It seems like being pro life is a consistent view for pacifism. It's why I'm anti abortion. If nothing justifies violence in other areas of life, nothing justifies it for abortion either.

But what are you guys? Pro choice? Pro life? What role does pacifism play in your views?

EDIT: I'm not talking about laws. Laws are inherently violent by nature (threat of force). I'm simply asking about the morality of the act itself, since it is a violent one. A lot of people are acting confident that a fetus isn't a human being. If you hold this view please give me a scientific definition of when a human being begins to exist (the start of a human life).

This is a question for people who are commited pacifists,have studie about pacifism or have a understanding of how peaceful resistance works.

In places like Russia and Venezuela where authoritarian regimes rule with either support or apathy from the majority of the population do you belive peaceful resistance can work to bring down the government?

In Venezuela for the last 24 years the opposition has been trying to take down the governments with multiple strategies ranging from peaceful resistance to violent conflict and in between with varying degrees of success but each 4 years it seems like the opposition voices have only gotten quieter and more incapable instead of growing. Do you belive this is because of a lack of strategy and understanding of peaceful resistance where they just take a shot in the dark every time? Or is it another reason?

As for Russia it seems the government has support of 70%+ of the people and altho its a authoritarian government for the russian opposition theres absolutely no chance of it being overthrow in the present time, should pacifists in these cases organize their own peaceful resistance or should they wait for times where people are less willing to defend the government?

Quite curious to see the pacifist perspective on this, was discussing pacifism with a friend but couldnt get their answer

Hi everyone, so I'm teenager from lithuania and since 2015 "we" brought back mandatory conscription. From what I learned when I will turn 17, I'll have to contact National Defence System and provide the necessary documents and contact details. I'll have my health checked, and if I'm fit, I will be called up for service when I turn 18.

So.. how do I avoid this? We have mandatory military service so I'm not even sure if there is a legal way to dodge it. I'm planning on leaving the country for study, but I'm still obligated to serve in military. But I'm not exactly sure what will happen if I don't return.

I don't want to serve in army, because for most of my life I had pacifist views. Hell, I even hate entire concept of nation states, countries and nationalism. I don't want to become a tool for the rich and powerful, and dying in a meaningless war.

Thanks in advance

Because I'm really anti-punitive, and I need a community that understands me. Like, I don't care if someone rapes a baby, I do not wish for them to be punished. That's how extreme my pacifism is.

I don't know, I just feel a pang of sadness whenever I witness someone seen as evil being punished and their punishment being celebrated. Couldn't tell you why, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, am I in the right fricking place or no lol?

I've thought of this scenario back in middle school. The scenario involves a bully standing in front of you with their friends. The task is to get out of the situation without escalating the situation and without the threat of further bullying afterward. My thought was that I would do nothing, even if they were to get physical. If I don't do anything, it means I'm being attacked for no reason. Reporting to the authorities or supervisors may increase the threat of bullying, because the bully would think I'm getting scared of them, further feeding their behavior. Furthermore, it might spread their "bullying-ground" to others.

So that's why I think doing nothing would be best, but I'm also thinking about how this could be done on a larger scale and how one would promote this approach to eventually rid bullying altogether (a difficult task obviously).

What do you think about this and what would you do?

Just realized it's been a full 21 years since I became a pacifist. My pacifism is now old enough to drink, smoke, or be conscripted in most countries around the world!

Posting here because there's no recognized way for me to honor this in my regular life (open to ideas, but I've got none) even though it's so important to me.

Cheers to 15 year old me! We believed peace was the only viable option for humanity 21 years ago, and we still believe today. :)

Hello. I'm a guy with a passport from a country with 2 things I wish were gone: Its Ba'ath government and the civil war. TBH, I would love to live in a place where everyone, rather than living under an awful politician's control, is happy; However, that's not what I have so I'm glad I live in Kuwait.

I'm someone who I'd not classify as a pacifist, but I am curious about the pacifist mind, so I was wandering the pacifistic view on these topics.

• Death penalty
• WMD (ie. should they exist?)
• Terrorism
• The idea of revenge
• The concept of a military
• Weapons in general
• Conscription

Any thoughts given is appreciated.

I'm a pacifist and have been for as long as I can remember. But what doesn't let me sleep at night is knowing that a peaceful world is impossible. In nature animals eat each other all the time. We are animals as well. War will stop only when humanity ceases to exist. We are programmed to hate and kill. The entire world and nature are incompatible with pacifism, down to the smallest insects. It's insane

I’m struggling with this issue.

