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When people take political action that is hurtful to others, it does not raise consciousness, it only communicates enmity and hurt toward our political rivals. Once upon a time, I used to be a firebrand, believing that lashing out at others over the internet constituted "cyber activism", but I have since come to see that that method fails, and I hope to convince you of that as well.
Hurtful political action imparts
zero information about how it feels when someone hurts you or the group you're standing up for. It only tells others that you're abusing them. Others can't know how you feel and they
don't know whether you're lying or telling the truth about your
experiences. They only know their own experiences. If you abuse others, that may well be sufficient
provocation, in their minds, to justify fighting back against you, regardless of how others
have treated you in the past.
This is true regardless of which political side you're on. It's true of "punching up". It's true of blocking bridges. It's true of lock-downs. It's true of insurrection. It's true of cancel culture. It's true of lashing out at others, over cyberspace, or in person.
It's particularly bad when we lash out at people who haven't, personally, done anything to us. If we lash out at someone merely for being white, male, or hetero, Christian, Republican, or Democrat, or if we stop people from getting goods and services, if we keep them from getting to work on time because we did a sit-in in the way of their commute, or we lash out at their group over social media, get them fired, or destroy their careers, all we communicate to them is hatred and enmity. I recall, in the past, how I felt when protestors blocked up the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't even remember why they did it. I only remember that people couldn't get across to go to work, to get to medical appointments, to go home to their families, and so forth. When people lash out at me, merely because of my political opinions, the same is true. In these cases, I'm innocent. I did not personally harm the people who are lashing out at me because other people in my group hurt them. Rather than becoming more conscious of the issue they were raising a fuss about, I became less conscious of it, and more conscious of how I was hurt by these people.
I think the same is true if people, say, blame all white people for police shootings of black folks. Even if it's true that all white people have inherited subtly racist thought patterns from our culture, how does it help to hurt us, blame us, or shame us, or to pretend that we personally shot black people? The same is true of treating men badly just because we're men or treating straight people badly just because we're straight. I know many members of oppressed groups have been hurt. As a religious minority, I know I have. But how does it help to hurt people who just happen to be members of a group that has members that oppress us? It doesn't help the pain I feel from having had nasty Evangelical Christians tell me I'm going to "burn in Hell" to lash out at all Christians. Many, many Christians would never say that to anyone, because it would violate the Golden Rule that Jesus taught them. Hurting innocent Christians only makes them feel under attack. And, what would it do to help me, anyway? They probably don't like the nasty sorts anymore than I do, because the religious fanatic jerks are at least as bad to their own as they are to members of other religions.
I'm not saying "not all", here. My point is that hurting others is both unethical and poor strategy.
Two wrongs don't make a right. Vengeance is unjust. In a blood feud,
we always think our side is right. There's no excuse for abuse.
So, let's beat our swords ploughshares. The best way to promote our political values is to humanize each other to each other, use reason to patiently and humbly explain our position, and be tolerant.
