LogFAQs > #980084735

Hyena_Of_Ice posted...

Uh, that's more than just an optics problem.

Don't forget you have extremists who proclaim that any action is justified against occupiers, and "occupiers have no rights" We used to have a few people like that on 261; they held a cynical view of history in which major changes in civil rights only occurred after rioting and violent protest or outright massacres (e.g. Haitian independence from slavery.)
In this revisionist view, MLK Jr and Gandhi were completely ineffectual, and it was only the widespread rioting after the death of the former, and the continued widespread political violence in India in the latter case, that brought about the Civil Rights Act/independence for India. They additionally claim that peaceful protesting and even civil disobedience are useless.

I don't agree with that version of the view, I think both were absolutely essential to scaring the powers that be into conceding. You have to convince some, shame some, and yes, threaten others. It's always been that way.

I don't think any action is justified against occupiers because after a certain point, that deadens you to the humanity of others and makes you go off the rails. I mean Israel is doing this all this garbage because they have an "anything is justified to preserve our settler colonial apartheid state" mindset. But we've known for a long long time now that by making peaceful protest impossible, you make violent action inevitable. And Israel does not allow any action in any form, peaceful or not that challenges their vision for Israel. On pain of extrajudicial and collective punishment, torture, imprisonment, and death. And so we get our current situation.