Learned about it from this episode of the Team Human podcast
But what is happening in Hong Kong is they come up with a slogan, which is translated as Do Not Split, which is, we know that some people are willing to be confrontational with riot police.
And when they are, that’s going to cost the state in terms of not only resources, but it’s going to cost the state in terms of political capital and support. And we know that there are some people who are not willing to do that. And we are going to abide by the protocol of Do Not Split, which means that we’re not going to criticize them openly, and they’re not going to criticize us openly.
If we’re the pacifists, we’re not going to have them criticize us for being sort of like, I don’t know, limpid or flaccid or not courageous or whatever. And we’re not going to criticize them for being more confrontational. And the thing is that the support is also tacit.
It’s not like they have to come out and tell the media, oh, we approve of our more sort of confrontational colleagues. They just keep quiet. They just keep quiet.
Understanding that a range of tactics is probably going to be necessary. Nobody really knows what’s going to work. But if everybody’s pushing back against a particularly violent state, then everybody’s really on the same side.
My wife’s grandfather considered himself a pacifist. He drove a tank as part of the liberation of France. He also sometimes snuck up on Nazi positions, punched their lights out, and hauled them back as prisoners.
In the years before he died, he was known to say “what do you mean don’t punch Nazis? What else are they good for?”
I was honored to be a pallbearer at his funeral.
Pacifism can be flexible, which I personally think is the only way pacifism makes sense.
“He also sometimes snuck up on Nazi positions, punched their lights out”
What you just wrote is literally and factually the polar fucking opposite of pacifism.
Not to him. His viewpoint is that he wasn’t going to kill them, but there’s flexibility beyond that.
I think it’s time for you to step aside and read the definition of pacifism and try again: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifism
There are many versions of pacifism, just like there are many versions of leftism. Maybe step aside and have a broader view?
Fair point.
If you’re so upset as to be against pacifists who DO punch Nazis, you’re too immature and too much of a twat to help the left at all. Fucking grow up and stop being a useless cunt.
Pacifists who punch Nazis simply is self contradictory. It is like a virgin who had sexual relationships. It simply contradicts itself.
Somebody who chose to punch Nazis instead of killing them is hesitant to killing people, but he isn’t a pacifist.
Also it is problematic to say that Pacifism would entail anything but killing people, because that will mean anyone who does not call themselves pacifist would be easily equated to be a killer.