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The pacifist avoidance of self-criticism is functional, not just typical. When your strategy’s victory comes from “captur[ing] and maintain[ing] the moral high ground,” it is necessary to portray yourself as moral and your enemy as immoral.

— Peter Gelderloos How Nonviolence Protects the State (2007)

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More quotes by Peter Gelderloos

Governments are by their nature aggressive and dominating. No society is safe if its neighbor is a state.

The Failure of Nonviolence (2013)

The goal of our criticism should be solidarity, not homogeneity.

The Failure of Nonviolence (2013)

Freedom as a concept sides with those who are struggling for theirs, whereas nonviolence as a concept sides with the enforcers of normality and the rulers of the status quo.

The Failure of Nonviolence (2013)

The imperative of nonviolence overrides the basic respect of trusting people to liberate themselves.

How Nonviolence Protects the State (2007)

The people most affected by a system of oppression should be at the forefront of the struggle against that particular oppression.

How Nonviolence Protects the State (2007)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Peter Gelderloos (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.