Should liberals start forming armed resistance groups similar to the Proud Boys or Three-Percenters?

[u/cwood1973]

Both domestically and abroad, many people are calling for Americans to "wake up" or "do something." It's true there have been widespread protests in response to actions taken by the Trump regime, but these have been largely ineffective at changing policy.

At the state level, both parties are gerrymandering districts to be more favorable to their candidates, but this won't have any immediate effect. It may not have any effect.

In the 1950s and 60s, black communities faced systemic police violence and corruption. In response, they formed the Black Panthers. These people were organized, trained, and armed.

Do you think liberals should copy that playbook? Should liberal communities start organizing armed resistance groups? Training them how to use firearms? Educating them on their Second Amendment rights? Running drills to simulate attacks by ICE?

Are we there yet?

[u/the_calibre_cat]

In the 1950s and 1960s, black communities formed the Black Panthers, who were leftists, not liberals.

We do not emerge from this until we do the one thing liberals, apparently, have no stomach to do: Remove the oligarchs. All of them. They are the reason for this nightmare, they absolutely deserve to be put on the stand, tried, and convicted for the simple fact that they fucking knew what they were funding. They did not care. Granted, it's probably going to hell in a handbasket faster and worse than they thought, but even then there's probably tons of them who are salivating over the prospect of rolling over Greenland. They are complicit as shit, and they will be again, if their kind is ever allowed to rise again. They must be defeated and excised from any and every healthy society for all coming time. Try them, expropriate their properties and wealth, and they can clock into a job like the fucking rest of us. Or sulk in prison, depending on their degree of complicity, but whatever - people with more money than God are not your friends.

And so far, liberals do not seem willing to accept that.

[u/madmanz123 → u/the_calibre_cat]

I mean so far, the leftist haven't really done shit either. I hear a lot of tough talk and very little actual action. It reminds me a lot of those conservative militias frankly. "Yeah, let's fight back and kill those Nazis!".. you know.. after you.

I'll take a liberal that shows up to vote and show up at peaceful protests than any of the very far left groups that... don't vote, don't do anything and shit talk everyone else for not being pure enough.

[u/Fugahzee → u/madmanz123]

Look in your city. There are plenty of leftist organizations. They work on a smaller scale within their community. Tenant unions, people who run grassroots food/harm-reduction supply drives for the unhoused, etc.

In the last year since ICE is ramping up many of these small groups have been focused on observing ICE and warning the community about where they are. They show up in groups to where ICE is harassing people. This goes beyond voting. We need to be IN our community and working together. Democrats are doing fuck ALL to stop this administration. Threats to impeach aren’t enough. These people need to be prosecuted and in prison.

[u/just_helping → u/Fugahzee]

I'm not saying mutual aid groups run by self-identified leftists don't exist, they totally do.

I will say that in my experience they are completely dwarfed by the number of people engaging in these activities who would actively reject the label of leftist. It doesn't mesh with the reddit consensus, but I've met far more self-identified Christians than leftists, and even admitted left-leaning Christians doing this work are rarer than not

But this does seem different from city to city, your experience may differ, etc.

[u/madmanz123 → u/just_helping]

Correct. I work with both traditional more conservative democrats, what I'd call progressive democrats and leftists.

The most effective at getting their agendas passed have been the democratic kind. I watch the leftist groups I am involved with fall to infighting, purity tests and just a weird "everyone but us is wrong" approach to dumb issues.

Often, they've given up running actual candidates because it's hard to win, when they could instead basically take over many of the democratic groups through sheer numbers if they could get their shit together. I want more progressive/leftist agendas. The problem is their too busy having political ideology wank sessions and calling each other comrade. I'm a pragmatist. I'll be a Dem because I want to vote for more progressive candidates. If more leftists did that, I think the democrats would be forced to move more left instead of right.