Against "Leftist" Violence (On Effective Activism & Vegans / Veganism).

but anyway they claim to represent some
mass organizations on masculine vegans can never claim that I'm hero in 2060 do we represent one percent of the population do we represent two percent of the population why would violence be justified or effective on behalf of that two percent population I virus yen so you know this kind of irrelevant radicalism totally counterproductive radicalism that can't can't help you with ecology can't help you with political organization can't help you with any other type of community organizations of been talking about and and it's a way of thinking about social change that because it is rooted in violence and its ultimate ultimate objectives or violence and it's means our balance it never thinks through the type of examples you guys have heard me talk about 10 times on this channel what about cigarette smoking and how cigarette smoking has changed in society what about social organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving really effective non-party forms of activism when I was in the Green Party even I was just trying to talk to them about publications but having a magazine that talked about ecology and the science of ecology and you know social change in relation to that you just had a magazine gathering together bits of news that people who donate money to the Green Party would care about and talking about that stuff in an authentic way that would mean so much and it would justify people donating money to you like you know ecology has a scientific aspect as well as an ethical aspect as well as a vegan aspect if you had a magazine addressing those things instead of phony threats of violence and revolution it would make such a positive difference and this is in Canada Jesus cry you want to talk about resorting to violence in it you know here in Canada have you been to City Hall no none of these people have been a city old I've never been to Parliament they've never tried the legal means of making a difference and when I did that stuff when I was nobody when I was a young kid in University going to City Hall I met and spoke with some of the most powerful people in Canadian politics long term you know I spoke to I interacted with two different guys who later became heads of the NDP of our Democrat Party I had an image I used to post all the time that related to my experience in Cambodia showing the devastation of revolution in Cambodia with a quote saying you know that there's no room to be a fake dress up revolutionary when there's a real revolution going on but these people who preach violence they both lack a pragmatic connection to meaningful politics and the thoughts about how political change actually happens how to really make political change happen and they also have avoided learning lessons from history have they've avoided reading about actual revolutions what really happens with real class warfare with real violence when it goes on so this remains something glorified and abstract in their minds which is sickening to me something people on the left wing say all the time and I understand I believe me I have studied the Vietnam War especially with reference to Laos Cambodia etc I've stayed the v anymore with people on the Left talk all the time about learning the lessons of Vietnam yeah well why don't I Jesus Christ there were a lot of lessons to learn from Vietnam there are lessons to learn from the real communist revolutions political revolutions that have happened in Vietnam in Russia in China in Cambodia watch goddamn but as crazy as communism is one thing you can say in its favor is at least they pretend to represent a large class in society like the Bolsheviks in Russia they didn't even claim to represent the majority but they could say well about twenty-five percent of Russians are members of this industrial poor class that they represents they could they could say they represented twenty-five percent of the population in reality would that 25% even vote for them if they had an election that's another story but you know communists in different countries can claim to represent twenty-five percent or fifty percent of the population they can sometimes the claim to represent the poor now in Canada what percentage the population are really poor right these are the problems you get into but anyway they claim to represent some mass organizations on mass movement vegans can never claim that a mio in 2016 do we represent one percent of the population do we represent two percent of the population why would violence be justified or effective on behalf of that two percent of the population this is mimicking a mentality that is from like the 18th century in Europe not even the 19th century of assuming that political radicalism simply by declaring itself radical represents a huge class of oppressed people and if those oppressed people are just given leadership violent leadership then they will suddenly rise up and vindicate your movement and this is a course a very biased allusion to the experience of the French Revolution experience especially really I don't need to be one in French Revolution I mean several French Revolutions none of them being really studied your thought about critically you know God yeah look at the French Revolution what was the outcome Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars Napoleon reestablished slavery you want to talk about learning the lessons from Vietnam you want to talk about learning the lessons of history you want to talk about learning the lessons of these revolutions why don't you actually study what happened in those revolutions the total disaster the loss of life on a scale unbelievable and that the outcome being establishing a dictatorship so horrible you yourself would not want to live through it that was true the French Revolution singular or revolutions plural the revolution in China god damn take a look at what communism actually did in Vietnam once you get past the kind of phony narrative of looking at Vietnam as the the victim of American aggression which of course it is American bombardment is very real but communist dictatorship is very real also mass murder by communist dictatorships Jesus and murder during the revolution itself and what class warfare really means there are a lot of lessons to learn from the Vietnam War or from all these wars or from the stupidity of this pro-war social war attitude alright guys that is what it is let's let's end this video there I've talked to you guys from about 6 30am till after 7am your canada as mentioned this is what I look like when I'm completely exhausted no makeup no intro outro real talk these are the issues I've dealt with my whole life I wish it was a joke I wish I could say that these types of extreme politics were not an issue in in Canada you know God you know you'd think I think of the streets run red with blood in Canada but they are and violence and non-violence in theory and in practice remain profoundly important fundamental issues for vegans to be able to get to grips with and again why is that it's not just because violence is a means to an end but violence sheeps the end sheeps the objective so profoundly of what you're trying to do that it pollutes or it distorts all of the stages leading up to that so the Green Party are using the same example when I was there they were not even thinking about having a magazine that talked about science so you know like science news new scientific stuff in relation to ecology even though it's so obvious like if you're doing fundraising you want people to donate money to you because you're an ecological movement the type of people who donate money they will really value a magazine that comes at every three months telling you about recent events you know within Canada but recent scientific discoveries recent research related to ecology related to pollution in some river or that's what those people want to read about but that was a shockingly new idea the shockingly original idea to people inside the Green Party when I presented them not because they're stupid some of them are stupid but they do not think in those terms at all because the paradigm of violent revolution the paradigm that outcome thinking in those terms means they're not thinking about the really constructive methods of how to build a constituency of how to build an effective movement and when I first started talking about cigarette smoking and government attempts to discourage nicotine and social activist movements in relation to nicotine and alcohol mothers mothers against drunk driving cigarette smoking when I started talking with that on YouTube many vegans written to me and said well that's a shockingly original idea they never thought of those comparison why again not because they're stupid although stupidity is real many of the people involved are stupid they had never thought of those things because the paradigm of violence this objective these methods so distort the discourse so direct your attention away from really salient considerations of effective activism of how do we organize a movement what are our methods what are our means what are outcomes so again ecology pure and simple and veganism I mean God communism has been one of the most influential ideologies in history of the world it's a huge problem in terms of how it distorts the way vegans think about changing the world it's an even bigger problem if you were involved in labor activism like you know labor unions trying to help workers rights or raise wages or what have you so there are many deep unexamined assumptions about how we pursue social change that comes out of the last 200 years of experience with communism and radicalism and I can't say it's irrelevant to all circumstances in the world in 2016 you know there are extreme circumstances there's Somalia there's you know Saudi Arabia there are all kinds of really extreme political circumstances around the world where maybe we'd be having a totally different conversation but yeah in these white Western decadent Democratic context it is shameful for me to me it is shameful to me that vegans want to be phony dressup revolutionaries and I say shame on you you guys have already seen my videos shame on Gary Yourofsky for taking a platform he had to advocate positive social change and polluting it with a pro violence message