It’s really important for people, including Satanists, to understand that while non-violent tactics may be all you’re prepared to do, non-violence is not a real option when your adversary is a state committed to doing violence to you.

Capital Area Satanists recently did a book study of This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr., and pacifist Quakers have repeatedly clarified that a commitment to pacifism means criticizing and opposing those most violent actors (the state), not the targets of violence who are engaged in struggles for liberation by any means necessary.

Commenter:
I disagree that nonviolence is performative it certainly can be, but it isn’t by default. I also agree that choosing neutrality is siding with the oppressors.

“Performative” is not quite the same thing as “in need of an audience”; it also needs that audience to be receptive and not thirsty for blood.

There is no non-violent resistance to a lynching; in the past, white US settlers made postcards of their bloody work. Today, it’s looped on the news for all to see.

No one can die meekly enough for white supremacists not to say they deserved it, and some will say they deserved it purely for being weak enough not to stop it.

Commenter:
Is pacifism then an evil?

Distinguishing between “evil” and “evil for me” is pretty important.

Killing someone may not be what you’re prepared to do. Working with a group of paramilitary rebels may be going too far. But there are other ways to resist, and arguably, Willem van Spronsen gave his life as a pacifist, trying to disable ICE vehicles in a concentration camp.

Pacifism can still be active resistance that puts your life in danger. It just can’t be passive, or concerned with what’s legal, or concerned with stopping oppressors from getting hurt and denouncing other people resisting.

If you faint at the sight of blood, you can’t be a medic, but someone has to be, and that distinction is critical to afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.