Yeah a few years ago I would have been in the “well maybe this will radicalize some Libs” camp, but I’m pretty cynical now. I’ve seen several waves of these liberal protests and at best I think they’re are useless and at worse actually counter productive. It really just feels like an irl r/politics thread.
There were a lot of first-time protesters at these protests. The material conditions are such that the number of “non-political” folk will be shrinking and they will be looking for something to do and get coopted by these events.
A lot of protests, riots, and strikes started organically in other revolutions (like the French or Russian one). The Bolsheviks were able to take advantage of the Russian ones even though they didn’t organize them initially. I’m wondering if an organized left can eventually do something like that if these kinds of things continue to happen as US economic conditions break down.
Gotcha. Ya, makes sense because politics has never helped them no matter who’s in power. Some of them joined Trump sadly but a lot just stayed out of politics still.
The libs need to feel the sting of declining material conditions before they’ll be ripe for radicalization – thus far, they have been fairly insulated from any consequences beyond a vague sense of discontent, or a dim awareness that some of their rights have been eroded away. Civil religion dictates that this will all blow over in four years when the bad orange king is gone and they go to the ballot box to pray for a new good king that will give them back their “rights,” at least until the next bad king comes along.
They probably won’t stay cowed forever, but if you’re expecting direct action out of them, you’re going to be waiting a while.
Yeah a few years ago I would have been in the “well maybe this will radicalize some Libs” camp, but I’m pretty cynical now. I’ve seen several waves of these liberal protests and at best I think they’re are useless and at worse actually counter productive. It really just feels like an irl r/politics thread.
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There were a lot of first-time protesters at these protests. The material conditions are such that the number of “non-political” folk will be shrinking and they will be looking for something to do and get coopted by these events.
A lot of protests, riots, and strikes started organically in other revolutions (like the French or Russian one). The Bolsheviks were able to take advantage of the Russian ones even though they didn’t organize them initially. I’m wondering if an organized left can eventually do something like that if these kinds of things continue to happen as US economic conditions break down.
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Gotcha. Ya, makes sense because politics has never helped them no matter who’s in power. Some of them joined Trump sadly but a lot just stayed out of politics still.
The libs need to feel the sting of declining material conditions before they’ll be ripe for radicalization – thus far, they have been fairly insulated from any consequences beyond a vague sense of discontent, or a dim awareness that some of their rights have been eroded away. Civil religion dictates that this will all blow over in four years when the bad orange king is gone and they go to the ballot box to
for a new good king that will give them back their “rights,” at least until the next bad king comes along.
prayThey probably won’t stay cowed forever, but if you’re expecting direct action out of them, you’re going to be waiting a while.