Toxic Advocacy
When Disagreement Feels Like Threat:
A Shift in the Temperature of Disagreement "The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness. We must see that every end we seek must be joined with a means that is as pure as the end itself." — Martin Luther King Jr. A quiet but significant shift has taken place in American social life. A trend that began in the 1980s and dramatically accelerated after 2000 is that Americans started prioritizing poli
Don Schweitzer
Apr 157 min read
Martin Luther King Jr. Knew How Justice Movements Win. We’re Forgetting That Lesson.
MLK taught disciplined, strategic nonviolence: a roadmap for integrity-based advocates to choose persuasion, timing, and outcomes over moral certainty and spectacle.
Don Schweitzer
Jan 298 min read
The Permission Structure: Toxic Advocacy and Integrity
How We Learned to Be Cruel & Feel Righteous About It At some point, we built a permission structure that made cruelty feel like courage. What once would have been unthinkable (mocking, shaming, or dehumanizing others in the name of “ justice ” or “ truth ”) has become a kind of moral performance. It didn’t happen overnight. Slowly, through politics, social media, and cultural reinforcement, we constructed a system of cues and stories that made it not only acceptable to act w
Don Schweitzer
Dec 29, 20258 min read
