When non-violence is NOT OK

Non-violence is OK when it is

• a personal ethical decision
• a tactical decision (e.g., to invoke moral outrage)

Non-violence is NOT OK when it is used as a tool of micro-aggression providing

• an excuse to compare and equate lost lives to broken windows and other destruction of property or capital
• a way to police others’ behavior to criticize, undermine or prevent them from exercising their right to physical self-defense against white supremacist terrorists

The second point above, when I reread it, actually seems quite violent even though it is couched in non-violent language.  “Put down your guns or you’re no better than them,” said the white liberal to the blacks facing a lynch mob.

Remember, some of us may break windows simply to expose you critical fakers for who you really are: liberal tools of the system, you slip in the back door and try to disarm us and break our fighting spirit to disable our capacity for self-defense when oppression becomes acutely physical.  You call yourselves allies and then stab us in the back right when we need you most, and we are better off without you.  So you can shape up or ship out.

Further reading, courtesy of Peter Gelderloos:

1. How Nonviolence Protects The State
2. Learning from Ferguson