If the idea of violent protests don't make you at least little scared I wonder how well you know history. At the same time, real change almost never happens without people putting their bodies on the line.

The right understands this far better than your average liberal/moderate. To be a moderate is to trust that existing systems will (mostly) work.

If those systems fail? What then? To even consider this is moderate treason.

(Cartoons by Mattie Lubchansky https://thenib.com/author/mattie-lubchansky/ )

Mattie Lubchansky

Mattie Lubchansky is the Associate Editor of the Nib and a cartoonist and illustrator living in Queens, NY. Their work has appeared in New York Magazine, VICE, Eater, Mad Magazine, Gothamist, The Toast, The Hairpin, Brooklyn Magazine, and their long-running webcomic Please Listen to Me. They are the co-author of Dad Magazine (Quirk, 2016) and the author of the Antifa Supersoldier Cookbook (Silver Sprocket, 2021).

The Nib
@futurebird Yeah, but how will it be? What, are people going to shoot up government buildings? Are we going to have another uni-bomber? Seriously. If people get armed and start protesting, its going to be a world of pain for normal folks just trying to live their lives peacefully. This will not go over well and the government will arrest those who cause discord in a violent manner. It's not the 1800's. It's 2023. We don't have to turn into savages to prove a point plus, in racial riots specifically, Black people don't attack other communities, they destroy their own first. It's happened so many times where people will loot Black-owned stores and businesses and start setting their own people on fire and for what, to prove a point? It just doesn't make sense. Sure, you get news coverage and then what, it just means people will fight against you, not work with you politically. I believe in the Dr. King way of doing things. Violence never solves problems.

@gocu54

What I expect and have started to see from the right is a resurgence of extra-judicial "justice" that is: lynchings. There is a blurry fringe in law enforcement, people armed and ready to take matters into their own hands. Would they harm fewer people if there were a chance their targets might be armed? I don't know.

I just can easily see it going in this direction. I don't know how to stop it.

@futurebird See, the problem is figuring out how to stop this nonsense. It's not that i completely disagree with you. yes, action is required, but we can't just have people going around causing problems for communities when they weren't involved. We also don't need people potentially getting hurt or killed because of all this tention. I believe in civilized discussion in fact, I believe that right now, we're having a civilized discussion. I don't believe in the modern us vs. them mentality. I believe in common ground and that people who disagree can still be friendly towards each other or even friends themselves. Call me old school but those are my views. We just need to talk and have real discussions about these heavy issues and come up with a consensous.

@gocu54 @futurebird Get Dr. King's name out of your mouth. You have no idea what he stood for. You've uncritically swallowed the whitewashed version of him we're taught by liberal institutions & are ignoring that he was considered dangerous & radical during his time.

But even if you accept that King was categorically against all violence, THEY STILL KILLED HIM. If white supremacists are willing to kill even the most peaceful protesters, what option does that leave black people? Are they supposed to just stand back & be slaughtered? Accept that they all have to be martyrs for the cause? Fuck that.

Also, the civil rights movement wasn't JUST won by King and his ilk. More militant actors, like Malcolm X & the Black Panthers, were instrumental in winning civil rights reforms.

Lastly, as others pointed out, "they destroy their own" is a racist myth. Sure, some black-owned businesses get caught in the crossfire during riots, but who do you think the real targets are? Corporations who have exploited the poor & POC for generations. But that aside, black business owners are also capitalists, and being black does not absolve them of exploiting others. I REALLY don't care if an occasional black-owned business gets looted while the community takes revenge on their exploiters.