I think violence is way more effective in people’s imaginations than it is in reality. Even where it is effective, the ends resemble the means in unintended ways. It inherently promotes hierarchy and control, because it’s a way of solving problems that more than any other does not require listening to or understanding the people you are dealing with.

All of that doesn’t mean violence can never be a good decision, but it’s very strongly biased towards being a bad decision, and people are much too fixated on it and sabotage their own efforts by appraising its utility too highly, especially if their goals are opposed to authoritarian dominance.