> People rally behind strength, not victims. Thats not the problem. You need to think beyond 'either/or' scenarios. > Show some fucking capability, maybe you'll get somewhere. Legitimacy building is *about* capability, as an organization. The capability for reaching political goals. The state is the source of in effect infinite legitimacy/power/resources, and this is why the outnumbered communists *always* make their goals political in nature. If you're not legitimate, people won't join. It's that simple. The political will, and probably economic might, exists and is there to counter the u.s. government, but not with force. It's not that the people who would don't exist. It's that theres a paradox: 1. the people capable of force and willing to use it exist, and can be counted in the low single digit millions 2. these people only want to join others, and only those they see as legitimate 3. legitimacy is seen as non-violence, or peacemaking. Theres the paradox. I'm not a violent person anyway, and I basically assume anyone that talks about using force is larping and making a bad joke.