this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
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[–] Jaderick@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago (114 children)

A lot of those types of leftists fantasize about a glorious revolution, but many revolutions have happened and no utopias exist so…

I think Contrapoints made the same argument in one of her videos.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (104 children)

Agreed. I would add to that -- there's actually an incredibly instructive example to draw by looking at the non-violent-revolutionary movements that did achieve big social change in the past. The US labor movement in the late 1800s, Gandhi's independence movement, the US civil rights movement with its partial victory, things like that. There are a ton of examples of people who achieved big things to revise the systems that rule their daily lives, starting from a way less advantaged position than the left in the modern day US. It's not easy, no, but compared to an Indian person under the British Raj it's an absolute cakewalk.

Strangely enough, the people who are so incredibly upset with the broken system in the US as it pertains to this election (which, yeah, I get that), are somehow totally uninterested in looking at what actions big or small might produce positive change. They're solely focused on criticizing Biden and only Biden, or on saying that it's so broken that we might as well let Trump come to power because what's the difference.

It's like "The plane is having engine trouble and I don't know if we're going to make it. I'm real scared and upset about the situation we're in. I know! Let's shoot the pilot in the head."

[–] Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Wasn't the us labor movement violent? I seem to remember something about troops firing on striking miners.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It was nonviolent, until bosses/police starting shooting miners and their families, at which point it developed into a small-scale civil war. So yes, I shouldn't have simply said blanket non violent I guess... I was just trying to draw a distinction between "let's fight for justice for ourselves" versus "let's storm the capital and do away with the leaders" as two roads (with the first being more effective, and the second often leading to catastrophe instead of the progress that was hoped for.)

[–] return2ozma@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Labor rights and the labor movement throughout history in the US have been incredibly violent so I don't know what revisionist history you're talking about.

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You're right, I should amend my comment to note that it wasn't non violent and basically a small-scale civil war

Oh, hang on

(Actually, I do think I should have said it was nonviolent until they started shooting railroad workers, since that one came first. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact chronology but I think that would have been more accurate yes. The person I was responding to just said miners so I said miners.)

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