I can’t be the only one who is seeing this fucking pattern on damn loop every few years. First, leftists managed to clobber together a movement. Lets say Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter. Or we can go more recent and talk about 50501 or TeslaTakedown.
Look, I get it. Its a lot of work and coordination to build up these movements. But time-and-time again, the movement rises up. Then the right attacks it.
Then mysteriously a few very violent actors show up (maybe its far-left. Or maybe its right-wing false flaggers). I dunno, but the violence ALWAYS shows up. BLM had groups trying to take over parts of town. I know Trump agitated the protesters with unwarranted acts of force (see the Laffeyette clearout).
But it doesn’t matter “how” the violence begins. The point is some level of damage starts to occur. Its inevitable and we need to not only accept it, but plan for it.
Now what? The violence gets amplified by right-wing media and then… the movement is defeated. I shit you not. Its the death of every leftist movement for the past 15 years. The movements become a symbol of violence in the mainstream’s eyes and loses all power.
We’re entering the same period right now with 50501 and TeslaTakedown. The violence has begun: lots of Tesla vehicles have been smashed and arsons have started to spread.
What we need is a spokesman, who can navigate and sell the situation to the public. Martin Luther King Jr. was the spokesman of the Civil Rights era, and his “branding” was the most important element of all. If you want a violent movement, that’s fine. But create a spokesman. Malcom X, to counter-act and differentiate between philosophies.
Without spokesmen (like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X), we conflate the violence and the messages. And ultimately, that destroys our movements.
Please, for the love of whatever diety you worship. Get a fucking spokesman. Now. Sooner is better. Maybe its too late for TeslaTakedown and 50501, but we need movements that truly are rallied behind a singular face who can serve as the ideological leader to the general public.
I’ve been bitching about this for a few months now. I think that someone will step up to the plate at some point but as of right now I don’t know who that is…
As for the other movements - I don’t think it’s just the right-leaning media that paints these left leaning protests in a bad light, the more “middle of the road” media does the same. I think that most of the agitators are plants by law enforcement, with the purpose of giving them a valid argument to use overwhelming force to shut the protest down.
The media eats up this violent protestors narrative for the ratings and for their ability to convince people to not engage or become a part of what is going on.
If there isn’t enough violence to report on the on the street journalists will interview the dumbest person they can find to show the viewers that it’s just a bunch of idiots out here that don’t really know how the “real world” works.
If neither one of those tactics work then the politicians will get involved and try to take over the movement so they can get more exposure and then start to water down the message of the protestors.
If that doesn’t work then the politicians will “negotiate” with the leaders but do it in a way that puts the protestors in a bad light. Like doing a full media blitz where the dirty looking, young protest leaders are walked into a large well appointed room with a bunch of well groomed politicians and using this lopsided power dynamic of the media and the environment start to pick apart the arguments of the protestors making them look weak and ineffective.
I’m sure there are many other tactics that are used to keep the plebeians at bay.
I write all of this to say that if there isn’t a well spoken, intelligent, charismatic, strong leader to this movement, it will get shut down.