such a good article, reflects basically everything i’ve been trying to say for ages
Yeah, helped me understand a friends surprising reaction to some Just Stop Oil protests a few years back.
It was a really negative reaction, but this person i knew understood the science better than myself, but rather than taking the blocking the road and art painting protests as an extreme method of trying to change the ‘conversation’, he had quite a visceral reaction.
Left wing protests are currently aimless. With no clear demands other than a nebulous “stop racism”, there is nothing to work towards.
Where de-segregation had clearly defined goals, where the gay rights movement had a mostly singular goal of marriage equality, the current BLM movements have no win condition.
Its just like “we are the 99%” protests of the early 2010s, which amounted to nothing, because there was nothing to aim for, no demands for tax code restructuring, no demands for implementing a VAT, just … Protesting.
Take Jan 6, the right wing had a clear goal - stop the peaceful transfer of power, demand Mike Pence to not certify the vote, march on the capital. It was organised for months, their leader rallied the rioters on the day, and they nearly did it.
We have no good organisers, no clear demands, just ire that needs to be focused.