The fact is that change will not happen without organized violence. The most elementary formation in which organized violence can be wielded is the paramilitary. Anything else is not build on anything. What would happen if the NYPD simply shoot Mamdani in the head? Mamdani doesn’t have a paramilitary to protect him nor conduct reprisal hits on members of the NYPD. Should Mamdani’s continued existence incur a higher political cost than getting rid of him by any means necessary, he will simply be liquidated, perhaps in a dramatic fashion to make an example out of him.
Of course, a paramilitary is just an ever-diminishing group of people with guns if they don’t have support from the local community that they can recruit fallen members from. Usually, there would need to be a political apparatus that onboard, vet, and ideologically train potential recruits so you don’t just hand a loose cannon an assault rifle. It’s also there so the paramilitary doesn’t devolve into a bunch of marauders with some charismatic warlord leading the pack. The political apparatus can be divided between mass orgs that target normal people with looser org discipline and a party where there’s an strict expectation of party discipline and ideological agreement over the party programme among cadre.
Consequently, counterinsurgency is deployed by the state to make sure that these elements never coalesce together. Armed militant groups are manipulated to be nothing more than gangsters warring against one another instead of united against the state. Mass orgs are manipulated to be tailist and not push back against the reactionary tendencies of the masses. Political parties are manipulated to be out of touch with the masses and allergic towards violence.
Democratic socialists as they exist in the West are that last sentence. They tend to act like activists who do not see a place for violence, especially organized violence. At best, you will have a rowdy protest where stuff gets thrown at cops. But if you read police counterinsurgency manuals, they absolutely treat even the most benign protest as an insurgency action. Those nonviolence protests are just seen as an insurgency action where the insurgents are too stupid and cowardly to fight back. That is how cops see nonviolent protests.
But if you read police counterinsurgency manuals, they absolutely treat even the most benign protest as an insurgency action. Those nonviolence protests are just seen as an insurgency action where the insurgents are too stupid and cowardly to fight back. That is how cops see nonviolent protests.
The fact is that change will not happen without organized violence. The most elementary formation in which organized violence can be wielded is the paramilitary. Anything else is not build on anything. What would happen if the NYPD simply shoot Mamdani in the head? Mamdani doesn’t have a paramilitary to protect him nor conduct reprisal hits on members of the NYPD. Should Mamdani’s continued existence incur a higher political cost than getting rid of him by any means necessary, he will simply be liquidated, perhaps in a dramatic fashion to make an example out of him.
Of course, a paramilitary is just an ever-diminishing group of people with guns if they don’t have support from the local community that they can recruit fallen members from. Usually, there would need to be a political apparatus that onboard, vet, and ideologically train potential recruits so you don’t just hand a loose cannon an assault rifle. It’s also there so the paramilitary doesn’t devolve into a bunch of marauders with some charismatic warlord leading the pack. The political apparatus can be divided between mass orgs that target normal people with looser org discipline and a party where there’s an strict expectation of party discipline and ideological agreement over the party programme among cadre.
Consequently, counterinsurgency is deployed by the state to make sure that these elements never coalesce together. Armed militant groups are manipulated to be nothing more than gangsters warring against one another instead of united against the state. Mass orgs are manipulated to be tailist and not push back against the reactionary tendencies of the masses. Political parties are manipulated to be out of touch with the masses and allergic towards violence.
Democratic socialists as they exist in the West are that last sentence. They tend to act like activists who do not see a place for violence, especially organized violence. At best, you will have a rowdy protest where stuff gets thrown at cops. But if you read police counterinsurgency manuals, they absolutely treat even the most benign protest as an insurgency action. Those nonviolence protests are just seen as an insurgency action where the insurgents are too stupid and cowardly to fight back. That is how cops see nonviolent protests.
This is funny and insightful