Lowpast

joined 2 years ago
[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world -2 points 17 hours ago

You have the causality backwards.

You're right that successful movements often have both violent and nonviolent wings - but the nonviolent components don't succeed because of the violent ones. They succeed despite them. The research is pretty clear on this: nonviolent campaigns are actually more likely to achieve their goals than violent ones, and they're more likely to lead to stable democratic outcomes.

Your claim that "without violent resistance, nonviolent resistance becomes branded as terrorists" is historically backwards. Nonviolent movements get labeled as extremist precisely when they're associated with violence, not when they're separate from it. The Civil Rights Movement's greatest victories came when they maintained strict nonviolent discipline - Birmingham, Selma, the March on Washington. Every time violence entered the picture, it gave opponents ammunition to dismiss the entire movement.

And about Gandhi needing violent militants to succeed - this ignores how the independence movement actually worked. The violent revolutionary groups you're thinking of (like the Hindustan Republican Association) were largely marginalized by the time of Gandhi's major campaigns. His mass mobilization strategies worked because they were genuinely nonviolent and drew broad participation precisely because people knew they wouldn't be asked to commit violence.

The "good cop/bad cop" theory sounds intuitive but doesn't hold up to scrutiny. What actually makes nonviolent resistance effective is mass participation, strategic planning, and moral leverage - not the threat of violence lurking in the background.

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world -2 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Well that sure is an opinion I haven't heard before

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world -4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (5 children)

It's a direct quote from Gandhi.

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Even with high speed rail you're looking at 30+ hours from Seattle to NYC. And that's optimistic, ignoring the numerous alpine mountains. No thanks.

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Ahh yes, trade 6 hours for a 3 day, $400 train ride to NYC.

Lmfao what a shit suggestion

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago (2 children)

... these are waffles.

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Shopping at Costco makes sense during economic downturn because buying in bulk means better prices means buying with today's dollars. People leave the expensive department stores.

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

You need the remeber your audience - lemmy isn't exactly filled with people that understand economics, they just think "higher taxes are better!"

[–] Lowpast@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So true. Higher corporate tax rates are almost never correlated with either higher tax revenue nor decreased corporate greed.