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Brando's avatar

I agree entirely that this method of protest is not just self-defeating, it's cruel to those who are not just "inconvenienced" by blocked traffic, but could be kept from getting to hospitals, or their jobs (not everyone can afford to take the day off to block a bridge, and their livelihoods depend on actually getting to work). Of course, whenever I say this it draws out the "screw everyone else, protest has to be ugly" crowd that thinks this sort of nonsense works, and is justified ("so what if your ambulance didn't get you to the ER in time? Palestinians don't even have ERs! And it's not like it's me in that ambulance..."). And of course this all depends on the protesters thinking their own cause is just (I'm sure they'd be singing a different tune if these were anti-COVID "lockdown" or anti-abortion protesters).

Which makes me react to Cotton's vigilante dreams with "you're NOT helping, Norman Bates-looking guy". Bad as the police can often be, there's pretty much no situation where I would think "you know what would make this go better? If citizens took the policing into their own hands! Maybe with weapons, even!" But for Cotton, it's all red meat to appeal to those who find these protests obnoxious and fantasize about doing violence to these idiots who, obnoxious as they are, don't deserve that.

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Jeff Smith's avatar

Every day, there is a gem in your writing that makes me smile AND distills some aspect of the discussion into an easily-grasped truth. Today, it's "...in reality, all they achieved was annoying strangers and hardening normal people to their cause." Thank you!

Maybe in the interest of a "some day" reunification of our country (which, I continue to hope, is not broken, but simply unfinished) it is heartening that on both the left and the right there are too many people wedded to something more like performance than persuasion...I just don't think so.

Cotton and his "let's make sure government accomplishes nothing, so the people know we have our underwear in a twist" cronies are really a lot more like the Golden Gate protesters than I think they would be comfortable with, if they ever developed the self-awareness of a planaria.

The comparison to MLK's principled and much more effective "theory" of protest is very relevant. Building coalitions, wooing allies, exposing injustice and educating people all take time. But they have some chance of bringing enough people around to your way of thinking to make real change.

Annoying people? Blocking traffic? Not so much...

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