The Lie About “Ineffective” Nonviolence
For two decades, political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan studied 323 major resistance campaigns worldwide. Their conclusion should have ended this argument long ago. Nonviolent movements succeed about twice as often as violent ones and prove far more likely to produce lasting democracy afterward, as shown in Harvard’s analysis of civil resistance.

Violent uprisings rarely win. When they do, they often trade one strongman for another.

Nonviolent movements win because they pull more people in. Parents who cannot risk prison. Elders who cannot run. Workers who cannot vanish underground. Students who cannot afford permanent blacklists. That breadth creates legitimacy, strains security forces, and opens cracks inside regimes that violence usually slams shut.

Yesterday, when people gathered in Akron, Durham, Hattiesburg, Charlotte, Greensboro, Willimantic, and Martinsburg, they joined that arithmetic. Quietly. Publicly. On purpose.