🧵 Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Defeatists. Especially Now
A thread on internalized powerlessness, moral confusion, and why resistance is not only justified, it's necessary.
A thread on internalized powerlessness, moral confusion, and why resistance is not only justified, it's necessary.
1/
There’s a growing trend I need to call out.
People who once supported justice, resistance, and liberation now sound cynical, even complicit.
They criticize armed resistance more than they criticize the empire that made it necessary. This thread is for them.
There’s a growing trend I need to call out.
People who once supported justice, resistance, and liberation now sound cynical, even complicit.
They criticize armed resistance more than they criticize the empire that made it necessary. This thread is for them.
2/
You’ve probably heard it:
> “Violence won’t fix anything.”
> “Both sides are wrong.”
> “Resistance only makes things worse.”
> “There’s no point — it’s already lost.”
These aren’t neutral takes.
They’re symptoms of something deeper: learned helplessness.
You’ve probably heard it:
> “Violence won’t fix anything.”
> “Both sides are wrong.”
> “Resistance only makes things worse.”
> “There’s no point — it’s already lost.”
These aren’t neutral takes.
They’re symptoms of something deeper: learned helplessness.
3/
*Learned helplessness* is when people try, fail, get punished and eventually stop trying at all.
Even when they CAN resist, they don’t because they’ve been trained to expect defeat.
They stop believing in power, so they call surrender “maturity.”
*Learned helplessness* is when people try, fail, get punished and eventually stop trying at all.
Even when they CAN resist, they don’t because they’ve been trained to expect defeat.
They stop believing in power, so they call surrender “maturity.”
4/
That’s what we’re seeing now.
People are witnessing the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the militarized occupation of West Asia, and the destruction of nations that resisted empire and instead of opposing power, they attack those who fight it.
That’s what we’re seeing now.
People are witnessing the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the militarized occupation of West Asia, and the destruction of nations that resisted empire and instead of opposing power, they attack those who fight it.
5/
They go after the Resistance - not because it's perfect, but because it still believes in resistance.
Because it fights when others folded.
Because it exposes the cowardice of neutrality.
Because it reminds us that liberation isn't passive.
They go after the Resistance - not because it's perfect, but because it still believes in resistance.
Because it fights when others folded.
Because it exposes the cowardice of neutrality.
Because it reminds us that liberation isn't passive.
6/
Criticizing the occupied while they’re under siege is not nuance.
It’s defeatism.
It’s a posture of false moral superiority that covers up moral failure.
Especially when it comes from those who once claimed solidarity.
Criticizing the occupied while they’re under siege is not nuance.
It’s defeatism.
It’s a posture of false moral superiority that covers up moral failure.
Especially when it comes from those who once claimed solidarity.
7/
This mindset spreads. It tells others:
"Don't resist."
"Don't believe."
"Don't hope."
It's not realism.
It's what happens when people are too tired or too afraid to stay committed - so they rebrand despair as wisdom.
This mindset spreads. It tells others:
"Don't resist."
"Don't believe."
"Don't hope."
It's not realism.
It's what happens when people are too tired or too afraid to stay committed - so they rebrand despair as wisdom.
8/
But resistance - especially armed resistance doesn't require your permission.
It exists because the enemy leaves no other option.
You don't have to romanticize it. But you do have to understand it.
But resistance - especially armed resistance doesn't require your permission.
It exists because the enemy leaves no other option.
You don't have to romanticize it. But you do have to understand it.
9/
The U.S. empire and its Israeli settler proxy have never ceded anything voluntarily.
Freedom was never handed down.
It has always been fought for. And the Axis of Resistance is simply continuing that truth in the modern era.
The U.S. empire and its Israeli settler proxy have never ceded anything voluntarily.
Freedom was never handed down.
It has always been fought for. And the Axis of Resistance is simply continuing that truth in the modern era.
10/
You can be tired. You can be overwhelmed. But don't confuse your exhaustion with insight.
And don't spread paralysis dressed up as principle.
You can be tired. You can be overwhelmed. But don't confuse your exhaustion with insight.
And don't spread paralysis dressed up as principle.
11/
History doesn't remember the critics who asked the oppressed to "tone it down."
It remembers those who refused to surrender even when the world told them it was over.
History doesn't remember the critics who asked the oppressed to "tone it down."
It remembers those who refused to surrender even when the world told them it was over.
12/
So don't listen to defeatists.
They're not seeing more clearly. They've just stopped looking for a way forward.
And don't become one yourself.
Because the people who keep fighting aren't naïve - they're necessary.
So don't listen to defeatists.
They're not seeing more clearly. They've just stopped looking for a way forward.
And don't become one yourself.
Because the people who keep fighting aren't naïve - they're necessary.
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