In my world, the best ethics with regard to violence is to help create a world where it becomes useless and is abandoned.
However, in the meantime, I will defend my physical body against attack to the best of my ability.
I would not hesitate to attempt to disarm someone who is hurting another. I guess it would depend on the circumstances but one does not necessarily have to commit violence to help another defend themselves. Or it such violence was unavoidable, it could be mitigated. Like aim for the knee instead of between their eyes.
The hateful speech or fear mongering question is interesting as I never thought of those as deserving of a violent response. Perhaps I misread the question. Hateful speech is only a weapon if you assign that power to it yourself. Fear mongering is only a weapon if you allow yourself to feel fear.
The immoral majority, I imagine, would be something like the Nazis in their prime. As a person, an individual, I would not be intimidated by their rhetoric nor buy into it, nor agree to participate. However, defense of human rights on a large scale is worthy of limited uses of violence.
Jennifer  |