Losers: A short statement on violence

Despite a powerful thirst for fictions that are full of extreme violence, gore and other intentional offensiveness, I remain a total pacifist in real life, and deplore all uses of violence.

I'm been in two fights in my entire life and they were both awful experiences. I fucking can't stand guns, and despise the macho culture around them even more. I do believe I am priveleged to live in a time and society when I can follow the path of Gandhi, Dr King, and Albert from Twin Peaks, and preach non-violence as the ultimate conflict resolution.



I do still like a good argument. Modern human civilisation is built on a foundation of strong and healthy debate, and it's good to nut out complex issues with words, rather than fists. There are billions of us, and we're all going to disagree with each other on social, moral, theological matters, but we don't have to actually fight about it.

And there is so much debate in the 21st century, with everybody getting thair two cents in on any goddamn issue. It can go far with hateful and hurtful language used, and can achieve a level of physical violence with harassment and hatred, but most of it is just words, floating through the digital ether.

But those that do resort to physical violence instantly lose any argument they might have been making. No matter how thorough or valid or righteous it might be, the first one to try and physically hurts the other forfeits their entire argument.



You could be arguing an incontrovertible proof – that the Earth is round, or that prejudice based on sexual orientation is awful or that Donald Trump is an absolute shithead – and I won't be on your side if you need to hurt people to make your point.

You don't just lose the argument, you end the conversation, and whatever truth you had to reveal to this world is gone forever. All people will ever remember is how awful you were.

The only message that violence sends is that the people responsible for it are too stupid, or too psychopathic, to say it any other way, and they have nothing to say to the rest of us.

The recent attacks in Paris, and other similar massacres all over the world, are deploringly common, and the people who carry out these atrocities lost the arguments they moment they fired their first weapon, even if that message is as simple as the same old 'my god is bigger than your god' bullshit.

They might think they are carrying out missions of retribution and justice, but all we see is the carnage and horror they leave behind. We don't hear anything they're trying to say.