I cannot believe somebody is condemning burning police cars lmao. Let alone that they’re trying to frame it as “destroying tax payer funded property”
The property isn’t sacred because it’s taxpayer funded. I’m just saying that the action is symbolic but materially counterproductive because the fleet will be immediately replaced with better cars using taxpayer funds. That turns the public against the person who destroyed them, doesn’t deprive the police of anything they won’t replace by the end of the week, and it leads to nothing larger unless many people in your shoes are so inspired by it that you’re willing to martyr yourself for more symbolic property damage.
There are even moments for me when propaganda of the deed has merit. Huey P Newton walking down the street with a shotgun prepared to kill anyone who interferes with him putting up a stop sign at a dangerous intersection because the city refuses to, that’s a symbolic action which inspires and educates for decades after. It drives people right to the local BPP chapter because everyone knows who he is and sees that their safety is in their own collective hands. The assassin who killed Shinzo Abe turned an entire nation against Shinzo Abe and destroyed his power bloc because it exposed his corruption in the vacuum it left. No stated ideology I’m aware of, no party to recruit people to, one symbolic action which found public support because the public ultimately wasn’t ideologically with Shinzo Abe. I don’t know what the right adventurist move would be for the Gaza protests, but watch how this one develops and judge the effectiveness based on that. I think it sets too high of a bar for action, immediately alienates many of the most radical people who’d be doing that action, does an action which only benefits the police while making the non-radical public hate them more, and offers no Plan B if a bunch of people don’t individually decide to start a civil war before this leaves the news cycle in a few days. I’m condemning one idealist tilting at windmills because a group of people can swing swords more effectively at other things.
The property isn’t sacred because it’s taxpayer funded. I’m just saying that the action is symbolic but materially counterproductive because the fleet will be immediately replaced with better cars using taxpayer funds. That turns the public against the person who destroyed them, doesn’t deprive the police of anything they won’t replace by the end of the week, and it leads to nothing larger unless many people in your shoes are so inspired by it that you’re willing to martyr yourself for more symbolic property damage.
There are even moments for me when propaganda of the deed has merit. Huey P Newton walking down the street with a shotgun prepared to kill anyone who interferes with him putting up a stop sign at a dangerous intersection because the city refuses to, that’s a symbolic action which inspires and educates for decades after. It drives people right to the local BPP chapter because everyone knows who he is and sees that their safety is in their own collective hands. The assassin who killed Shinzo Abe turned an entire nation against Shinzo Abe and destroyed his power bloc because it exposed his corruption in the vacuum it left. No stated ideology I’m aware of, no party to recruit people to, one symbolic action which found public support because the public ultimately wasn’t ideologically with Shinzo Abe. I don’t know what the right adventurist move would be for the Gaza protests, but watch how this one develops and judge the effectiveness based on that. I think it sets too high of a bar for action, immediately alienates many of the most radical people who’d be doing that action, does an action which only benefits the police while making the non-radical public hate them more, and offers no Plan B if a bunch of people don’t individually decide to start a civil war before this leaves the news cycle in a few days. I’m condemning one idealist tilting at windmills because a group of people can swing swords more effectively at other things.