Is political violence ever justified?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is political violence ever justified?". Your opponent's style: Destiny

No

Look, I get it - the idea of political violence makes everyone uncomfortable. But you're being naive if you think it's never justified. History is literally built on justified political violence. The American Revolution? Political violence against British rule. The Underground Railroad? Political violence against slavery. World War II? Political violence against fascism. Every major leap toward justice required people willing to fight oppressive systems that wouldn't change peacefully. You think the civil rights movement was all peaceful marches? The Black Panthers provided armed protection when the state wouldn't. Sometimes violence is the only language power understands. When peaceful protest gets ignored for decades and people are dying under systemic oppression, what's your alternative - just keep asking nicely while bodies pile up? The real question isn't whether political violence is ever justified - it's whether you're privileged enough to always have peaceful options. Easy to condemn violence when you're not the one being crushed by the boot.

In the examples that you provided for the justification of political violence the ultimate victims are innocents, the weak, oppressed, underaged, uneducated, and those who get swept up or forced to follow the dictates of people in power. This denies citizens with the right of peaceful protests to improve their lives. Political violence is a tool used by the powerful to cripple society.

You're completely missing who the real aggressors are here. The "innocents" getting hurt aren't victims of political violence - they're victims of the systems that made political violence necessary in the first place. When slaves rebelled, yeah, some bystanders got caught up. But those slaves didn't create that violence - slavery did. The violence was already there, baked into whips and chains and family separations. Rebellion just made the existing violence visible to people who could ignore it before. You talk about "denying citizens peaceful protest" - but what happens when peaceful protest gets you nothing? Colin Kaepernick took a knee peacefully and got blacklisted. Occupy Wall Street camped peacefully and got pepper-sprayed. Sometimes the powerful only respond when their comfort gets disrupted. And here's the kicker - you're worried about political violence being "used by the powerful," but the powerful already have a monopoly on violence. It's called the state. Police, military, prisons - that's all violence in service of maintaining power. When the oppressed fight back, suddenly everyone clutches their pearls about "innocent victims." The real tool of the powerful isn't political violence - it's convincing people like you that resistance is worse than oppression.