this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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There are many definitions of pacifism, and without further context to simply say someone is a pacifist automatically makes them a fascist is a pretty myopic point of view.
I am anti-war, and I prefer peaceful resolution over violence. By definition I am a pacifist. But, that does not mean I will let someone simply walk all over me or my loved ones without opposition. It doesn’t mean I will simply resort to violence either.
The world is a complicated place, and to treat everything as if it’s an “either, or” situation does everyone a disservice and only feeds into the overall problem.
I believe Orwell was speaking of the Spanish Revolution (1936), in which he fought on the side of the socialists.
Pacifism is a great ideal, and (I believe) a lot of conflicts can be solved by honest negotiation. Once the shooting starts, though, the time for pacifism has ended. In the US, right now, it's not clear whether the shooting has started. I mean: ICE is definitely shooting people; people are definitely being injured and dying as result of the administration's actions, but it's not Shooting-shooting, and it still seems like avoidable, poor-policy harms. The question is: will it escalate to civil war level violence? And if it does, will strict pacifists already have blocked any hope of resistance?
🙏
Considering how this has gone for indiginous and black people of your country, who've been dealing with this problem for the last few hundred years, I don't think the issue is with the pacifists/non violent activists on your side. It's with the sheer fucking scale of the power imbalance you're facing.
Like yeah there's now more people in your country being shot at, but the people doing the shooting still have significantly more power.
Are there enough of you collectively now being shot at, to be able to take on the basically all of capitalism that's backing your government, funding your millitary, and controlling your economy?
It's fucking bleak thinking about this stuff. Like even with more Luigi's, how many will it take before the people holding the cards to make things considerably worse for most of society?
I've had this comic saved in my phone for a while now and it seems relevant. What with how well he predicted the future, Orwell being so against pacifists is painfully ironic.
Yeah, Orwell had the clarity of fighting against a literal right wing coup. A clear, decisive event to separate the non-violent time from the violent time, and violence instigated by people without even nominal consent of The People.
The slow rise of militancy, matched with spreading desperation, at least so far lacks a trigger. And in the particular case of the US, we have, like, 30 shootings a day just being us. That makes it a lot less shocking when a couple of those are government shootings. We let the right wingers take over the government (arguably, 250 years ago), and they're just slowly boiling the frog.
I'm in the UK and while shit is obviously different here, it's still very much the same in some respects. We're all slowly being boiled and there's basically nothing we can really do.
Get out of here with your nuance!