You know, they’re halfway there. Protests against the owning class that appeal to their better angels absolutely don’t work. When your entire idea of what a “protest” is is standing around in your state-approved square and not even engaging in the most mild of civil disobedience, let alone disruption of the lives and profits of the owning class, protesting is almost completely worthless.
Of course, if they reflected on the prompt and how the people of France do actual civil disobedience, they might come to the fuller conclusion.
Trump got reelected and the libs are planning a “We won’t take this lying down” protest. Trump has a rally in response. During his speech he riffs…
“They wanna do a ‘lay down’ protest? Is that right? Lay down to get stepped on? How dumb is that? Democrats. If they do that - they’ll get stepped on. Like - I’ll do a Trump Elephant Stampede. Lotsa people don’t know this but horses won’t step on people. They won’t do it. But you can get a elephant to do it. Strong and powerful. We need lots of elephants. But maybe not so many elephants are there so we can use cows too. Cows step on people too.”
“Cow people like boaters. They love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. I can get as many cows as I need. Trump Elephant Stampede. I can do it. Official act. I’m like the boy in The Twilight Zone. I think it - it’s official and I can do it. I can do anything…”
A weird number of climate protestors think that if enough of them get sent to prison for non violent protest the rest of society will be massively inspired and will rise up.
They’ve learned that Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King got sent to prison and then taken the most baffling lesson from it.
They’ve learned that Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King got sent to prison and then taken the most baffling lesson from it.
makes a lot of sense; their views of those figures are filtered through the same state propaganda apparatus that they’re protesting. “After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the “consolation” of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.”
Nelson Mandela does violent acts in opposition to apartheid -> sent to prison -> case becomes famous around the world because his supporters support him due to his commitment to the cause including his willingness to engage in violence to achieve the end of apartheid -> is eventually released and apartheid ends -> western propaganda purposefully removes the history of violence that got them in prison from public consciousness -> people, now unaware of that violent past, think that merely going to prison is some revolutionary act which will rally the public in support of them -> nothing happens when they go to prison, nobody cares -> either repeat this because they don’t know any better because, again, that violent history is still unknown to them, OR they experience disillusionment from politics and go grill (and probably become conservatives)
the history of western leftism is a long series of people becoming radicalized but still being alienated from their communities, learning that the only effective strategy for creating revolution is the difficult, painstaking, boring work of creating organizations, unions, etc inside their communities and linking up to form national networks which can challenge the capitalist state, then saying “nah, that shit sucks and sounds boring and scary, I don’t wanna do that. can’t I just do an adventurism and/or be sent to prison in a protest and/or become a martyr for the cause? if I’m in prison or dead then I don’t have to do shit and I’m seen as inherently good within the Western Christian paradigm and I like that” the only people who have escaped this process are those who are essentially forced to do this hard and scary work due to their minority status, like the Black Panthers. if they give up, they can’t just go grill like white (cis hetero neurotypical etc) people can, they’ll still be living under acute oppression.
You know, they’re halfway there. Protests against the owning class that appeal to their better angels absolutely don’t work. When your entire idea of what a “protest” is is standing around in your state-approved square and not even engaging in the most mild of civil disobedience, let alone disruption of the lives and profits of the owning class, protesting is almost completely worthless.
Of course, if they reflected on the prompt and how the people of France do actual civil disobedience, they might come to the fuller conclusion.
Lol I always loved the “let’s all lie down and calmly get arrested” protests from 2020. Peak lib performance.
Trump got reelected and the libs are planning a “We won’t take this lying down” protest. Trump has a rally in response. During his speech he riffs…
“They wanna do a ‘lay down’ protest? Is that right? Lay down to get stepped on? How dumb is that? Democrats. If they do that - they’ll get stepped on. Like - I’ll do a Trump Elephant Stampede. Lotsa people don’t know this but horses won’t step on people. They won’t do it. But you can get a elephant to do it. Strong and powerful. We need lots of elephants. But maybe not so many elephants are there so we can use cows too. Cows step on people too.”
“Cow people like boaters. They love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. I can get as many cows as I need. Trump Elephant Stampede. I can do it. Official act. I’m like the boy in The Twilight Zone. I think it - it’s official and I can do it. I can do anything…”
The libs have to rethink their plans.
Extinction Rebellion was not rebelling against extinction, but rather rebelling by going extinct.
A weird number of climate protestors think that if enough of them get sent to prison for non violent protest the rest of society will be massively inspired and will rise up.
They’ve learned that Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King got sent to prison and then taken the most baffling lesson from it.
makes a lot of sense; their views of those figures are filtered through the same state propaganda apparatus that they’re protesting. “After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the “consolation” of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.”
Nelson Mandela does violent acts in opposition to apartheid -> sent to prison -> case becomes famous around the world because his supporters support him due to his commitment to the cause including his willingness to engage in violence to achieve the end of apartheid -> is eventually released and apartheid ends -> western propaganda purposefully removes the history of violence that got them in prison from public consciousness -> people, now unaware of that violent past, think that merely going to prison is some revolutionary act which will rally the public in support of them -> nothing happens when they go to prison, nobody cares -> either repeat this because they don’t know any better because, again, that violent history is still unknown to them, OR they experience disillusionment from politics and go grill (and probably become conservatives)
the history of western leftism is a long series of people becoming radicalized but still being alienated from their communities, learning that the only effective strategy for creating revolution is the difficult, painstaking, boring work of creating organizations, unions, etc inside their communities and linking up to form national networks which can challenge the capitalist state, then saying “nah, that shit sucks and sounds boring and scary, I don’t wanna do that. can’t I just do an adventurism and/or be sent to prison in a protest and/or become a martyr for the cause? if I’m in prison or dead then I don’t have to do shit and I’m seen as inherently good within the Western Christian paradigm and I like that” the only people who have escaped this process are those who are essentially forced to do this hard and scary work due to their minority status, like the Black Panthers. if they give up, they can’t just go grill like white (cis hetero neurotypical etc) people can, they’ll still be living under acute oppression.
Great analysis, really put into words what I could only vaguely gesture at before, definitely saving this!