"Changing this is a matter of the public realizing peaceful protests don't work, and protests that do work (even if by inconveniencinh the elite) will be criminalized. We will have to break the law to affect change"

That's where I disagree. You're assuming the general public can organize itself to protest, which it never did since the start of capitalism and the society of conformity it created.

We wouldn't need a violent revolt to change things. It'd be as easy as stop giving money to millionaires. Stop giving money to big corporations. Stop giving money to mafias. Stop feeding the powerful.

The only problem is... the powerful have been making sure that you can't beat the system. They made it so it's more convenient not to beat the system. And people don't care about dethroning the rich, because we're being fed just the right amount so we don't go ravenous.

And even if you actively try to rebel, the net of capitalism is so complicated that you never know where your money will end up. Even if you don't support rich people, if the people that you buy things from do, it's the same effect.

The violent alternative that you propose... I don't see it working as more than a reset, even if it works. New people will gain power and accumulate it. It's a problem with human nature, and I don't see a solution.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

As the civil rights movement showed us it's not the protesters on the left that initiate violence, rather law enforcement on the right. We saw it again in the Ferguson unrest in 2014 and the George Floyd protests in 2020, the police always shoot first. Peaceful acts that can be ignored, are. Peaceful acts that cannot be ignored are criminalized and responded to with violence.

I'm not saying it's good or works, and finding a method to affect change is well beyond my pay grade.

But CIA analysts say we're headed towards civil war.

The GOP is now a mask-off white power movement, using fascist methods and the authority of Protestant Evangelist ministries to neuter democracy. They're already engaged in genocidal action.

The transnational white power movement has already secured the US Supreme Court. Dobbs was the first step that made national headlines but they've been cutting away at the forth and fifth amendments since the aughts amd the PATRIOT act.

The US is bigger and more complex than Italy or Germany, and we can slow the process down, maybe for a decade or so. But without restoring power to the voting public (or otherwise a miracle of sociology and probability) civil war is inevitable, and will be instigated by the right, no longer able to confine their hate to internet squabbles.

Hate crimes, rampage killings and police officer involved homicide have been rising since 2015, when Trump took over the Republican party.

Even if Trump dies or is jailed, someone else is going to become the next Secret Hitler, even as the OGs try to restor Nixon-Reagan Republicanism. That won't fly anymore.

I'm not saying any of this is good, just that it's the way the wind is blowing. And going the other way will involve a lot of tacking.