Title.

I consider myself to be a pacifist, and I’m like mostly vegetarian but sometimes I eat meat, but when I do I kinda have a thought eating away at me in the back of my mind that I’m not a good person or a real pacifist because I’m eating what was once another living thing that, in all likeliness, had an awful life and got slaughtered just to be eaten. And I don’t think I’m important enough as a person to justify the life being taken from an animal just for me to eat, because that animal, like me, was another living thing and i don’t know if I feel okay with an animal dying only to be unceremoniously eaten by me. So my question to you all is, am I still a pacifist?

Title.

I generally have never been one to post much to internet forums. When I do, I try my best to gather my thoughts and curate my post to try to make it somewhat legible, which usually means I just give up on whatever it was I was going to post. But this is one of those situations where regardless of whether this is well-articulated or not, it's important to post...something?

Israel has managed to kill some 35,000 people and wound 80,000 more....in a nation of 2.3 million. This works out to (so far) almost 1:50 people killed and 2:50 more wounded. These are staggering numbers. I mean...to me, even a tiny fraction of this would be heartwrenching, but this is just surreal.

This joins a series of events that has me wondering...has everyone lost their damned minds? This is just insane. Nobody seems to care about this unless they're predisposed to care based on some preexisting political orientation. And then, they care in the specific fashion mandated by that orientation. Does nobody just feel a visceral disgust at innocent people being hurt? I never thought that much at least was a "pacifist" thing. Until recently, I thought that generally was just the way most people were throughout the world. What happened? And why is Israel doing this?

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, and for those who don’t know, it’s a day to honor dead soldiers. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but what are your opinions?

"The pacifist is opposed to using violence but must be prepared to receive it." -Bayard Rustin. How can I as a pacifist be prepared to receive violence? What types of violence should I be prepared to receive? Should it be mental or physical preparation? Or both? (I'm asking this on multiple subs to get a variety of answers)

I'm 16, I live in a pretty shitty city, so violence and crimes were always really common. I was never really interested by all that violence but was never truly against it. But recently, I noticed a lot of changes on how I see the world and what I want to be, I found myself more apealed by helping and forgiving, it's just something that really helps me feel better. I think one of the biggest factor was finishing both hotline miami games, they really made me question a lot and turn me more and more into a pacifist. I really want to become one, I already try my best to do so, and I really think I'm meant to be a pacifist. But I'm still not sure what it truly means to be one, and I have multiple questions about it. This is the one I think the most about. Is being a pacifist really means never harming anyone or anything even if you or your loved ones are in danger? I have no problem forgiving someone harming me, it's not problem at all if I got hit or insulted. But I can't say I feel too good about doing nothing when I see friends and family suffering because of someone. Thanks in advance to all the people that will answer this question and try to help me, I appreciate it a lot.

I don't know much about aspects and types of pacifism but I do like the idea if peace and nonviolence and think it'd be great.

But there are regimes that practice conscription. In some of those regimes, conscientious objectors receive alternative service and are enslaved elsewhere other than army, in some places they are jailed which is still a good option for a pacifist but in other regimes, COs are executed during war.

In many cases, this might happen even if death penalty is banned in country and then it will get covered up... There was a case of Finnish objector Arndt Pekurinen who was first arrested then killed without trial after forcefully being taken to front and refusing to take arms or wear uniform.

Now the question. If a conscientious objector exhausts all peaceful options and is going to be killed, would he send a better message by taking the punishment like Arndt Pekurinen did, or by committing suicide? Because committing suicide would remove the "making example out of" tool for the oppressor and the feeling of dominating someone. Is suicide considered a violent act if you are going to die anyways at the hands of oppressor?

Please help me with making sense of this line of reasoning that seems to be the default for many to justify the use of violence in war. It seems that most people see the ability to wage war as a necessary condition for the maintenance of peace. With the underlying idea that if we don't build the capacity to be violent, the others will be ready to do so and will overpower us because they are willing to use violence.

Obviously, this type of thinking, if it is never questioned, will continue to produce wars and violence. There is clearly some truth to the argument, but I have a hard time believing that humanity will never be capable of overcoming this idea, since it would mean that war is inevitable and will happen again and again forever until we go extinct. So, is there a way out of this thinking?

Soldiers only protect against other soldiers.

There is nothing soldiers can do for humanity, civilians can't do, except for going to war.