Iraq War was preceded by the largest worldwide non-violent protests in history and the war happened anyway.

And thats why they tell you its not the answer. Now to be clear, it isn't always the answer, but we've been calling on deaf ears for as long as I can remember, and as I've heard from the Older Guard, its been twice as long as that at least.

Is true.

That is why so soooo many headlines everywhere are preaching how this should have been done through voting & protests or whatever.

Iirc majority of Murikans want public healthcare for at least two decades now, yet nothing has changed (except living generations).

What's that old JFK quote? Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable?

The state draws its legitimacy from the social contract. When people no longer feel like the social contract is beneficial to them or to society - ie as one might feel with a healthcare system that is 100+ years out of date and has received one (1) bandaid for normal folk in the past 50 years - the state can no longer expect individuals to uphold their end of the social contract (adherence to laws, norms, and peaceable conduct).

This doesn't mean "the overthrow of the government is coming tomorrow", but rather means that the social contract is beginning to fray, and a failure of those in power to recognize and accede to that fact (by making major concessions) will result in this sort of incident continually intensifying until... well, until the social contract is gone to a large swathe of people, and then at that point, the overthrow of the government will be imminent, for better or worse.

All interactions between state and citizen are implicitly negotiated. Negotiations require leverage. Violence has always been a form of leverage. But assassinations are far more powerful leverage than riots.

"we can shoot them?"

"yeah apparently you can just shoot them"

This is why peaceful protest is legal, it accomplishes nothing.

Individual, spontaneous acts alone are not sufficient either. This is adventurism, which is fun to celebrate but does not actually change the equation. The answer is neither peaceful organizing nor individual aggression, but mass, millitant organizing! Throughout all of history, there have been no successful changes in the status quo without a mass, organized movement. Read theory and get organized. If you need a place to start, I suggest my introductory Marxist reading list.

I was just recently informed of a podcast called "blowback" the other day on Lemmy and their first season actually goes into Iraq and the lead up to it. It's a very good podcast for anyone interested in the topic of American intervention in other countries. Very well produced for the subject matter.

Long story short there was nothing that was going to stop us from going after Iraq. "We" wanted that for a long time and it's not just a simple "cuz oil" thing.

Note that the people who got into these wars are still running the country. They have political support from the older people and their base is boomers, esp more affluent. This is not a left/right issue, war happened because the system as whole willed it.

Owners gotten wealthier since then every critical industry now is operated by an oligopoly protected by the US law and regulatory regimes catered specifically to their needs.

Health insurance industry is merely top of iceberg, this is something every person who works for money has to endure at some point in their lives. If you have not seen it in work, your family did.

Since COVID they improved algos and assaulted us across all sectors via this new found pricing power along with FUD related to COVID.

American problems require American solutions

"largest worldwide non-violent protests in history"? I remember living through that time and don't remember that. Do you have a source? I myself was opposed the second Iraq war because Saddam had agreed to let in any inspectors the west wanted but we went "too late, we're coming in anyway" and I knew it was a scam invasion.

We were also just a couple of years into Afghanistan and it made no sense to be starting a second war on a second front when there was no immanent danger. Again, it made to sense.

And the gun was 3d printed. They will not stop at making 3d printing illegal.

It was also preceded by a violent act of terrorism that made people support whatever the president wanted to do in the middle east.

Just want to plug the movie and book How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Also the book Rattling the Cages.

I remember huge student protests for weeks on end. Then, over spring break when all the students were off elsewhere - the bombs began to drop.

As someone that was at the protest, at no point did I think it would result in the war stopping. It was still worthwhile, however. In retrospect, the war was so much worse than any of us knew at the time and also based on flimsy and/or no evidence of WMD. Business as usual in America. We'd do it all over again today, I have no doubt.

I called for a massive peaceful protest that, occasionally, takes a shot.

Cool sticker on your cybertruck!

The protests were amazing, nothing like it before or since. The media suppressed coverage of them as best they could. They couldn't totally ignore them but gave almost 0 coverage. Masses and masses of people packing the streets. Wish we'd had drones back then to get some good aerial footage.

Indeed and wait until Mango Fucking Mussolini decides to invade Iran. That will be one hell of a protest.

We want public healthcare. This act of violins highlights the anger we feel. It doesn't bring us closer to a solution. But imagine the roles swapped. We continuously live in fear of getting sick and then going bankrupt and homeless because of it. But what about from the other side...imagine a wolf in a house eating his sheep dinner. Imagine that asshole dancing around and humping several wolfority mates every night having the time of it's miserable life....and suddenly that wolf peaks at the window and has a sudden realization... Sudden because he suddenly opened the window. It realizes that there's nothing but sheep outside, all looking at him thru the window. Goes up to the roof top and observes himself surrounded by million upon millions of sheep all looking directly at him. The wolf sees one fellow wolf nearby as the sheep trample him. The wolf listens to his friend's bones crackling into mush. So just close the blinds and have another sheep from the fridge? Or maybe address the impending problem?

Protests mean nothing if it doesn't change how people vote.

Partially because "peaceful" and the definition of what would or would not be accepted as valid protest became co-opted by the management/ ivy league class.

Compare the Seattle WTO protests to the 2003-2005 Iraq protests.

This is why the ruling class pushes gun control so hard. Don't let them do it.

Peaceful protest is a spook

I don't want to shake the ruling class, I want to take away their power to exploit people. I want insurance companies reigned in. Getting Obamacare passed did more than what a thousand vigilantes could, and that was after the Republicans and lobbyists gutted it.

If people really want to stick it to the man (conservatives and liberals alike), then they can vote in representatives and Senators who will actually legislate for the people, rather than ones who will enrich themselves off their backs.

You can revolt, you can eat the rich, it feels great. But what matters is how the system gets changed or doesn't change. Plenty of revolutions have replaced the system was something worse, with these heros who took down the ruling class in their place. Keep a close eye on Syria, here's hoping for the best.