HOPE-PV Training: Election Edition has been RESCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 14TH, 6:30PM ET. Join @22ci.bsky.social ’s Taylor Mason and PRA’s @holyshift.bsky.social to learn the foundations of preventing and responding to political violence this election season. Register now: bit.ly/hopepv2.
![PRA: What is political violence? What forms does it take here in the U.S., and what impact does it have on democracy?
Hardy Merriman: In simple terms, political violence is the use of violence to try to achieve a political goal or advance a political message.
We look at the perpetrator’s intention when deciding to use the term “political.” All acts of violence have political implications—whether interpersonal or structural—but when that violence is done with [a] particular political motivation, we call it political violence.
And its effects are huge. Political violence is very damaging to U.S. democracy. With it, a small group intends to gain power outside of the democratic process. Through violence, they instill fear to limit our exercise of constitutionally-guaranteed rights, like that of free speech. They try to reduce voter turnout during elections, and then dispute the results to circumvent the process. They can also use it to try to drive people from public service, threaten judges and juries, and get businesses to stop taking certain positions.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eqre2sxfebqonsel7k63q34v/bafkreiagtx6x67gfxi7imdn5pu6tk7zd4i5twf3efhfu35jmj4yiaj2ooq)
![Hardy Merriman (continued):
And this country has a history of using political violence to keep entire populations in fear: It’s part of the glue that held together the Jim Crow South. It’s been targeted at groups such as LGBTQ people. It’s been targeted at workers and laborers who seek fair wages and safe working conditions. And it’s used against those who show solidarity with those groups. Unless we stop it, I fear it will continue to get worse.
Scot Nakagawa: The impact of political violence and threats is profound. Organizations, for example, are rolling back canvasses and losing volunteers because people aren’t willing to expose themselves and their families to the possibility of threats and violence. [This is] a critical issue that we need to deal with by reminding people that the vast majority of us oppose most violence, and certainly political violence of this kind. We must get people to feel they belong to the majority and give them the opportunity to take actions they feel are real and palpable.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eqre2sxfebqonsel7k63q34v/bafkreigcx6mhtounljxhclsl6pwevhgzx2evj7w5weq6zdtefwgizgsthy)
![Computer scientist Curtis Yarvin first voiced neoreactionary ideology in 2007, and it spread largely though the tech startup subculture, assisted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists including Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, and Peter Thiel. Many of Yarvin’s pronouncements closely foreshadowed what the Trump regime, and DOGE specifically, have been doing. In 2012, Yarvin proposed a “reboot” of government that centered on appointing a “national CEO, [or] what’s called a dictator,” who would oversee an operation to “Retire All Government Employees” (RAGE) and replace civil servants with political loyalists. In 2022, Yarvin envisioned a “butterfly revolution” under a second Trump administration that would give “absolute sovereignty to a single organization” treating the federal government as a conquered enemy.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eqre2sxfebqonsel7k63q34v/bafkreia3od6hne7qujtsnikkx3k6td6u2cs636ln6snwyywbwjifnfimpe)
![Despite its impact on the current Trump regime, neoreactionary politics is not MAGA politics. The movement to Make America Great Again, Trump’s political base, is a classic example of right-wing populism, i.e., a movement that combines calls to intensify oppression with twisted forms of anti-elitism. Neoreactionaries, by contrast, believe firmly that elites should rule and “the people” should not. Neoreactionaries dismiss the whole idea of a popular uprising. As Yarvin wrote in June 2024, “Charlottesville [the 2017 Unite the Right rally] and January 6 were the last lame breaths of what John Adams called ‘mobocracy’ in America.” What Yarvin envisioned wasn’t a popular uprising, but rather a top-down plan to “hack” the system in order to break it.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eqre2sxfebqonsel7k63q34v/bafkreihgsyi46uazjqodrey4kchynprckcyu2pz55i3ryw7at3j6kpbqcm)
