The time to call for nonviolence is when the violence is systemic: when it is slow, quiet, and legal. Waiting until people riot or take up arms to demand “peace” is a luxury of those who were never being harmed in the first place.

Riots and assassinations aren’t the start of conflict — they’re the bloody finale of years of systemic harm.

The question is whether we will keep pretending that only broken glass and spilled blood count as violence and ignore the systems that made the explosion inevitable.

But we can’t miss the bigger picture: when fear becomes the default setting of politics, everyone loses. When people expect threats as part of public life, they withdraw from school board meetings, from city councils, from running for office. That withdrawal is the point. Violence is not just killing people; it is shrinking the public square until... See more

Violence starts when wages stagnate while rents skyrocket, when police shoot first and face no consequences, when governments strip rights and call it “order.” It starts when budgets are passed that leave people hungry and homeless, when voices are silenced by censorship, and when whole generations are told their futures must be sacrificed to... See more

By the time we see riots or assassinations, these forms of violence have been operating for years. What we call “unrest” is often a delayed response. The moment the public stops absorbing systemic harm silently and begins to throw it back.

ne side has built an entire political brand around permission for violence. When leaders call immigrants “invaders” and political opponents “vermin,” they aren’t just talking but issuing an open contract for someone, somewhere, to act.

Look closely and you’ll see the same cycle everywhere: systemic harm → public backlash → state repression → escalation. The violence we notice is just the breaking point.

“Violence has no place in politics.”

It’s a comforting phrase, but it’s almost always delivered too late, after the glass is already broken. It’s never said when the budget cuts are passed that close hospitals. It’s never said when laws are written to force pregnancies, gut voting rights, or criminalize protest. It’s never said when corporations... See more