IT did not take long for me to catch some flak for my previous post (Jan. 25), in which I made an explicit call for a violent response to the violent oppression being carried out by the Trump regime in the US, which has lately manifested in the murder of US citizen, a nurse serving US veterans in need of medical care, and peaceful observer of the unlawful brutality of Trump’s ICE thugs in the city of Minneapolis, Alex Pretti. At least one of my critics is someone I hold in the highest esteem professionally and intellectually, and care about on a personal level as a dear friend, and someone whose opinion I do not take lightly on any matter. That being the case, I feel some clarification and further context is in order.
And here it is: I said what I said, I stand squarely behind it, and I am not sorry. Nor have other points of view, or additional information I have learned in the past day compelled me to modify or soften my conclusion in any way so far. And yes, just to be clear, I understand exactly what it means: Armed insurrection against the recognized government of the United States. Open rebellion, if you like.
From my point of view, this is acceptable for a couple of different reasons. From the big picture kind of perspective, the current regime is the de facto government, but not the legitimate one, because it does not honor the Constitution. Through its actions, it has declared itself the enemy of the people who do honor the Constitution rather than the regime, it has hamstrung every framework in place to prevent tyranny (Congress, the Supreme Court, the judicial system, etc.), and as such, has put a clear choice to every American: Do you support the regime, or do you support America as defined by the basic law of our land?
Second, and more practically, in a year of atrocities carried out under Trump’s second term, it has become clear that no civilized guardrails can constrain him, which, as I said in my first post, is not really him (because he is a moron), but the savage Christofascist-technocrat machine that uses him as an avatar. Yes, I understand that we are in uncharted territory as far as the experience of US history is concerned. But it is not unprecedented in the history of modern civilization. Ask the people of Tunisia, or Libya, or Egypt, or the former Czechoslovakia, or the Ukraine, or Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka.
Is violence preferable to other alternatives? Absolutely not. But we have to consider what the possible alternatives are. The most obvious alternative is non-violent protest, the mere act of people showing up in large numbers in the street and making their voices heard. Pardon me, but I think that’s bullshit, particularly against a determined enemy as the US population is facing. Yes, I have read the research that asserts non-violent protest by 3.5% of the population (which would be about 10.5 million people in the US) is enough to overthrow a government, but I think that’s statistical bullshit; an abuse of statistical analysis, if you will. Every revolution has unique characteristics, and you cannot generalize.
The other alternative is the growing calls for a “general strike” in the US. This hypothetically could work, because if done effectively it would strike at the heart of the technocrat cabal that is responsible for supporting the Trump avatar to create the dystopian, authoritarian regime. However, I do not believe Americans have it in them to make such a thing effective, because it requires a great deal of personal sacrifice. Personal sacrifice for the greater good has never been the Americans’ strong suit, at least not since the era of the last World War.
Now, “inflicting violence” upon the neofascist regime of the US can certainly take different forms. In exhorting people to do exactly that, I recognize that it is a matter of opportunity and ability, and that is something that I admit may not have been clear in my first post.
The most important point I want to make here, and I hope my most respected and cherished critic who inspired me to write this piece is reading, is that from my point of view, exhorting people to “peacefully protest,” i.e., show up, be present, be visible, sing slogans, and carry placards, is an even worst form of violence, given that you will be doing so in the face of a regime that has already demonstrated in stark terms visible to the entire world that it has absolutely no compunctions about killing you for doing exactly that. I cannot in good conscience try to encourage anyone to be cannon fodder, and I am offended at the notion that anyone may think I should do so.
“Violence” in this context means anything you can do personally to not play by the rules, because your enemy (the US government) is not honoring any rules. As I told one of my colleagues today, If I were in the US, to put this in a personal context, there is a good chance I would be dead already, because I would have applied the most violence within my capabilities to address the problem. I have firearms training, and many years’ experience as a hunter, and while I might be overwhelmed by the firepower of the regime, I will at least take at least a few of these motherless sons-of-bitches with me.
But I realize that doesn’t work for everyone; what may be “violence” to me may be beyond another’s capabilities and level of comfort. And that’s fine; all I am encouraging people to do is to resist – which by itself the regime in the US already considers violence – in any way they can to interfere with the government’s intentions, to try to stop it from what it is doing, by any means available.
The other point that I keep coming back to, as a semi-amateur historian, is that almost no one alive today has ever been here; and those few who have can only guide us to a small degree, because the current situation is different than any that have come before. So again I say, shoot back…in any way you can.
And despite my rage, I do hope that peace will prevail. I do not believe it will, and I am prepared for it not to do so, but I can still hope. I leave you today with a powerful statement from Matt Moberg, who is the Team Chaplain for the Minnesota Timberwolves professional basketball team; I have borrowed the post from the thousands of times it was shared on Bluesky earlier today:
