Passionate protest predicated on a lie, whether it's Jewish treachery or racist cops murdering innocent blacks, in the end serves evil rather than good.
First, even if they are sincere, as no doubt some are, they are protesting against a crime that is relatively rare.
Second, as we've already noted, the crime they are protesting is rare.
Finally, as Ross Douthat pointed out last Sunday, disorganized violent protests have been shown to be counterproductive, achieving the opposite of the protestors' alleged aims.
Looking at data from the civil rights era, Wasow argues that "Proximity to black-led nonviolent protests increased white Democratic vote-share whereas proximity to black-led violent protests caused substantively important declines" - enough to tip the 1968 election from Hubert Humphrey to Nixon.
More broadly, in news coverage and public opinion from those years, nonviolent protests increased support for civil rights, while violent protests tipped public opinion away from the protesters, and toward a stronger desire for what Nixon called law and order, and Wasow calls "Social control."
The point of these violent protests is not to effect change.
First, even if they are sincere, as no doubt some are, they are protesting against a crime that is relatively rare.
Second, as we've already noted, the crime they are protesting is rare.
Finally, as Ross Douthat pointed out last Sunday, disorganized violent protests have been shown to be counterproductive, achieving the opposite of the protestors' alleged aims.
Looking at data from the civil rights era, Wasow argues that "Proximity to black-led nonviolent protests increased white Democratic vote-share whereas proximity to black-led violent protests caused substantively important declines" - enough to tip the 1968 election from Hubert Humphrey to Nixon.
More broadly, in news coverage and public opinion from those years, nonviolent protests increased support for civil rights, while violent protests tipped public opinion away from the protesters, and toward a stronger desire for what Nixon called law and order, and Wasow calls "Social control."
The point of these violent protests is not to effect change.
No comments:
Post a Comment