With Media Focused on Rocks and Rubber Bullets, Can Peaceful Resistance to Trump Work?

This is not one of those fake interrogatory headlines. It's an actual question.

We can’t have a productive conversation about climate and sustainability pathways in a broken media environment and democracy under siege, so here’s more on these issues. Please do stay with me on this journey and share this post.

UPDATED June 8, 10 a.m. - Profound dangers are erupting following Team Trump’s intensification of its assault on immigrants and the wider constitutional right to due process.

Trump’s order to deploy 2,000 troops from the California National Guard to Los Angeles County is a deeply disturbing and dangerous overreaction, undoubtedly driven by the hyper amplifiction on Fox News and right-wing social feeds of the actions of a scattering of violent rioters around the region masquerading as demonstrators.

As I posted on X and elsewhere, I support deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s pledge to find and prosecute lawless thugs throwing big rocks at law enforcement vehicles. Of course ICE agents using thuggish, violent tactics deserve prosecution, as well, as we discussed after the horrific New Bedford, Massachussetts, assault on a couple in a parked car.

Both are criminal acts. Both are infuriating. And this is not false balance. Stay peaceful when opposing autocracy.

My question today, as posed to some social scientists on Bluesky, is this:

Is the current media environment destined to wreck attempts at peaceful resistance to tyrannical power?

Put another way, would Gandhi's nonnviolent approach to oppression have worked if there'd been social media back then? In our current media environment, all it takes is a few violent rioters to foil attempts to gain justice through peaceful protest by filling the #Instanet and cable news with flames, rocks and rubber bullets.

I’ll add responses as they come in, and would love to hear from you on this question, as well.

Voices

Here’s how

Robert Reich

made the point about sticking with peace today:

Trump wants to escalate tensions. He wants a replay of the violence that occurred in the wake of the George Floyd murder — riots, mayhem, and destruction that allow him to escalate his police state further — imposing curfews, closing down parts of Los Angeles, perhaps seeking to subdue the entire state. And beyond.

Please do not give him this. Don’t fall into his trap.

We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. But we must not succumb to violence.

Dana Fisher, an American University sociologist who studies protest movements and has been a frequent Sustain What guest, replied on Bluesky:

This is an important question, but it’s important to remember that, under repression like we’re seeing now, protest is one of the only open channels for Resistance.

I offered this reaction:

That’s why it’s vital for those seeking to sustain democracy to do whatever they can to distinguish protest from criminal violence like throwing heavy rocks at fast-moving vehicles - and to call out those doing this (given that they’re empowering Trumpists).

In the meantime, pursue civil rights, civil protest and communitarian spirit wherever you are. As a cleansing closer, here are some of my closest musical friends singing Song of Hope, by Laurie Siegel and David Tarlo:

Song of Hope
Laurie Siegel and David Tarlo, 2020
 
I sing a song of hope
Defiantly declared
Release it if you dare
In the midst of dark despair
 
Fueled by a spark of rage
The rattling of a cage
Is the rhythm that compels you
And tells you to keep on marching on.
 
Keep the fire burning
Keep your head held high
As you look into the eyes
Of those who’d bring you down
They cannot bring us down
 
You sing a song of hope
Held like a babe in arms
You try to keep it warm
Protect it from the storm
 
Nursing the gash
Of a dream that has been dashed
And still you sing
And still we sing
 
Keep the fire burning…
 
We sing a song of hope
Lightning in the skies 
from the fire in our eyes
burning through the storm
 
Fueled by a burning love
We raise our eyes above
See the elders and the young
All our colors in the sun
Rising up as one
Yes, rising up as one
 
Keep the fire burning…
 
We will rise
We will rise
We will rise 
Together we will rise