When is violence justified against the state?

infspire
"I have a complex object. I want to know what it is."
infspire
"Inspect it."
infspire
"This object is so complex that there is no simple inspection method defined on it. I'll have to look at summary statistics of my object."
infspire
"I have conducted some summaries. Some of the statistics are correlated with each other."
infspire
"For example, I have tried to change my democracy through non-violent communication for several decades. It isn't working in some key regards."
infspire
"That sounds like a non-functioning democracy."
infspire
"Agreed."
infspire
"Given the core values of our political philosophy -- as highlighted in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence -- require non-violent methods of redress to be successful at some rate considerably higher than the observed rate, we can say this system is unjust."
20:52 infspire
"Insufficient non-violent reformation rate is a sufficient condition for injustice?"
infspire
"Correct."
20:52 infspire
"Are there are other ways a society could be unjust?"
infspire
"Presumably."
infspire
"How should we change a society that is unjust in this manner?"
20:53 infspire
"Well, the Declaration of Independence indicates we should use whatever means necessary to overthrow the government if it is sufficiently unjust due to insufficient reformation rate."
infspire
"Really? My TV is always telling me about how violence is always bad. I don't want to be a bad boy."
infspire
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
infspire
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
infspire
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design
infspire
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
infspire
"You'll notice the active verb "throw off"."
infspire
"'To throw off' will mean to use weapons in many cases, e.g. taking rifles and shooting agents of the despotic state with the intention of killing them."
infspire
"Yes, I guess that is true, given that the writers of this document did that very activity -- along with many other violent acts -- to throw off British monarchial rule.
infspire
"
infspire
"So, let me summarize if I can, teacher:"
infspire
"We can use violence, sometimes, to reform or remove a government, as evidenced by the philosophy of the Declaration of Independence and the actions of those that would go on to found the current system in which this argument is being constructed."
infspire
"Yes."
infspire
"And when is the time to utilize such violence? When a 'long train of usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Depotism'."
infspire
"Yes."
infspire
"And you're saying that is roughly equivalent, up to some subjective interpretation, of the current failure of American citizens to reform their criminal justice system which frequently engages in state terrorism against many of its citizens, especially for Black Americans."
infspire
"Yes."
infspire
"And you're saying that the actions we've witnessed by dozens of police departments in different cities and states to American citizens attempting to non-violently reform those police departments -- and our state -- is a sufficient cause to invoke the above passage from the Declaration of Independence."
infspire
"Yes."
ColDecker has left IRC (Quit: Connection closed for inactivity)
infspire
"And since that very passage deals with the fundamental and inviolable qualities of Man, surely we can ascribe to the notion of justice."
infspire
"Certainly."
infspire
"The system you are describing is unjust, teacher."
infspire
"It is."
infspire
"I see now how that kind of injustice is so statistically correlated, as an aggregate summary metric of a complex nation state, with the inability to reform on such a critical aspect of free society."
infspire
"Seeing that the correlation between this two independent derived constructs is so tight we should connect them in a definitional form, as we've proven there is mutual implication."
infspire
"Yes."
infspire
"Thank you, teacher."
infspire
https://youtu.be/QEysDsDdKGc?t=1956