Chong-Ming Lim (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), "The legitimate targets of political disobedience"

Philosophers' Imprint, 2023

By CM Lim

7 things that some philosobro said about political resistance.

Number 5 will shock you!

Philosophers have been thinking about political resistance for, like, a long time. But civil resistance is, like, so yesterday. Uncivil resistance is where the action’s now at. We looked at one recent paper by some bro – so you don’t have to! – to bring you a list of the unexpected views in there. You might want to sit down for this.

1. Theories of political resistance

Bro says that communicative theories can’t really give principled answers what counts as a legitimate target. Defensive theories apparently do better. I’ve not no stakes in this, so whatever.

2. Smacking people

Defensive theories suggest that people can be legitimate targets. Yes, you read that right! Prevailing public opinion be damned. It’s about the principles, bro. This is like hide-and-harass-your-politicians, but in a less funny, and a more go-to-jail kind of way.

3. Who to smack?

Ok, apparently not everything is up for grabs. We can only target those activities that are relevantly connected to injustice. Seems like your gammy’s baking is off-limits. Unless she’s using it for mass murder, of course.

4. Agency rights: Use ‘em well or lose ‘em

Seems like the differentiation of targets are connected to agency rights. Like, when you mess shit up, you forfeit those rights that prevent people from messing your shit up.

5. Go wild!

Bro doesn’t care (not much, anyway) if these bad activities are going on in private settings. Throwing pies at a wrongdoer at a restaurant? Sure! Harassing them at home? Why not! Go wild here.

6. Or not?

Wait, so now he’s saying that something being a legitimate target isn’t the same as it being permissible for us to attack it. So… don’t go wild? Or what? I guess it depends on the context.

7. I fell asleep

Uh… so there’s a bunch of other stuff called “clarifications” where bro says stuff like he’s not really saying “P”, but something close to it, like “P*” (or whatever). I honestly can’t be bothered at this point. I also fell asleep halfway through those bits. Anyway, I have enough words to fill up this page (and get my paycheck). And you are presumably literate so go read that stuff yourself. Ok, bye.