Vincent Bevins the author of The Jakarta Method actually wrote a book about why the protest movements of the last few decades rarely achieved their stated goals. It’s worth checking out.

Not really. The overwhelming majority of those protests were peaceful. However the media latched on to the few cases where riots broke out which is pretty much what they always do.

If that were true Iran would have almost certainly taken some of the actions I’ve described. They’re trying to use that as a threat to get the US to back down and reign in their attack dog.

They could believe in their longterm capacity for success in a war with Israel and the US but still want to avoid all of the destruction that would entail. If they blow up Saudi oil fields, close the straits of hormuz, and attack US bases then any hope of deescalation is lost.

Yes. It was the largest protest movement in US history and it did precisely nothing to stop police brutality.

It really depends on how far both sides are willing to escalate.

Israel appears to be emboldened for a variety of reasons. Nobody is stopping their genocide. Hezbollah is on its back foot. Netanyahu sees political gain in a war with Iran. Trump is reckless enough to not reign Israel in.

However, Israel cannot wage all out war without the backing of the US. Iran knows this which is why I think their responses to past Israeli attacks have been fairly measured. These attacks are a serious escalation though and it’s hard to say how Iran may decide to respond.

If they seriously think the US is ready to back Israel in an all out war then we’re going to face consequences globally. Iran has the capacity to obliterate much of the middle east’s oil infrastructure, which the US is heavily invested in. That could cause energy prices to spike and create all kinds of downstream havoc for the global economy.

Haha speak for yourself. Understanding the underlying mechanics makes it obvious what comes next and I kind of wish we could just skip that part. 😅

It literally is how wars have been won. Strategy is not decided upon in a vacuum.

You need to read more news articles from the times then and not just modern accounts of the civil rights movement. The media definitely portrayed the demonstrations as violent and destructive even when most demonstrators were peaceful.

I just don’t understand how this makes Bernie’s statement inconsistent.

Bernie’s focus is the problem here. The anarchists and provocateurs who want to engage in property description don’t care what Bernie has to say. The vast majority of protestors who are peacefully demonstrating are not responsible for their actions. Even then there are many instances of peaceful demonstrators trying to intervene and stop property destruction and violence. “Peaceful protest” is a common chant at these events.

If you have familiarity with all of this, then you’ll recognize that Bernie is just being needlessly condescending to those who are already doing the best that they can. Nobody needs lessons on how or why peaceful protests can be effective. What we need is leaders who are focused on the obscene violence being perpetrated by law enforcement and the current administration.

If you want a better example of how to respond to the current situation you don’t have to look far. AOCs statement is much better.

It is 100% carrying water for the opposition to participate in this collective delusion that Dems for some reason need to answer for every teen who throws a rock rather than hold the Trump admin accountable for intentionally creating chaos and breaking the law to stoke violence. They are in charge.

Seriously. At this point the majority of violence being carried out against protesters in order to protect ICE is being done by local law enforcement. State and city level democrats are not resisting Trump. They’re just mad that he doesn’t realize that they’re on the same team.

The protests Bernie was part of were accused of being violent regardless of how Bernie and the majority of people protesting behaved. That’s the point. Hell if he resisted arrest in anyways today they might try to charge him with assaulting a police officer.

That doesn’t matter when ICE isn’t giving people their right to due process which they have regardless of their immigration status.

I somewhat agree. I do take issue with the notion that the Nordic working class has been bought off though. That makes it sound like they’re conscious advocates of imperialism which I don’t think is generally true. Rather I’d argue that free from hyper exploitation, they can’t develop a meaningful class consciousness. As such, it’s difficult for them to see how their long term interests are put at risk by the capitalist system and how a socialist system could maintain their high standard of living without requiring imperialism.

I doubt the Nordic working class are receiving a meaningful share of the value stolen through imperialist means. Instead, I think the Nordic bourgeoisie are able to accumulate wealth without having to hyper exploit their local populations thanks to imperialism. This ameliorates the local class antagonisms and creates the superficial appearance that a capitalist system can maintain a stable high standard of living for the working class.

Of course, if imperialist exploitation can no longer ameliorate said antagonisms, class conflict will re-erupt in Nordic countries. The danger here is that parts of the working class may be convinced that their standard of living is predicated on imperialist conquest which is the basis for fascism. The good thing is I don’t actually think that’s true. A more reliable way for Nordic workers to maintain their standard of living would be for them to suppress the interests of their local bourgeoisie and transition to an actually socialist model.