It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire

Rioting is hardly ever an attempt at righting a wrong

I think it certainly can be. I think much of the rioting in the 60's in places like Detroit and LA was pre conscious politically speaking. I think it's evident from the fact that the original violence was not always politically sophisticated or even motivated that at least early on this didn't represent a clear political program to right wrongs. But I call it pre conscious because it seems clear from how easily the Black Panthers were able to capitalize on the riots and turn these disaffected rioters towards their political program that the riots were, in some sense, political. It was originally largely flailing, disorganized violence against a system that people (rightly) felt didn't care about them and wasn't solving their problems.

I think in that context rioting isn't so different from other naive forms of activism, for example praying for the country on the right (and parts of the left). Obviously this is pointless in terms of actually accomplishing change, but it's a group of people coming together (not with all the right ideas) and recognizing that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system and that in some way they might have the power to change it.

/r/chomsky Thread Parent Link - i.redd.it