Why would your oppressors care if you starved in protest?
They tend to work better when you have a sympathetic media to echo your message. So, Alexi Navalny doing a hunger strike appeals to western audiences. And Ghislaine Maxwell on hunger strike appeals to the Hollywood Sickos she used to be friends with.
how many situations involve an oppressor who is half-hearted enough in oppressing you to let you go like that?
The goal isn't to directly shake the nerve of the oppressor.
The goal is to (a) get your name and face in the news by doing a thing media loves to report on
and (b) whip your supporters into a frenzy of activism to lobby on your behalf by appearing exceptionally sympathetic
Increase exposure of your plight and increase the sympathetic appeals to your base audience so that they will work on your behalf. You get to look like you're "doing something" to resist, which serves as inspiration to your allies. They get to hold up pictures of you in an increasingly haggard state, to inspire broader sympathy and grow your base of support.
Eventually, you hit a threshold of activism such that some politician sees a benefit in working on your behalf to capture the support you've mobilized.
Exactly. Nonviolence is a tactic just as violence is. Nonviolent protest almost always gets public opinion on the side of the oppressed, which can build your movement and potentially get those in political power on your side as well. It's not a tactic that will work in every situation - violence isn't either - but it's theater, and theater is useful sometimes.
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They tend to work better when you have a sympathetic media to echo your message. So, Alexi Navalny doing a hunger strike appeals to western audiences. And Ghislaine Maxwell on hunger strike appeals to the Hollywood Sickos she used to be friends with.
The goal isn't to directly shake the nerve of the oppressor.
The goal is to (a) get your name and face in the news by doing a thing media loves to report on and (b) whip your supporters into a frenzy of activism to lobby on your behalf by appearing exceptionally sympathetic
Increase exposure of your plight and increase the sympathetic appeals to your base audience so that they will work on your behalf. You get to look like you're "doing something" to resist, which serves as inspiration to your allies. They get to hold up pictures of you in an increasingly haggard state, to inspire broader sympathy and grow your base of support.
Eventually, you hit a threshold of activism such that some politician sees a benefit in working on your behalf to capture the support you've mobilized.
Exactly. Nonviolence is a tactic just as violence is. Nonviolent protest almost always gets public opinion on the side of the oppressed, which can build your movement and potentially get those in political power on your side as well. It's not a tactic that will work in every situation - violence isn't either - but it's theater, and theater is useful sometimes.
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