Property Destruction Is Better Than Fascism
Over the course of today’s presidential inauguration, the festivities (really the opposite of whatever festivities are) were momentarily overshadowed by protests from multiple anti-Cheeto Mussolini groups. Much of the discourse around these protests has been the subject of property damage. A few Starbucks windows, some garbage cans and a limo were all damaged during the demonstrations, and these actions have created a ton of tension amongst people left of center.
The argument from many respectability and decorum focused people is that the such destruction of property is harmful to the political goals of those protesting. They think that such behavior will give people an excuse to equate that behavior with the behavior of Cinnamon Hitler and his administration, effectively rendering the resistance useless. Some folks have even went as far as saying that they themselves think that destroying property makes people on the left no better than the small-handed bandit himself.
The time for sugarcoating is over, so I’m just going to come out and say it: These people are the reason we lost. Liberals seem to be more concerned with tone policing people to their left and subscribing to performative equality of ideology than they are with exposing and defeating the right-wing. For liberals (and really anyone subscribing to this line of thought) to equate people destroying the property of a megacorporation with the policy goals of the new administration, it is nothing short than a shameful display of their political incompetence and moral cowardice.
Starbucks having to replace three broken windows is not the same thing as someone dying a slow death just because they can no longer afford the medicine they need to survive. Washington, D.C. having to replace a few garbage cans and mailboxes isn’t equally as bad as possibly having a generation of children who will suffer greatly due to a nationally privatized school system.
For years, the other side has obstructed, slandered and flat out disrespected the first black president of the United States just because he was black, and he turned the other cheek and he took the high road, but where did that get him? Where did that get us? The lesson of this past election cycle has taught us that the performative moral superiority act is a losing strategy. We are the side with the better philosophy, and it’s time for us to act like it.
The left needs to grow teeth and it needs to learn that it’s OK to bite. The days of “gotta hear both sides” needs to end, mostly because it looks weak. We need to stop apologizing for ourselves in order to satisfy the political code of decorum that the right tossed out of the window a long time ago.
It’s time to stand firm and fight for our philosophy, no more capitulating and no more extending of the proverbial olive branch. Our collective goal should be to pick apart and ultimately defeat the right wing political machine, and we won’t get there while being afraid to offend the sensibilities of its supporters and moderates alike.
Under the control of a regime whose aims are to turn our nation into neo-fascist corporate state, the destruction of corporate property should be the absolute least of our worries. Let us all remember what side we’re on. We need to resist a regime that plans to sell us down the river in the name of profit, not tone-police people who don’t think that burning mailboxes is an irredeemable crime against humanity.
