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Maybe they should write a petition or something. That ought to work right?
by adwww 7y ago
Maybe they should write a petition or something. That ought to work right?
- quotemstr 7y agoWhat gives them a right to do anything that "work[s]"? If they can't get their way through rational persuasion, they don't get to have their way at all. That's how democracy works.
- megous 7y agoRational persuasion is really not how democracy works, or ever worked.
- perfunctory 7y ago> What gives them a right to do anything that "work[s]"? Nothing. At least not the legal rights. They accept the arrest and corresponding consequences. That's what civil disobedience is about.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago"If they can't get their way through rational persuasion, they don't get to have their way at all. That's how democracy works." Is that the case for other activist groups in the past? I was aware that other activist groups have been disruptive also (anti-war protests during vietnam, throwing literal ashes of the dead onto white house grounds during the AIDS crisis, the civil rights movement had plenty of nonviolent and violent protests...)
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoI see, so how would Indian independence, civil rights and universal suffrage have been achieved?
- chaosite 7y agoNo, that's how silencing minorities works, which is explicitly the thing that democracy is not about. You know the line, "soap box, ballot box, jury box, ammo box: please use in that order"? Note that last one. Democracy is merely a system wherein the first three boxes have a good chance of fixing whatever issue is occurring. But the ammo box is still there if the issue is important and nothing else works.
- deadbunny 7y agoYou mean the last 40+ years of climate change science politely and rationally explaining that we are killing the planet with little to no action being taken? I think after that length of time politely explaining with no one listening that you need to kick it up a notch.
- happytoexplain 7y agoSo, being a democracy, if we can't rationally persuade a person to abstain from breaking a law, we have no right to do anything disruptive to them?
- vidarh 7y agoDemocracy itself only exists because people were willing to go much further than 'rational persuasion' to secure it. The destruction of the environment is aggression against us all - that people have not responded more firmly before now is the surprising part. Democracy depends on the governed if not giving their explicit consent, then at least acknowledging the governing authority, it is not a carte blanche to do whatever in the name of an untested majority. Not least on a global scale, where most people have no say in most of the destructive acts.