We Fucking Told You.

As we told you in our most controversial and downvoted article, They Want You Violent, the State monopoly on violence is a monopoly for a reason, and that bad faith actors will always be able to spin violence against them into a justification for their own reprisal violence.

And here, we are seeing exactly that.

Look, equating property damage to the literal hundreds of people attacked by Right Wing murderers – including the attempted assassination of Trump by a registered Republican – is absolutely asinine. But it must be recognized that violence simply serves a reactionary emotional utility that is far, far outweighed by the damage it causes to our own movement.

We can have and understand all the justifications we want – riots are the voice of the unheard, we have a right to self defense, telling marginalized people to not take up arms is oppressive, arm the homeless, etc.

But it doesn’t matter. They control the narrative. They have a huge, relentless media machine that pumps out fascist garbage at a rate that you cannot outrun. The velocity of their bullshit will always outpace your justifications. We saw it with BLM just a few years ago. “Seattle is burning!” is still the fucking narrative, even though people went to the CHOP/CHAZ like tourists the next day. There are hundreds of photos of one dumpster with a fire in it.

Yes, it’s fucking silly. Yes, it’s wildly unfair and unequal. Yes, people should be able to see through it. But they don’t – and they are constantly bombarded with emotional messaging that is devastatingly effective, and the slightest deviation from pure moral action on our part plays right into their lying, fascist hands.

They do not care about the truth, they do not care about your reasoning, they do not care about ANYTHING but getting you to incriminate yourself with ANYTHING they can use to justify further faux moral outrage.

It does not matter that they are lying, it does not matter that they are hypocrites, it does not matter that their framing is bullshit, and it doesn’t matter how obvious it is to you. It only matters that they can “flood the zone” with their narrative, and define you before you can get in front of a microphone with whatever complex explanation that no one is going to listen to.

This is now the narrative: “The Left, with their long history of terrorist violence, is showing once again that they are coming to kill us all.”

It does not fucking matter that this is insane bullshit. Get this through your fucking heads. It. Does. Not. Matter.

It is not fair, it is not equal, it is not rational. And yes, they’ll make up shit regardless. But no amount of pointing that out will do anything at all, because it is fundamentally just the way it works. This type of shameless, sociopathic mendacity is the unbeaten champion of political shitbaggery. You have to accept the reality of that.

The pics above are but a tiny fraction of the number of posts, emails, talking points, and media presentations that are now pushing this violent domestic terrorism angle. Every mouthbreathing smoothbrain has been waiting for this, and they have an absolute tsunami of bullshit ready to go.

A few burned cars, a spray painted swastika or two – barely a Superbowl celebration worth of damage to insured property – and now every single lockstep media outlet in the Conservosphere has headlines branding everyone to the Left of Mitt Romney a terrorist.

Unfair? Absurd? Irrational? A gaslighting appeal to fear and outrage? Absolutely. And it works, terrifyingly well. Especially for those predisposed to their viewpoint. They are frothing at the crotch to get closer and closer to hunting the Libs in the streets.

Whatever these vandalism incidents were supposed to do, it was the legal, peaceful protests, calls for boycotts of both Tesla and related advertisers, posting of our own narrative and information, and relentless pressure on elected officials, that ACTUALLY accomplished anything.

And now those successes are threatened by the counternarrative around those incidents. As the title says, we fucking told you.

“Any incident, fabricated or not, is instantly folded into a narrative that is just frothing at the mouth for the overton window to be pushed far enough to not just “justify” genocide, but demand it. This is the inevitable outcome of violence.”

Nonviolent civil action is not just a moral stand, it is a necessary – and far more successful – strategy to prevent exactly this scenario. We have lost the moral high ground, we have lost the narrative, we have lost the support of the people, and we may never get it back.

So I hope folks enjoyed their performative, reactionary temper tantrums, because they have delegitimized the entire movement for absolutely no gain.

The consequences for all of us who now face increased reprisals and more on-the-ground violence from law enforcement, legislators, media operatives, and Trump supporters is a direct result of this absolutely moronic ignorance of who violence serves.

Violent actions may feel Ike praxis, but really, it’s just diving into the hedonist fantasy of the imagined hero delusion. No matter your intent, they will make sure that the impact serves them, and that is, as always, going to get innocent people hurt, their lives destroyed, or ended.

Violence is inherently narcissistic, a feeding of the individual reactionary desire for kinetic, cathartic action. It is inherently sociopathic, with no care as to the real harm it causes others who are not part of the power structures. It is inherently oppressive, transferring to individuals the cost of the oppression by the State. It is inherently Patriarchal, feeding into toxic masculine ideals and power fantasies. It is inherently Capitalist, giving that sweet instant gratification we’re conditioned to want over long term goals and strategies that actually accomplish things.

And it is inherently ineffective, inhibiting the ability to build solidarity and coalition with a larger morally moderate populace, even if they share our political views.

The Master’s tools – physical and political violence, repression, and lies – will never tear down the Master’s house. We cannot build liberation through violence. We cannot out-Nazi the Nazis, and no one cares about your intentions.

Yes, we’re finger wagging. Yes, this is a “we told you so”. Because we did, and we were right. Our hope is that tis presents the case for far more thoughtful action in the future, and the abandonment of counterproductive strategies that do nothing but give our opposition more ammo to define us.

We will conclude by reposting further resources that back up the data for nonviolent moments succeeding for those who are actually interested in doing the work.

Why Civil Resistance Works by Erica Chenoweth is the gold standard at the moment, but it is summarized in this article from Harvard, or in the video lecture presented here, or this shorter Tedx Talk here.