In a world that insists on dividing us into neat little boxes—left and right, rich and poor, good and bad—I see something different. I see potential. I see humanity. I see people, in all their contradictions and complexities, as capable of change. Everyone, no matter how far gone they may seem, no matter how entrenched their beliefs, no matter what power they hold or what uniform they wear, is a potential comrade. Everyone.
This might sound naive to some. We’re told that certain people are beyond redemption—that billionaires, landlords, police, soldiers, fascists, white supremacists, or war criminals are fixed in stone. But I don’t buy it. Not because I excuse their actions. Not because I think they’re innocent. But because I believe people are more than the worst thing they’ve ever done or believed. I believe that ideas can change, that hearts can soften, and that when we separate people from their beliefs and actions—when we critique those without condemning the human underneath—we leave room for something profound: transformation.
That’s why I don’t hate individuals. I hate systems. I hate greed, exploitation, racism, fascism, capitalism—but I don’t hate the people caught in those systems. And that includes everyone. The billionaire still has to live within capitalism. The cop may have joined out of poverty or pressure. The soldier may have enlisted for survival or family. The landlord might be barely scraping by with one property. These people aren’t exempt from criticism or accountability—but they are also not devoid of humanity. Many of them are victims of the same system, albeit in different positions of power. Many were born into it. Conditioned by it. Dependent on it. Afraid to lose their place in it.
What people need isn’t more demonization. It’s more room to grow.
That’s where nonviolence comes in—not just as a tactic, but as a worldview. Nonviolence is not passive. It is not weak. It is a form of active resistance that invites transformation without coercion, domination, or destruction. It is one of the most effective forces for change in human history.
We’ve seen this in movements large and small. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States, led by people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin, disrupted a nation through sit-ins, marches, boycotts, and nonviolent defiance. Gandhi’s campaign against British colonial rule in India mobilized millions without firing a shot. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu steered the country away from apartheid using negotiations, boycotts, and reconciliation. These are the stories we know.
But look deeper.
There’s Daryl Davis, a Black musician who spent years befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. Over 200 Klansmen left the organization because of those relationships—not because they were threatened or shamed, but because they were shown compassion, curiosity, and humanity YouTube+4indy100+4The Journal+4. Daryl Davis didn’t excuse their beliefs. He disarmed them, not with fists, but with friendship.
There’s Megan Phelps‑Roper, raised in the hateful Westboro Baptist Church, who left after strangers on Twitter engaged her with kindness instead of cruelty pushkin.fm+11Greater Good+11Wikipedia+11. There’s Derek Black, son of a KKK leader, who left white nationalism because college friends—some Jewish, some Black—treated him like a person, not a monster On Being+8PBS+8New York Post+8. There’s Christian Picciolini and others from neo‑Nazi groups who renounced hate through conversations, empathy, and support—not cancelation, not violence, but connection.
And it’s not just individuals. Whole systems have been shaken by nonviolence.
In LGBTQ+ history, nonviolent actions changed the world. The “sit-in” at Dewey’s restaurant in Philadelphia in 1965 is one of the earliest known LGBTQ+ protests in the U.S., when activists challenged service denial to gay and gender nonconforming patrons by staging a sit-in New York Post+15The New Yorker+15PBS+15vice.com+5history.com+5philadelphiaencyclopedia.org+5. A year later, the famous “sip-in” at Julius’ Bar in New York protested discriminatory liquor laws and helped pave the way for greater rights and visibility vice.com+1. Stonewall may have been a flashpoint, but these quieter, earlier efforts laid critical groundwork for systemic change.
Progressive and leftist movements have used nonviolence to fight voter suppression, inequality, and climate destruction. The Democracy Spring movement brought hundreds to D.C. for mass nonviolent civil disobedience to challenge money’s influence in politics and demand voting rights—and over 900 people were arrested in this effort Wikipedia+1.
Campus divestment campaigns against apartheid in the 1980s—and against fossil fuels and weapons today—used sustained pressure, not violence, to win reforms and spark global solidarity.
