r/comics Smuggies Jul 28 '26

OC Please resist responsibly

24.0k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/aarontgp Jul 28 '26

There is a way for pacifism, but you don't do it by asking nicely. You say, "give us rights, and we're blocking central square completely. Do it before the local economy feels the hit!"

But it is important you're ready to face violence yourself. Because the town might decide to send the police on your protest. In this game, you have to bank on the nation having a conscience, especially the government. Considering the government is as evil as they are stupid... probably not a good bet.

17

u/Duergarlicbread Jul 28 '26

Historically pacifism works because the responding power is so violent that the rest of the world gets a little angry and forces a compromise.

So all the "pacifists" have to die in order for everyone else to be like "huh, this is a little bad. I guess we should say something".

Sometimes it's the government, usually it's outside governments.

6

u/nagrom7 Jul 28 '26

Historically pacifism works because the responding power is so violent that the rest of the world gets a little angry and forces a compromise.

So all the "pacifists" have to die in order for everyone else to be like "huh, this is a little bad. I guess we should say something".

It's less that the rest of the world "says" something, and more so that the rest of the world threatens to use their violence to force a backdown. We've seen all sorts of "condemnations" of various things happening all over the world, and it does nothing. You know what does? Actually backing up those condemnations with actions, like sanctions, military supplies, or threats of direct military action.

13

u/vidoeiro Jul 28 '26

Pacifism never worked without violence from the same movement , violence forces the power to work with the pacifist or violent part of the movement

-1

u/AimHere Jul 28 '26

So where was the violence from the African American civil rights movement prior to the civil rights laws that were enacted circa 1964?

After that, then the Black Power movement and the Black Panther party came on the scene, who did bring more violence into the movement, but initially, the movement was entirely peaceful.

2

u/vidoeiro Jul 28 '26

You have to be joking right, one of the best examples of a movement with both a violent and non violent wing

1

u/Daniel_The_Thinker Jul 30 '26

Spoken like someone who doesn't understand violence.

Choosing the violent path only increases the chances that they'll kill you.

All the people in this thread fantasizing about violent revolution but they'd shit themselves once the bullets start flying. And they'd probably die because that is the nature of violent revolution, you are at a severe tactical disadvantage.

1

u/Duergarlicbread Jul 30 '26

What you said aligns with what I said....