textsfromsolarpunk

The claim that radicalism in politics has never led to success is utterly false. While they may not achieve everything that they set out to, most movements that actually change things are radical.

It'd be interesting to see a plot of events with the x axis being how radical it was and the y being how successful it was.

I'm from the US, so pardon my slant here but some events I can think of:

Boston Tea Party American Revolutionary War Rosa Parks Mining revolts Steel worker strikes Luddites Suffrage movement

I've personally participated in non violent protests against Gulf of Mexico oil drilling in the 90's, against the 2000 Florida election scam, against the 2001 Iraq invasion, for gay marriage in 2008, Woman's March in 2016 and a handful of others... gotta say it really feels like I spent a lot of energy for not a lot of return. I think maybe the gay marriage March helped a bit... maybe... Other than that, they're drilling the hell out of the Gulf, Jeb Bush stole the 2000 election for his brother, the US invaded Iraq and the Me Too movement hasn't done much except give douchey men something to feel persecuted about

Even MLK Jr, the non- violent hero I looked up to and celebrated in my youth, was only moderately successful with one aspect of his cause; namely segregation. But he was promptly assassinated as soon as he started making any progress on income inequality and the ills of the US capitalistic system... then praised so loudly for his moderate successes on segregation that his many impassioned speeches about the systematic injustices against the poor are largely forgotten.

Only radicalism ever leads to success. Nothing ever changes by maintaining the status quo.