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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  4 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: UnitedHealthcare executive killed in Manhattan in targeted attack

So, you don't think that the suppression of nonviolent methods of reform influences the decision between violence and nonviolence?

I understand your point. The ideal solutions are nonviolent ones.





kleinbl00  ·  4 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'll go one further: violent solutions must be effective.

A TALE OF TWO TOWERS

Ramzi Youssef set off a fertilizer bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993. It killed 6 people, injured a thousand and broke a lot of glass. The FBI totes knew about it. One of the towers was closed for a few weeks. Some TV stations lost their over-the-air broadcast towers for a few weeks. A couple d00ds went to jail forever.

On the other hand, Osama Bin Laden, world-renowned insurance CEO, had some d00ds fly jetliners into the WTC and the Pentagon. It killed thousands, injured thousands more and radically reshaped American domestic and foreign policy. Ultimately it launched two forever wars, destabilized at least five regimes in the Middle East and reshaped global politics for a generation at least.

Any MFer worth his salt will acknowledge that violent solutions can be effective. Just ask the Mossad. Just ask Zelenski. We're in UR tenements, bombing UR Birdscooters. My argument is that the death of United's CEO at the hand of a privileged TESCREAL dipshit isn't just ineffective it's counterproductive. Further, my argument is that it's fucking pointless to single out a single anonymous bureaucrat when the villain in the movie is a conglomerate of faceless multinational corporations. Brian Thompson - dude who presided over board meetings. Igor Kirrilov? Putin's direct report in charge of unconventional warfare.

There are absolutely CEOs whose assassination would shape the narrative. Elon Musk, obviously. Sam Altman. Mark Zuckerberg. I'll go one further and argue that this is the most target-rich corporate environment since the era of Robber Barons; prior to Zuck I don't know that there would have been a point in killing anyone other than Jack Welch. You have to look at it with a gimlet eye and not just fucking assume that random stochastic violence will accomplish anything.

"I feel like hitting something" is a useless feeling. "I feel like hitting Prof. Plumb in the forehead with the lead pipe" is a plan. "I feel like hitting Ismael Haniyah in the middle of Tehran with a planted bomb" is a useful plan.

Marioluigi had a useless plan that is being bouyed up by useless feelings.