In Portland and other cities where BLM protests have continued and escalated, a debate has ensued over the age old, and frankly boring, "diversity of tactics". The "peaceful" protestors just want to demonstrate, ie.. march carrying signs, shouting tired slogans, giving tired speeches etc... The street fighting militants want to smash things, hurl things at police, be all badass in their black hoodies and gas masks. Each faction endlessly performs their role, assumes their identity, believes in their righteousness and correctness. And neither faction has accomplished much of anything.
Would anyone stop to evaluate their progress? Fuck that- grab a sign or grab a brick. These are the limits of the movement imagination, such as it is. "This is what democracy looks like", first as tragedy, then as farce.
The head of the NAACP whines that the radicals are trying to turn "his" protest around policing into an "anti-capitalist" agenda. Being a lover of Capital, he sees no connection. Antifa and Boogaloo Boys and Proud Boys and Black Bloc all dart through the streets smashing windows and setting fires because they hate all authority. Except their own.
The ideological rubble buries everyone involved and no one seems to consider disciplined mass civil disobedience, the one tactic that has actually accomplished a small degree of social change.
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