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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

No, I believe violence is counterproductive and makes enemies. I fight in courts. I find in workplaces. I fight for people like you because they can't fight. I'm leaving now. I'm really done. I have someplace I have to be and this isn't good for my blood pressure. LGBTQ rights? Hits close to home.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

MLK was the victim of an assassination attempt. He was stabbed. MLK saw what Malcolm X was doing. I've read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by the way, it was just after "Roots" came out, so Alex Haley's name was on the cover. I literally have to leave. And this isn't good for my blood pressure.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Okay, fine, what are you proposing? Please be very specific? How will it be accomplished? How will you get 340 million Americans to cross over to your side? How many people have to die to accomplish your objective?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Honey, go do whatever the hell it is that you want to do. I'm done. No, I wasn't going to say the Black Panthers. But there lots of violent groups back then in multiple countries. Do you really want to go up against the Military-Industrial Complex? Do you know what DARPA builds or pays for?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

The poster was talking about the evils of wealth accumulation and private property. A lot of people think that if the Billionaires have their wealth taken, then they will come for the ordinary people, too. It always happens in revolutions and wars.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

I've spent several days, mostly patiently, discussing why anarchy doesn't work and why political violence by the oppressed is counterproductive. I've been hounded by people like YOU! I was just labeled a "quisling" today by a stranger. HOW DARE YOU! YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW ME! OR WHAT I FIGHT FOR!

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Nope, I'm not going to bother.

DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Violence is NOT productive for the oppressed, only the oppressor. And there are always costs to opposing the oppression.

DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Looking at yourself, deary? That's no way to think of yourself.

DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Honey, was living that arc of history before you were born. I've been protesting since before you were born. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. I remember standing at JFK's grave in 1963. I remember MLK's death. I remember a lot of attempted assassinations and violent protest groups. Do you?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 17h

Did you ever hear about the two bums in the railroad yard? The 1st one asks his friend if he'd share a $million with him. 2nd said yes, and several other things. When he asks if he would give him a can of soup, he says,"No, I have two cans of soup." We are here now, because of that middle quintile.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

What do you consider fight Fascism in a more effective way? Tossing bombs? Assassinating political leaders? Bank robberies? Blowing up the power grids? That sort of violence gets you nowhere and it kills a lot of innocent people.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

No, honey, I don't consider isolated examples that only lasted for a few years or are so isolated from the modern world to be successful examples. I'm probably old enough to to be your mother, if not grandmother. I spent a decade living in Asia and I used to teach various Social Studies classes.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

Fascism is already here, if you didn't notice. Whether it metastasizes is yet to be seen. Your info dumping on the internet isn't going to do much. Telling people that they need to be deprogrammed from their toxic ideology and striped of the stuff they worked their asses off wins you ZERO friends.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

I'm back from the "No Kings" rally. About 10,000 people showed up, much, much larger than the counterprotest just one block away. I've been opposed to Conservative politics for 45 years. Do you think that the Super Rich will give up their 20% of GDP? It was only 10% in 1980. Did you know that?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

I spent ten years serving this country on foreign soil. Small isolated areas of New Guinea and the Zapatistas of Chiapas would work for people in the US how, exactly? I studied Latin American when I was in college. I remember what was happening in the 1980s from the news. But hey, what do I know?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

MLK didn't approve of violence. He went to India to study Gandhi's work. They trained protesters on how to put up with taunting. Violence coming from the oppressor ruins their credibility in the end. Violence from the oppressed also ruins their credibility and it doesn't win them friends.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 18h

Representative democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others, to paraphrase Churchill. I don't need to know what anarchists are proposing, it isn't going to work on a scale of 340,000,000 people.

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 22h

You're entitled to your opinions. I suspect you are very young and have benefited from that toxic indoctrination you condemned. By the way, did you know that the Internet was invented by the scientists at DARPA? Look it up. Are you willing to give it up for the sake of cult deprogramming?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 22h

It took hundreds of thousands of mostly teenage boys to uproot the Nazis. I don't ever want to see that devastation. Do you?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 22h

Or maybe, the person who needs deprograming is you?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 22h

No, it wasn't painless. It was devasting and took countries decades to recover. My father and father-in-law fought in WWII; they were both teenage medics. I lost a relative in WWII at Iwo Jima. There will be no one to save the US if a Fascist dictator takes firm hold. Do you want that?

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DesertRose @desertrose1960.bsky.social · 22h

I'm sorry, I thought you knew I was taking the point of view of Gandhi and MLK. Violence is received by the protesters but perpetrated by the system, as in Bull Connor et al. It turns the middle folks against the bullies in the system. There will be violence, from the system. People will die, sadly.

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d

280 5.2K 24K

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DJ @darnich.bsky.social · 23h

Beautiful!

Miguel Correia da Silva @migcorreia.bsky.social · 1d

America, Portugal/Europe has your back. Let’s do this together, just like in 1941/1945.

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