> violence of the state

HN is not a good place to tilt at windmills.

Failing to understand...?

I got downvotes on this... I should have explained more perhaps.

I do understand what that idiom means - I’m failing to understand how acknowledging that specific actor to be a powerful source of violence is to imagine an enemy.

Tilting at windmills is not just about imaginary enemies. From Wikipedia:

> The phrase is sometimes used to describe either confrontations where adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic justifications. It may also connote an importune, unfounded, and vain effort against adversaries real or imagined for a vain goal.

People who incessantly complain about the evils of all governments -- a key clue here is referring to "the state" as a singular platonic entity -- as if they know of some better solution, when they clearly don't, remind me of the above.

frandroid did not appear to be complaining about the violence of the state. They were talking about harnessing it, which is the purpose of the violence of the state.

Thank you for the detailed explanation- while I don’t agree with your position for the reason stated, I fully understand where you are coming from.

I still am smarting from the downvotes on my innocuous request for an explanation though.

Open explanation requests often get downvotes, you usually have to show how far you understand what was meant, like you finally did above. Humour is also often frowned upon if it's not 105% on topic. It's a picky crowd...

A lot like stackoverflow then :-)