alt text: caption reads: “politicians: if you don’t like it, why don’t u protest peacefully?” above larger text, “protesting peacefully:” in the below picture, a wojack protester, red in frustration pulls his eyes exaggeratedly down his face as he stands in a square in the streeet labelled “DESIGNATED FREE SPEECH”. a ‘fnord’ with a clown pepe at the wheel honks at him. off to the side a sniper trains their sight on the protester.
It suddenly occurs to me that, if the notion that a government’s power ultimately comes from having a monopoly on violence is true, then declaring that one will only protest peacefully is essentially giving up any power one might have in the event that one’s demonstration does not convince those with power to do as you want.
You convince those with power to do what you want by hurting them economically. But that requires a massive coordination of the labor force which is rarely seen in the US.