The Occupy Wall Street protests across the country have been superb examples of how a movement starts. When the first few folks began this effort several months ago (before the actual occupation started), I don't think many people gave them much of a chance of having an impact.

Hell, they couldn't even get a mention in the media for almost the first two weeks of the occupation. (Thanks, certain members of the NYPD, for helping put the movement on the map with your inane, heavy-handed tactics!)

But that's how most, if not all, movements start. Someone taking a stand. Then someone else saying, "I'm with you." Movements need momentum. I think the jury is still out on OWS, but if the momentum can be sustained, then the impacts will be both far-reaching and deep.

The movement, to this point, has also been exceptionally non-violent from the protesters' side. That helps sustain and grow the movement, as witnessed in two recent polls in which OWS favorables led unfavorables by significant margins. That said, a large percentage of those queried remain unsure of what to make of the protests. I think the protesters' commitment to non-violence presents opportunities to grab large swaths of those undecided and swing them in favor of the fundamental truths of the movement.

So when I read a diary and its comment section here this evening filled with speculation that the protests will soon turn violent -- that we're headed for "the final confrontation," as the diarist put it -- and that those who support the movement must be prepared to fight, I suggested that the piece and many of the comments read like "revolution porn." A fantasy of some here, apparently, that there will be pitched battles in the streets and that we must be prepared to fight to the death.

I started reading this stuff and was struck by how much it reminded me of the paranoid, conspiracy-theory-laden lunatic rantings one often finds at freerepublic. Some of these folks sounded like the nuts from the militia movement.

When I noted the paranoid, insane tone of some of these postings, I was even accused of being a paid poster, a corporate shill trying to undermine the movement.

I'll tell you what undermines the movement: posting paranoid rants about pending violence.

Want to kill the movement? Start talking about killing.

It's like some sort of weird fantasy for some here, apparently. Violent revolution. They will claim, "I don't want it, but it is inevitable."

Read the comments. Some of these folks are pining for it.

And that's a way to kill this movement in its infancy.