Philosophical Productive Discussion

[Eric Cartman]

However, I will point out that Slavery did end (sort of) in the US with violence and did not in the UK. The moral imperative persuasion worked in the UK. It didn't work in the US. It follows that the countries will follow similar paths on many things throughout history, i.e. the US is much less amenable to persuaded change. Why that's not true for the UK, i'll leave up to you.

As for slavery being over, you're also correct: as per the 13th amendment, slavery is still legal in regards to the prison system.

I'm not talking about people who have free rent, food and medical care not also getting minimum wage as part of their highly expensive to society incarceration - I'm talking about actual modern slavery.
Contemporary examples are depressingly common.

Regardless, its a diversion from my initial stance - that just because the only 4 historical events Always Online Americans know about (Revolutionary War for Independence, Civil War, WW2 and the Civil Rights movement) had violent actions and the end result was 'good' that good things only come from violent actions is demonstrably false, even if you take a tunnel view of 'only in america' and ignore the vast entirety of the history of the rest of the world.

Like, gay marriage didn't get legalised because a bunch of homos firebombed a registry office, or roamed the streets in gangs looking for priests to assault.

Its fine to think things move too slowly in a democracy, because consensus building takes time but its also a good thing that whoever happens to be in power at any given time can't easily rush through whatever they want on multiple levels.
You minimise unintended consequences, you minimise logistical waste of time and resources (because Blue team would spend all their time undoing everything Red team did last turn, and vice versa), and you pretty much force people into taking a longer view than whatever will get them their next round of votes consequences be damned.

Like the aphorism says, "Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others"