early to be giving up on a non-violent solution.
Obviously don’t fire the first shot; but if they do, it needs to be met with a shot back.
By whom and in what context?
Are you really saying US citizens matyring themselves by provoking armed crackdowns by the military is more reliable than peaceful protest? Because that’s what it sounds like you’re saying.
There is no “battle” right now. There is no civil war yet. What you’re saying is the kind of behavior that will start it.
This is illustrative of your whole problem over there though - the solution to crap government is better government, not regression to fuedalism. Peaceful protest is not “sticking your head in the sand” - it’s putting yourself in real danger given what Trump and the federal military are currently doing. But everyone standing across the line with a gun in their hand is a human being. The moment you arm the mob, the military has a mandate to engage and they will be far less sympathetic to the plight of the citizenry. Armed resistance, or any kind of violent resistance whatsoever, should be the absolute last resort.
So what? It’s all performative at the moment precisely because the citizenry are not armed. His actions are clearly illegal even without a citizen having been shot yet. It needs to stay that way or you really will have a civil war on your hands. Is that really what you want?
This is such an American response.
If conflict escalates with an armed vigilante uprising, it will be used by Trump to justify everything the military does, which will include live rounds on civilian targets. An armed militia cannot compete with the military.
The only way victory (hopefully through a mutual desire not to have a civil war) is possible is if state national guard and police remain loyal to their local governor and vow to fight against the federal government on the people’s behalf. But that’s still massively risky.
The best thing as always otherwise is a large scale non-violent protest. Bigger and more persistent than the No Kings protests.
Oh nah, I’m from the south. We’re all descendents of the British colonies at the end of the day though.
Rereading your comment, I can appreciate the irony. I guess I’m trying to talk my American friends out of aspiring toward the next civil war. I don’t think they realize just how good they have it despite the police crack downs. It’s what gives me some small hope if actually ordered to fire on civilians… They wouldn’t.
Where do you think I’m from?
I did say it was a thin hope (well I said ‘thing’ but I’ve corrected it now).
But I think you give your service men too little credit. Even the police. How many fatalities or even serious injuries have actually occurred during protest activities? These a generally not people who want to kill anyone, particularly not their American brothers and sisters. But when one side dehumanizes the other, all bets are off. If things actually become life threatening, then everything changes. Kill or be killed.
You overestimate how willing people are to throw their bodies at the problem. Things have to be so bad that they expect to die anyway. Otherwise, your militia sign-ups will be limited to only those most brave, ideological, or stupid.
You also underestimate how much more effective military training and ordinances are among the US military vs militias. If they really wanted to mow down civilians, it would be fish in a barrel, even if everyone in the militia is armed.
This is why the hope is that US service men are committed to the constitution and not to Drumpf’s orders. It’s a thin hope.
There is no challenging the military as the citizenry. This is terrible advice.
What we should be doing is encouraging insubordination by service members. Why the fuck would you agree to use military force against your fellow Americans, on American soil? Not only is that unconstitutional, it’s simply not what you signed up for. Say no
Get the fuck out of Ukraine and things will stop. It’s not hard.
That “spark” is whatever consciousness is in the end I think. Everything else is subject to direct inspection and can be found to be deterministic or emergent, not actually subject to any kind of “will”. I speak also from insights gained while meditating (or doing psychedelics 🤗)
Daily life is what daily life is all about.
I do think I’d potentially be happier with a partner who I could speak philosophy and politics with, but if we couldn’t also function simply navigating running a household and raising our family, then we really couldn’t be anything more than friends with benefits long term. Not that that would be a bad thing. It just depends on how you want to live your life, and whether you value a stable partnership over firey romance.
Some people are lucky enough to have a partner that fulfills the entirety of their intellectual, intimate, familial and financial needs, but such people are few and far between I’m sure!
New Zealand.
We’re currently enjoying a right wing government with a few Trump inspired figures, skyrocketing cost of living, rising crime, and very disconcerting xenophobic and quasi racist musings coming out of certain public figures. But blissfully and blessedly we’re a long way away from the chaos your brothers and sisters are going through now and the hell that may be soon to come.
The fear is the global world order falling apart may not be long in following.