Thursday, September 7, 2017

A warning for Antifa

The following is a comment I posted on a Facebook thread to people advocating violent protest, and anarchist revolution on Facebook. I've edited it a bit and added some more thoughts here and there. 

Our country and world have problems. No one is denying that. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

There has never been a safer time to live on this planet than today. There are less wars now than at any time in recorded history. There are less people living in extreme poverty than at any other time. The technological advancement that has made that possible has been brought about by capitalism. We can regulate it the way we have in the past to make it work better for more people. But ultimately capitalism is better than the alternatives.

And even though we've suffered a setback to progress, to say that institutionalized racism and sexism can't be brought about by non-violent protest is just plain wrong. Women didn't fight a guerrilla war to gain suffrage. The Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's didn't come about through anarchist action. To say we can only fix our problems by dismantling the apparatus of state is naive, bordering on childish fantasy.

If we dismantle the state, protections for the most vulnerable among us will crash down.

Answering right-wing violence with violence plays into the Alt-Right's hands. It validates their conspiracy that they're under attack. It vacates the moral high ground. It drives sympathetic potential supporters away. In the end wearing black masks and fighting Nazis in the streets will hurt your cause more than it helps.

It also makes our country look like the Weimar Republic, where fascists regularly fought Communists in the streets. When that apparatus of state fell, it didn't end well for anyone. The Nazi party never received more than 37% of the vote, yet it was enough to seize power in a fractured country. Trump's approval rating stands at ~35%. We can consolidate the discontent around a moderate liberal opposition. Or we can fracture further among left and radical left. The result will be a midterm win for Trump, and likely another 4 years in 2020.