this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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Radicals need to exist in order to make the less-radical activists look reasonable by comparison. Otherwise they just get painted as radical no matter how milquetoast their protest is, and the Overton window moves away from their cause.
That’s one opinion.
A protest should be speaking to those outside of the cause. Many see radicals as arrogant performers, only gaining the attention of those already in the fold, and discredited by those outside of the cause. It can drive the people we are trying to reach further from the cause.
And when they complain about it it provides the opportunity for those supporting the cause to explain it to them.
Disrespectability politics!
https://medium.com/@viridiangrail/introducing-disrespectability-politics-50f6e2622ce4
First of all, this is great and deserves its own thread.
Second, there's a fatal flaw: authoritarians and capitalists (same difference) are predisposed in favor of fascism, and that's why the behavior of fuckwads like Trump keeps getting free passes and attention. When leftists try the same thing, they get ignored, censored, COINTELPRO'd, or even just straight-up murdered.
In other words, it's a good strategy and should work, all things being equal, but all things are not equal and that makes it a high-body-count strategy (even if there's no better one available).