It’s not bad, it’s ineffective and plays into the opposition messaging, police actions and activism and harms the future of your members.

I think there’s a real difference between saying “go bigger” and respectability politics. That’s why I got out in front of the accusation of respectability politics by saying “go bigger”.

I wasn’t able to find any examples of tone policing in my post. I have investigated myself and found me innocent of all charges.

Discussing the effectiveness and costs of different actions is not tone policing or respectability politics. It’s an inescapable part of organizing; you have to think about what you’re going to do and what result you’re hoping to achieve.

Getting in trouble isn’t a hard barrier to action, but if you’re going to get into trouble (and ask those around you to get into trouble) you should have something to show for it. If someone is trying to talk you into getting arrested in a way that will not achieve anything significant, yeah, they’re either a cop or doing a cop’s job.

If you’re going to get arrested, you might as well break something and cause some serious disruption. It’s easy for cops to pull you off the road if you’re just standing there.