Over the past week, I have watched people who are understandably scared and angry reacting not only to the news, but also to each other. This never goes well. It’s the sort of situation where people who are otherwise inclined to agree on fundamental values start arguing about how to express and defend those values, and because we are facing a wave of state terror, we’re not generally disposed to listening to nuance. And so we have people justifiably defending nonviolence arguing with people justifiably pointing out its weaknesses, and neither can see that they’re both right…sort of. More importantly, they’re not actually arguing around the same definitions.

Today, as we remember whatever selected portions of Dr. King’s legacy seem to support our views, I wanted to take a moment to collect some of the misunderstandings on both sides and clear things up a bit. (For more, see my previous article on this topic.)

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