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Everything’s Fine Until the Anarchists Show Up
It’s as if they want the tyrants to win
Two travesties of justice and human decency occurred in Washington, DC, yesterday. One was Bibi Netanyahu spouting violent rhetoric inside the Capitol building. The other was the anarchists spouting violent rhetoric in a public square. Both were displays of desires to concentrate power. Each was pathetic in their own way. Both were deliberate attempts to silence dialogue and continue the cycle of antagonistic politics.
Voicing dissent is a sacred right. It is also a serious responsibility.
Protests are vital to a healthy society. Speaking truth to power is essential to maintaining our freedoms. Peaceful demonstrations claim the authority to produce positive social change.
The power in peaceful demonstration and constructive dissent to effect change in power structures is why those power structures seek to prevent people from engaging in public demonstrations. We see that when right-wing power concentrations use violence to suppress peaceful protests.
To be fair though, the police have to be prepared for the anarchists, who are also looking for a riot. Everyone who has ever been involved in civil disobedience and peaceful demonstration, including the cops standing by, knows that everything’s fine until the anarchists show up.
And sure enough, yesterday, while people, Jewish and non-Jewish, peacefully protested Netanyahu and countered his hateful speech with positive speech for peace, the anarchists showed up to silence the positive speech with hateful speech. We’ve…
