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I don't buy it. There is a really big difference between a nation fighting an existential war with a military, and performative, mostly nonlethal, vigilante political violence. The latter is useful to fascists for obvious reasons; the experience of violence is at the core of their ideology, they have a clear path for using the trauma for hazing and indoctrination, it attracts attention, it attracts potential sympathy for the same reason it may serve the goals of nonviolent protestors to have violence seen being done to them in the course of their protest.
Trying to engage with them this way seems like it would clearly advance their goals more than it would harm them. How could it do otherwise? Do people think activists respond to light beatings by becoming dissuaded from their activism? I feel like this kind of messaging is pushed either by fascists themselves or by people with goals aligned with fascists, like involving more people in violence and bringing the overall political climate closer to a civil war situation.
Unfortunately, nothing is ever enough for fascists. You can be as peaceful with them as possible and they'll still try to kill you. We had a democratic election in the US in 2020 and when the fascists lost they tried to do a violent coup. How much more peaceful can we be? It's really unfortunate but I think the reality is that fascists only understand power and violence and ultimately you need to throw that all back at them as hard as you can and send them into hiding. The minorities the fash hate will be targeted by them and violence WILL happen against them even if you protest them as peacefully and legally as possible. Minorities deserve to live in peace and security without "paying the cost" of keeping things civil.
fascists only understand power and violence
Maybe, but the question is how do they understand it? You hit one of those people, how do they interpret and react to that? I don't think it's the way you would want them to. I think there is a threshhold for the level of violence at which terrorism actually works, and that threshhold is way past the point where things get really fucking dark. So you either go there, or you look for better options with fewer side effects, because in this case I think low level violence is clearly going to advance their cause rather than harm it. As for what those other options might be, I don't exactly know, I'm not saying they have to be nice or polite or peaceful, just thought through a little better than advocating casual brawls.
It's just a meme