Matthew Remsky introduces "Anti-Fascist Woodshed 2.1," critiquing Ben Case's challenge to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Steffen's nonviolence data, which allegedly ignores riots and relies on DoD funding. The discussion shifts to recent anti-Elon Musk actions, including Rochester graffiti asking "Who will kill Elon?", Georgia dealership protests, and Lucy Grace Nelson's Loveland attacks involving Molotov cocktails and Nazi symbols. Remsky highlights rising Cybertruck firebombings in Massachusetts and South Carolina, noting how media often conflates vandalism with violence, ultimately questioning the efficacy of direct action against modern fascism. [Automatically generated summary]
Hey everyone, welcome to Conspirituality, where we investigate the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
I'm Matthew Remsky.
We are on Instagram and threads at ConspiritualityPod, and you can access all of our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on Patreon or just our bonus episodes via Apple subscriptions.
So this is a bonus episode.
It's called Anti-Fascist Woodshed 2.1, Punching Nazis with a question mark.
So hey, Patreon subscribers, thank you so much for your support and your feedback.
So if you haven't listened to part one, it dropped here on Patreon and on the main feed this past Saturday, and I encourage you to scroll back and listen to that first.
It focuses on clearing out the philosophical and psychological cobwebs that turn every discussion about how to resist fascism into a discussion about manners and decorum and spirituality.
And one focus was on a short episode in the life of my late friend, the Buddhist teacher Michael Stone, in which I tried to illustrate how the morality of nonviolence through a reductive reading of Gandhi can promote an unrealistic idealism among those who
aren't really thinking about the strategic goals of direct action.
And I invoked the notion of political bypass.
So in this episode, and on that note, I'm going to lean into the work of political scientist Ben Case.
To talk about how the psychological confusion over violence and nonviolence is rooted in a false binary of poorly defined terms that has been retrenched by an empirical claim from within the strategic nonviolence discourse that gained popularity in 2011.
Political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Steffen essentially claim to have validated that version of Indian history that imagined that independence was secured through pure nonviolence.
Case shows that they
could only make that argument by ignoring a huge range of forceful or violent actions within resistance movements like rioting that fall below the definitional thresholds of their data set.
Case troubles the commitments of Chenoweth and Stephan and their main forebear, Gene Sharp, by showing how their arguments are generally stripped clean of political direction and that a lot of the research has actually been funded by the Department of Defense or U.S. foreign policy think tanks.
But I'm not going to end the episode on intrigue.
I'm going to end by dipping back into the positive social psychology of resistance by looking at how anti-fascists Above all, have valued working together.
And I'll do that by talking about two very cool movies.
New ad for an unexpected site for people taking 490 West this morning in downtown Rochester.
Take a look at this graffiti with the words, Who will kill Elon?
Likely in reference to Elon Musk.
It's on the 490 East off-ramp bridge to Howell Street.
We've reached out to New York State Police, the Department of Transportation, and the FBI since Musk is a federal employee.
We're waiting on a response, and we'll update you once we learn more.
So maybe you remember my opening last time with comedian Peyton Vanist saying, I'm not saying somebody should do it.
Well, this graffiti really finishes the thought, and it's popped up in a lot of places.
Coinciding with a growing number of protests at Tesla dealerships from small events in Decatur, Georgia to hundreds showing up at a Manhattan showroom resulting in six arrests.
Portland is a predictable hotbed with marches of a hundred but also one showroom targeted by gunfire that damaged three vehicles and shattered windows.
Lucy Grace Nelson allegedly attacked a dealership in Loveland, Colorado several times using Molotov cocktails and spray-painting Nazi cars on the building.
People have firebombed or sabotaged charging stations in Massachusetts and South Carolina.
And overall, there's been an uptick in reports on attacks on cyber trucks.
Predictably, reporters are regularly using violence and vandalism interchangeably, often neglecting to note that in all of the direct actions so far that I've mentioned, there
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