this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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I understand what the cartoonist is trying to imply--that there are no true pacifists and people who say they're against violence are hypocrites who actually like violence when it's used to protect their privileged position. They just didn't do it right.
First, true pacifists do exist, who would answer "yes" to the first two questions--and which would make the last question ridiculous. So if the cartoonist's goal was to criticize the hypocrites, they just needed to show the first person answering the first two questions with an unqualified "no" to show they didn't really mean what they said in the first panel.
I actually don't think you do. They are a pacifist, as is shown by their desire to demilitarize the world. They clearly think that violence is currently used primarily to maintain the status quo, and they depict that in a negative light quite obviously.
What they were actually implying is that a lot of people claim to be against violence despite, in fact being pro-state-violence
That's my point and why I say they didn't do the cartoon right. If they wanted to say what you explained, we'd have to see the first person answering "no". As it is, the cartoon implies that anyone who says violence isn't the answer is lying/hypocritical.
No.. it doesn't. By its adversarial nature, it heavily implies the answers "no" to the first two questions.
Like, your main criticism is that the comic doesn't make any sense if the answer to either question was yes, but that's the definitive reason I wouldn't read it that way.
A rhetorical question that you know (or are insisting you "know") your opponent disagrees with is a very common language trick.