Dave Alvarado in Elk: "@artemis I don't think that reply guy..."

I think someone just told me that US folks should all be trying to assassinate Trump & his cronies.

Maybe I misunderstood, but, like, we all know that's not how you overthrow an evil regime, right? Going out & getting yourself killed trying (& probably failing) to do something largely symbolic (because the oppression machine remains) seems like a bad idea.

Also don't come on social media & tell people to shoot people. That's a bad idea.

Again, the reply was kinda jumbled, so it's hard to tell exactly what he even fucking meant, but

I really think someone just told me that we could solve our problems by trying—en masse—to murder Trump or others in his regime.

Quite the take.

Yeah, you solved it, buddy.

For the love of god, comrades, don't go get yourself killed for a pointless gesture.

The resistance will of course require us to take great risks, but grand, heroic gestures aren't where it's at. Don't be goaded into throwing your life away.

We need each other. Your life is precious. Don't listen to anyone who suggests anything different.

If someone tells you that you are a coward for not rushing off to get killed, tell them to fuck off, because that's a lie of the enemy.

Reply guy: "If you people were really serious you would commit [specific crime]. I guess you're just a bunch of pussies, huh? I mean come on don't you want to [do this crime]?"

Me, squinting: "I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. Did you come here with someone? You seem very interested in talking about crimes."

I don't think that reply guy studied much history. If you want to fix things with violence, you have to do two very hard things:

1. Overthrow your shitty government, and
2. Get your new government recognized by the rest of the world.

If you fail at 1, you just did crimes and nothing changed. If you do 1 but not 2, you just made things worse for yourself.

Reply guy needs to do the smart thing and work within his system however possible. Or, at least build community to survive.

March 13, 2026 at 10:05:21 PM

Back in high school, I was the do-gooder liberal amongst a bunch of anarchists. I grew up, became an anarchist, didn't change my behavior much, still organizing warming clinics and working free clinics, but realized the anarchists I grew up with were behaving much the same. Then I saw this little no-neck fuckwit I went to school with run for office on basically the same contrarian, destructive values except with his added ideas of all minorities should be gone (my coworker from California loved him).

Reminds me of that anecdote about the Paris Commune, where a lot of folks wanted to proselytize and make a name for themselves while the actual work collapsed cause they thought it was beneath them.

we shouldn't restrict ourself to legal actions. I'm not against illegal strikes, protests, sabotage... if they have the chance to work. The regimes may not give us legal ways to overthrow them.