Why I can't write what I want to
Maybe a leader and a direction would help?
The last few weeks has been frustrating to say the least. In the short amount of time he’s been in office Donald Trump has been outrageously active (not just on the golf course). The guy’s signed executive order after executive order, unopposed by nearly any other branch of government but sycophantically supported by republicans frothing at the mouth for every move he’s making.
This is the first time since 1928 that republicans have occupied basically every branch of government. The American people wanted it (kinda), and here we are; pissing off our allies and giving our enemies basically everything they want.
And I can’t really write about it.
What I want to write is about how the left needs to make some tough choices: what is their “red line” before they get violent. What does that violence look like? Is it protests? Is it boycotts? Is it property damage? Is it nonviolent resistance (something I somehow harbor deep and abiding doubts will do anything to move the needle for leftists with this president and his supporters)? Is it violent? Is it arming itself? What’s the plan after it arms itself?
But the truth is, I don’t think I can.
I don’t think I can because I think I’m caught, like a lot of leftists, in a weird kind of limbo. I can’t stand anything that’s happening, and I also think that fighting back would be fighting the tide.
I can already feel the reader rolling their eyes. “Oh boy, not another masturbatory leftist post about how a cis straight white man doesn’t know what to do in the face of overwhelming hate and fascism.”
Yeah, I get it.
I also think that the people we’re dealing with want a fight. They’re spoiling for a fight. They would like nothing more than to be provoked into justifying the using the force they’ve always wanted to use against their enemies (us on the left).
So I can’t bring myself to write about the actual arming of the left that I do wish was happening. I want leftists to buy and learn to shoot firearms. I want them to be willing to fight for their principles, with violence. The next time I see a video of someone being thrown out of a town hall for speaking up against obvious lies, I want to see them fight back, and others to jump up and tackle the goons.
I want to see us violate their sense of decorum the way they continuously violate ours. I want to see us openly display our capacity for violence the way they constantly want to display theirs to us.
I was thrilled to see a video of protestors defacing a Tesla dealership. I am joyous at the ads for teslas being smashed and Elon Musk being mocked openly in public ads in Europe. I see these as a kind of violence… and I want to see more of it.
But I can’t seem to bring myself to write about it. I can’t seem to bring myself to advocate for it.
Maybe it’s a vestigial devotion to the nonviolence that I was taught in school by MLK.
Maybe it’s delusions that we live in a system that works in good faith.
Maybe I’m actually just a pussy.
Maybe I’m too afraid that we’ll discover that we are the kind of weaklings we’re constantly being accused of by the right.
You might try thinking of violence in a more nuanced way. Gandhi was dedicated to non-violence but his movement led to considerable state violence--which he was entirely aware would happen and which was part of the point.
Gandhi expected the British to use force against his movement (e.g., Salt March, Quit India), but he urged followers not to retaliate. He believed that if the state used violence against peaceful protestors, it would expose the injustice of colonial rule.
What's the implication for The Left now? If we follow Gandhi's example, and let's throw MLK in there for good measure, The Left should not incite violence but rather put their bodies in the way of violence in the form of open resistance and protest.
It looks like Trump has learned something from Nixon and doesn't plan on shooting protesters on college campuses this time, strong-arming Universities to do that with the threat of their funding; so government offices, Tesla showrooms and other non-University locations will have to do.
In any case, Leftist blood will be shed, count on it.