memes

I don’t think violently hurting people is a good idea.

A lot of people forget, due to the exceptionally stable nature of modern Western society, that society is built on violence. We, as citizens of a polity, subcontract out our violence to a central state. And this is, to at least some degree, a good thing - there's a central entity which can be observed and judged and regulated, rather than a million people all trying to enforce and judge one another's usage of violence as justified or unjustified.

But ultimately, such subcontracting of violence is conditional - as long as the central state represents our rights adequately, to at least some degree, people are willing to continue to surrender their own sovereign right to commit violence to it. Whenever the central state does not represent a citizen's rights adequately, the citizen often withdraws that surrender of sovereignty - either in total or, more often, conditionally - to protect their own rights.

When you make a contract - even in something as small as buying an apple - you are relying on the threat of force from the state to back it - "We will forcibly remove property or freedom from you if you violate this contract." Violence is a part of everyday life - what's important is to act in such a way that minimizes the need for it. In the case of defense of LGBT rights, sometimes that means using violence as a means of deterrence against the violence of bigots that is insufficiently deterred by state action.