London Burning
POSTED BY: piratenews
UPDATED: Friday, November 28, 2025 17:01
VIEWED: 8494
PAGE 2 of 10
That is all.
"I really am ruggedly handsome, aren't I?"
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
No tidy protest in the US ever brought change.
Womens' sufferage? Civil rights movement? Gay rights? Pretty much the classic examples of non-violent protest (on the part of the protestors, anyway).
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
No tidy protest in the US ever brought change. Maybe it is the same in England. They might need to aim in a different direction.
Women's rights? Anti vietnam? Civil rights? You think the hard change was brought about by trashing stuff. What about all the peaceful protests? The passionate writing and oration? Civil disobedience is quite quite different to rioting.
Venting your anger through violence is easy and it might make people sit up and watch for 15 seconds, but it doesn't a;ways bring change, and more often or not, it brings change for the worst. Violence begets more violence.
From Gandhi through Mandela, the world changes for the better through peace and compassion.
I believe it and I live it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
No tidy protest in the US ever brought change.
Womens' sufferage? Civil rights movement? Gay rights? Pretty much the classic examples of non-violent protest (on the part of the protestors, anyway).
"Keep the Shiny side up"
Jeez geez, you beat me to it. Thought I had double posted. Except I forgot about gay rights.
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In an attempt to rally national support for the Anthony Amendment, Alice Paul organized a huge parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on the day before President Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration. But the peaceful parade degenerated into a riot when thousands of hostile male spectators broke into the ranks of the marchers and tried to block their passage. Essentially, the women had to fight their way down Pennsylvania Avenue, with the help of men who supported the women's suffrage movement. Troops had to be called in to restore order, and hundreds of people were hospitalized.
In September of 1962, James Meredith sought to enroll as the first black student in the history of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). His enrollment triggered substantial resistance from the University, the community of Oxford Mississippi, and the Governor of the state, Ross Barnett. As a result, President John F. Kennedy ordered federal marshals to ensure Meredith's right to enroll and to protect him as he moved to the campus. On the evening of the Meredith's enrollment, President John F. Kennedy spoke to the American people in a live television address.
As Kennedy was speaking, violence broke out on the campus and in Oxford. President Kennedy ultimately ordered federal troops to Oxford to quell the riots which injured over 300 and killed two.
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
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Were they not examples of violence against peaceful protesters?
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Not the Stonewall Riots. And people fought back. It was most definitely NOT non-violent.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Jeez geez, you beat me to it. Thought I had double posted. Except I forgot about gay rights.
Pretty obvious response. A 'gimmie' for great minds (and mine too).
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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Too bad historical facts prove you wrong.
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I don't support the rioters in their violence, but I understand where the impulse comes from, and I'd bet we've all felt some form of it at one time or another.
It comes from the feeling of helplessness in the face of overwhelming odds. It comes from watching as someone is beaten, clubbed, or killed in front of you, and when the response you get from the supposed "authorities" is that (a) it never happened, and (b) if you insist that it did, you're next. It comes from the anger of being asked to "share the sacrifice" while others with so much more are literally HANDED stacks and stacks of free money.
At that point, there is occasionally a little voice which says, quietly and with barely contained anger, overly enunciating every single syllable of every single word, "What. Ever. You. Take. From. Me. I. Guar-An-Fuck-Ing-Tee. You. THIS: I. WILL. MAKE. IT. COST. YOU. MORE."
This is a few people voicing frustration, telling the system that they've given up all they can, and if the system is going to demand more, take more, then they are going to make sure to tip the balance of the exchequer's accounting books. It's a group of people saying to authority, "I have a net worth of one pound sixpence. Take from me what you will, and the only threat you have is that you can throw me in jail, give me healthcare and education, three hots and a cot, room and board, and legal assistance. And I can make it cost you far more than you can take from me."
A few people say it, and a handful more hear it and think about it, and a few of them say it, and suddenly you have a mass of people who feel they've nothing left to lose, and who have decided that if the system is really this broken, then why the hell not LITERALLY break it into pieces and burn it to the ground?
That's where the impulse comes from.
I understand it, but I hope it doesn't come here. Or, if it does, let it start in the gated communities and country clubs, where it can perhaps do some good. ;)
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
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