Even in places under occupation, the nonviolent spirit thrives. Palestinian activists in villages like Bil’in have organized weekly marches against the separation barrier since around 2005, gaining international recognition for their nonviolent organizing nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu+2Reddit+2. Similar efforts in Budrus and other West Bank communities have shown creativity, persistence, and coalition-building among Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals alike justvision.org+1. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, represents a global nonviolent strategy calling for dignity and justice tandfonline.com.
Here’s something even more radical: even among the world’s most powerful dictators, there have been rare—but telling—moments when nonviolent public pressure produced tactical responses. Hitler, facing outrage from Catholic bishops about the Nazi euthanasia program (code named Aktion T4), formally halted it in 1941—even though the killings continued covertly Wikipedia. Stalin likewise adopted the doctrine of “peaceful coexistence” with capitalist nations—and made occasional concessions during peasant unrest—not because of moral reckoning, but to preserve power and stability time.com+3marxists.org+3Wikipedia+3. These were not reforms. They were strategic retreats. But they illustrate that even the most entrenched powers may respond, at least in part, to nonviolent resistance or moral pressure.
All of this points to a truth few want to acknowledge: nonviolence is not soft. It is disruptive. It is demanding. It requires more courage than violence ever will. And it can work—not always, not easily, but often, and powerfully.
It is especially powerful when it starts with how we see each other.
I believe everyone is a potential comrade. That even people we hate today may become allies tomorrow. That fascists can become anti‑fascists. That landlords can reject exploitation. That billionaires can divest. That soldiers and cops can lay down arms and speak truth to power. That people, when treated as people, not demons, will sometimes, slowly, become better.
We don’t give up on accountability. We don’t ignore injustice. But we also don’t close the door. We stay open. We stay human. We hold space for transformation—not because it’s easy, but because it’s necessary.
Even ideas are not permanent. People shift from right to left. From apolitical to radical. From religious to atheist and back again. Identities change. Beliefs evolve. We are not static beings—we are always in motion, always changing.
Which is why I say: everyone is a potential comrade.
Not just because of what they are now, but because of what they could become tomorrow. That’s not utopianism. That’s faith in people. That’s revolutionary hope.
Sources
- Indy100 – “Black blues musician Daryl Davis convinces 200 racist Ku Klux Klan members to quit”
https://www.indy100.com/celebrities/black-bues-musician-daryl-davis-convinces-200-racist-ku-klux-klan-members-quit-7516936 - Greater Good Magazine (UC Berkeley) – “How Compassion Helped One Woman Leave an Extremist Group”
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_compassion_helped_one_woman_leave_an_extremist_group - PBS – “Derek Black grew up as a white nationalist. Here’s how he changed his mind.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/derek-black-grew-up-as-a-white-nationalist-heres-how-he-changed-his-mind - The New Yorker – “The Plight of the Political Convert”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-plight-of-the-political-convert - History.com – “8 LGBTQ Uprisings That Came Before Stonewall”
https://www.history.com/articles/lgbtq-uprisings-before-stonewall-riots - Vice – “LGBTQ Protests That Happened Before Stonewall”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/lgbtq-protests-before-stonewall - Wikipedia – “Democracy Spring”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Spring - Swarthmore College Nonviolence Database – “Palestinians in Bil’in protest construction of Israeli Separation Barrier, 2005–2011”
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/palestinians-bilin-protest-construction-israeli-separation-barrier-2005-2011 - Just Vision – “Budrus (Documentary and Movement Overview)”
https://justvision.org/budrus - Taylor & Francis – “Assessing BDS and Its Political Efficacy”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2158379X.2023.2251107 - Wikipedia – “Nazi Euthanasia and the Catholic Church”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_euthanasia_and_the_Catholic_Church - Marxists.org – “On Peaceful Coexistence (Marxist–Leninist Polemics)”
https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/polemic/peaceful.htm