But stabbing your neighbor isn't exactly something most people are willing to do.
And any sort of attempt at organization leads to Alphabet Squad raids and whatever bullshit charges they feel like throwing at you after deciding you're guilty of being a dirty commie/socialist/librul/not them.
That's a lie. Capitalists will only make compromises if their lives (directly or figuratively) is in danger. That's what History demonstrates.
Right now they're so comfortable with power and propaganda that they'd rather make fascism happen.
Violence is the only language they understand. I'm not talking about everyone here, I'm talking about the capitalist overlords. They're ruthless monsters who only understands vital threat to their way of life or their life directly.
The person you are replying to is a Marxist, they are revolutionary but anti-adventurist. Violence is a requirement, but its form and direction makes a huge difference.
You'll soon see what fascists do with violence. In an idealistic world, pacifism is fine. But in reality the threat of violence is still the only thing that can prevent violence from the opposing side.
Violence has been used to shut down leftist for decades now. Pacifism did nothing to prevent capitalism from degenerating. At some point one need to accept the reality.
I don't disagree with you. I think the reason you aren't understanding what the Marxists are saying is a difference in understanding of revolution, pacifism, and adventurism.
Killing a random CEO? Will not put the working class in power. Cool move, but not going to change anything.
Organizing a revolution? Will change society, as it has done historically many times in favor of Leftists.
Revolution isn't pacifist, it's organized violence. Random assassinations aren't a part of that process.
At that point, just organize a revolution like has already been done, nobody has assassinated a revolution into success.
Funny enough, this exact conversation was had a long time ago, Lenin and the Bolsheviks advocated organizing the working class and reading theory, while the Socialist Revolutionaries advocated abandoning theory (believing it to cause more conflict among comrades than unity) and advocated assassinations. Ultimately, the Bolsheviks ended up being correct, which is why I think we can learn a lot from our predecessors in analyzing how our own conditions are similar and different in coming up with a strategy that works for us.
And any sort of attempt at organization leads to Alphabet Squad raids and whatever bullshit charges they feel like throwing at you after deciding you’re guilty of being a dirty commie/socialist/librul/not them.
This is simply false, at least in the western countries I'm familiar with. Most organizations will get monitoring at worst unless they're an imminent threat, plotting clearly illegal acts or in an unusually strict region.
Now, one could argue that effective organization will inevitably imply illegal acts or become an imminent threat, and that's reasonable but that's very different to claiming "any sort of attempt at organization leads to Alphabet Squad raids", an unnecessarily and baselessly dissuasive claim.
Violence is a tool which can, and in the past has, created solutions when used appropriately. It's how we dissolve the fascist groups in my area.
The problem with extremist right wingers isn't merely that they're violent, the issues are:
Their demands and rationale (based on their values as a 'right winger')
*Their ill-conceived, anti-social use of violence *(e.g. race war PotD envisioned by neo-Nazi terrorists, a strategy that history has demonstrated simply doesn't work. They're not even achieving their goals, just slaughtering innocent citizens)
Look at prominent cases of whoever you declare to be 'left wing extremists'. They're typically targeting specific atrocious people or groups like neo-Nazis or heads of state or capitalist industrialists, not just terrorizing citizens.
When peaceful protest is ignored or violently stopped, what other choice is there but to react violently?
Protest is the alternative to revolution. When protest goes ignored just so the powerful can retain their power, violence is the only remaining solution.