I'm sorry, Americans. If you think that allowing this madness to run your country is the lawful and civil thing to do, then your laws and civilization are fucked up. And you cannot ask any better of other fucked up nations either.
The time is past due to admit it and do something about it. How you handle this adversity will define or destroy you as a nation.
#uspol #pacifism #passthebuck #democracy #civicduty
My heart sinks to see nurses having to fundraise for hospital equipment at a time when billions are being diverted by our government to military spending.
This is not a serious country.
“#Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, he that is not with me is against me.” George Orwell
#Ukraine #Russia
Never let anyone make you feel like a monster or a villain or "just like the [INSERT BAD PEOPLE]" for recognizing the necessity of violence in defeating oppression. It's the pacifists who are the real monsters and villains, or at least their collaborators.#socialism #communism #capitalism #marxism #racism #antiracism #colonialism #anticolonialism #pacifism #pacifist
I'm usually a bit wary of boosting news articles where I'd like to know more of the story before forming an opinion. For this story though, I think it worthy of a boost regardless. Sadly I can't expect to ask anyone for the minutes of the meeting because, well, it got raided by the police. I'd dearly love to know if any of the police thought "Gee, we're going to break into a quaker meeting house and arrest people... are we modestly sure this is a proportional use of force?".
I hate to reduce things to pithy memes, and we have some superb civilian police officers in the UK who do a very difficult job, but I can't help but think of the Mitchell & Webb "Hans... Are we the baddies?" sketch.
I'm told it takes a very special person to flourish in the met police, and I assume policing a capital has nuances that are less relevant elsewhere. I'm disappointed that their surveillance apparatus was not felt capable of monitoring them adequately, and that it was felt force was necessitated.
"Are we the baddies?": https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY
@AliceStollmeyer @anneapplebaum This might be the first time that I must politely disagree with @anneapplebaum. Pacifism in itself isn't the problem here, but the absolutist version of it advocating for total surrender.
I'm a (peacetime) pacifist who believes (believed?) not only in credible *deterrence* in military terms but also in holistic *avoidance*. 
I have advocated against empowering dictatorships through business, normalization and appeasement (without credible actions towards democracy and human rights) since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. First over the bonkers and near instantaneous rehabilitation of the CCP-ruled China out of sheer greed, and in the 2000's the revisionist putin regime which noted how the CCP got away with murder without consequences because *business and greed dictated policy in democracies*.
Our democracies had a pacifist way forward after the Cold War: Support developing democracies with trade and aid while targeting repressive regimes with punitive tariffs (yes the could be used for good!) and technology embargoes.
Instead of a strong global alliance of democracies we now have military-expansionist and revanchist China and Russia using all their wealth, power and guile to subvert those still-struggling democracies to the dark side. And not only that, they're trying to disrupt and fragment our once-powerful developed democracies as well! (Hello russian influence on the trump regime!)
The era of potential pacifist deterrence ended in February 2022 and we're *still funding* those hostile regimes. 
(Anne's piece was posted on the fundamentally anti-democratic substack site so I steered clear 
)
"The affairs of the world have nothing to do with me", said the billions of people who make up the world.
Today in History, March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein was born. In addition to being one of the most significant physicists of all time, he was also a pacifist. Yet his letter to President Roosevelt warning of the Nazi progress on atomic weapons research was arguably key to the U.S. implementation of the Manhatton Project, a decision he later lamented. In 1955, well after the Cold War and nuclear arms race had begun, he and ten other intellectuals and scientists, including other Nobel Prize laureates, like Bertrand Russell and Linus Pauling, wrote a manifesto warning of the dangers of nuclear weapons. Einstein also participated in the U.S. Civil Rights movement, calling racism America’s “worst disease.” Later in his life he began to support socialism, and he criticized the Bolsheviks for their barbarism. Einstein was also a Zionist, and supported Jews’ right to return to Palestine. However, he did not support a Jewish state, or an Arab state, to replace Mandatory Palestine. Rather, he wanted a free, bi-national Palestine in which Jews and Arabs shared sovereignty, living peacefully and equally with each other.
