this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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Public opinion is certainly not a good indicator of rationality! More good examples will convince them a lot better than words - once you say socialism, most Americans will stop considering it at all. It's irrational to support something harmful once one sees that better alternatives exist already.
I'm asking about your proposal - say we disarm the police. What's stopping us from getting fascism again from whoever does have guns? Does the UK strike you as immune to fascism?
FYI when people say "defund the police" they don't universally mean abolish them like OP and I are suggesting. It often means redistributing most of their budget to other social services that aren't armed, like what you're saying.
The same question applies to vigilante forces. I've seen a lot of vigilante videos from around the world and they are horrifying. My concern is when I hear "regular people self-organized to patrol a city" I see that turning into a mob that beats a suspected thief to death with baseball bats, or restraining them and setting them on fire, or dragging them through the streets by a rope tied around their neck as the neighborhood stones them to death. Any time people are given power, there is a danger of fascist behavior.
So if we replace the police with a neighborhood watch, what's to stop fascism there?
This is addressed several other places in the thread. Have you seen comfy and Deceptichum's comments here?