If you believe nonviolent protest is more effective, then simply advocate for it.

@anolandria Nazi fabricated violence to take power and invade Poland. MAGA will apply the same playbook, but do it stupidly because it’s MAGA.

@anolandria I would respectfully disagree because they have tanks and Trump is limited at present to his ICE thugs. Why give him a Christmas present where he has an excuse to declare martial law. This is what he is hoping for and people need to not provide it. Sadly, there will be murders by ICE but it is a fight for democracy and people need to stay strong, courageous and peaceful.

@Robo105 @anolandria Tell that to the folks in Waco or the Branch Davidians. Or the guys on Ruby Ridge.
The government can and will do whatever it wants, when it wants. They have drones, long distance guns and bombs. They can and will use them on the American people.
I get being pacifist. I try to be. That privalege is swiftly coming to an end for the majority of us. I can't stand by and watch my people die anymore.

@Robo105 @anolandria Not to bag on you, I swear. I get where you're coming from, I was there for a while.
Just, for me, it's a failing option. I'm not looking for violence, I don't want it. I'm not gonna run away from it, I'm going to fight back when it gets to me (I've not encountered ICE personally yet).

@anolandria https://theonion.com/protesters-urged-not-to-give-trump-administration-pretext-for-what-it-already-doing/

@anolandria Nonviolent protest is more effective.

@Robo105 @anolandria if they needed a dead ICE thug for an excuse, do you not think they would kill one??? These nazis are playing a zero-sum game, while you are insisting on some sort of cooperation — this is a losing strategy.

@EndicottAuthor @anolandria

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/34738-and-how-we-burned-in-the-camps-later-thinking-what

@EndicottAuthor @anolandria
But another way of looking at it is, fascists don't care about protest that doesn't come with consequences for them. They don't care how many people say what they're doing is wrong if nobody is going to stop them doing it.

Nonviolent governments can be swayed by nonviolent protest - it's a negotiation of social norms in that case. But ultimately, protest is supposed to put government on notice that direct action to thwart them may be next.

@anolandria They make shit up, but it's obvious that they do. If there is real violence from protestors, they do not need to make shit up.

Violence is contra productive. There is no chance you can overthrow ICE or whatever that way, you just do not have the means. The point is to get more support from the population, and that will ultimately drive change. Violence will drive support away.

@Robo105 @anolandria It's incredibly naïve to believe that protesting completely peacefully doesn't "give them an excuse." Did you or did you not just watch them gun down an innocent woman and then call her a domestic terrorist?

Let me be perfectly clear: they will declare martial law when and where they want. They are not waiting around for someone to shove a cop or block traffic.

They haven't yet because the majority is still passive and going about our lives. Check back in November.

@EndicottAuthor @anolandria how many fascist regimes has nonviolent protest toppled?

Nonviolent protest only ever works when there is a credible threat of actual violence. When those "ceding power" can point to a nonviolent movement as the reason. MLK isn't effective without the specter of Malcom X.

You can't nonviolent your way out of violence.

@dresstokilt @anolandria The question is whether they have public acceptance for martial law. If the public see protesters starting fires and shooting then Trump wins but if it is peaceful then he is seen as the brute he is. Yes, both way incur death but one allows success and the other hands Trump a win. This is why Trump is trying to goad violence

@wbftw @anolandria Cooperation is the wrong word. Opposition should play to your strengths and Trump are military force and the protesters have public acceptance/approval. Yes, people are going to die no matter what is done but there is a growing sense that Trump and ICE are out of control. There is an old saying, 'When your enemy is busy making a mistake, don't interrupt'. Let Trump be brutal because he loses more support each day and you can't win against tanks

@anolandria Also: the statement "They're looking for an excuse to do X" is an implicit admission that the decision has already been made. We can only control the "when."

As you said, it's only function can be to reverse victim and offender by blaming the victim for inducing the inevitable. It does conveniently obscure the fact that we should be upset by someone looking for "an excuse."

@HappyCrow13 @anolandria The branch davidians and Waco should not be compared to protesters who are fighting for democracy. Trump has all the weapons you mention so violence is his 'trump' card' so why give him public support. Peaceful protests gain support for the protesters

@anolandria

It's not the fascists' opinions that matter.

Once anti-fascists initiate violence, we lose the judges, we lose the citizens, we lose the sympathy of non-corrupt law enforcement.

Those people's minds are the actual battlefield which determines whether we win or lose.

@Robo105 @anolandria I don't think you understand - the administration is going to use martial law as a scalpel, not a club. They're going to shut down major cities in swing states in November on election day in order to maintain their hold in the Senate and claim governorships. There have been no pretexts whatsoever for the times they've deployed troops in cities, they manufacture that after the fact. They always do. Those were dry runs and they worked perfectly.

@dresstokilt @EndicottAuthor @anolandria

Non-violence toppled Pinochet, Bolsonaro and Yoon Suk Yeol, off the top of my head. There's a longer list...