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Nov 29, 2022Liked by Noah Millman

"The last Iranian revolution finally succeeded when the armed forces abandoned the regime and joined the protestors."

Yes, in general, protests only succeed when the protestors manage to persuade the people with guns to stop massacring them and join their side. This is why the *actual* meaning of the Second Amendment, which is that no one can be prevented from serving in the militia on spurious grounds, is important. The Second Amendment was based primarily on provisions in the English Bill of Rights, which were in response to Protestants having been disbanded and harassed by Catholic mobs. Then as now, a bunch of civilians are no match for an organized force. In any event, courts should go back to interpreting the Second Amendment in light of its original meaning and ensure that in the United States there are no Praetorian Guards or IRGCs or PLAs or whatever loyal to party or individual over countrymen.

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Thanks for this reflective article

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How about the success of the Ukrainian revolution of 2013. Kicked out Putin's man and began the movement towards a liberal democracy. Putin stuck back in 2014 with seizing the Crimea area but the revolution succeeded in it's transition. Putin tried to kill it this year and it turned out that the Russian Army is just a "paper tiger" as the Chinese use to call the U.S.

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Decentralized democratic initiatives are also important, including by using crypto and demosoft platforms

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