@Radical_EgoCom I’d like to address some points raised about my earlier post. While I don’t expect agreement, I believe these ideas deserve thoughtful exploration.
I’ll respond to each point in turn to clarify my position—and share why I believe peace is not just possible, but the strongest strategy. (1/12)
#Philosophy #Strategy #TheArtOfWar #Pacifism #ConflictResolution
Refusing to fight an enemy who's trying to harm you won't make your enemy lose control. It'll allow them to proceed to harm you, free from any prevention on your part. You twisted Sun Tzu's quote to fit your pacifist narrative even though Sun Tzu wasn't a pacifist. He wrote an entire book called "The Art of War." Have you even read it? He believed in minimizing conflict whenever possible, which is smart, not pacifism, which is the opposite.
I assume that since you're an anarchist, that means you want the abolishment of the state. If that's your intended goal for humanity to achieve one day in the future, pacifism and nonviolence will only prevent that from becoming a reality. Pacifism and nonviolence are tools the ruling class of our society use to prevent the workers that could otherwise easily overthrow them from doing so. Pacifism and nonviolence only benefit the ruling class.
#resist #pacifism #nonviolence #anarchism #christiananarchism
As a former USMC infantryman (1977-1991) who left the Marines as a #consciencious_objector, I have first-hand witness to the futility of violence. Unless you are willing to wipe out your "enemy" completely, the risk of reprisal is always there.
I will be the first to admit that religion, when subservient to the state, is a major tool in war and oppression. For the Christian church it does not matter if you are Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical or Anabaptist, they all are complicit.
But I still hold to the Way of Jesus, as did the Berrigans.
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/sitting-with-reality/
.
This is genuinely, horrifically, extraordinary. Labour politicians - LABOUR politicians - arguing against citizens being able to make ethical investment decisions.
I do not want - and never would want - my money to support the arms industry.
The Final Lesson – Make Peace Your Weapon
“To win without fighting is the acme of skill.” – Sun Tzu (不戰而勝，善之善者也。)
Pacifism is not weakness. It is the highest form of strategy. The moment you refuse to fight on their terms, they lose control.
Make peace your greatest weapon—and you will never be defeated. (20/20) #20postchallenge #TheArtOfWar #Strategy #Pacifism #Wisdom #SunTzu #LifeLessons #PeaceIsPower #MasterTheGame #UltimateStrategy #philosophy #bookstodon
The Art of Redirection
“When strong, appear weak; when weak, appear strong.” – Sun Tzu
Bullies love predictable victims. If they think they control you, be unpredictable. Remove yourself from their game and force them to react to you. (12/20) #20postchallenge #bookstodon #TheArtOfWar #Strategy #Pacifism #Wisdom #SunTzu #LifeLessons #WinningWithoutFighting #philosophy
Control the Battlefield, Control the Outcome
“If an enemy is strong, avoid them. If they are arrogant, unsettle them. If they are secure, be prepared.” – Sun Tzu
A battle is not won by fighting on the enemy’s terms. If the battlefield is against you, the wisest choice is to leave and find a new one. (5/20) #20postchallenge #bookstodon #TheArtOfWar #Strategy #Pacifism #Wisdom #SunTzu #mindovermatter
Sometimes I strongly miss the weekly column of Uri Avnery, who co-founded Gush Shalom and did many other things, like visiting Arafat when it was a big, big taboo.
His columns followed the news of the time until his passing in 2018, I can’t recall one that would specifically applied to the here and now, but for the curious, here are some (most ?) of them: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery
Today in Labor History February 21, 1958: The CND symbol (aka peace symbol) was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom. The Direct Action Committee (DAC) commissioned the project in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. The DAC was a British pacifist organization that did non-violent direct action whose goal was the total renunciation of nuclear war and nuclear weapons. It existed from 1957 to 1961. They organized meetings, marches, vigils, pickets and acts of civil disobedience.
