I can't be the only one who is seeing this fucking pattern on damn loop every few years. First, leftists managed to clobber together a movement. Lets say Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter. Or we can go more recent and talk about 50501 or TeslaTakedown.
Look, I get it. Its a lot of work and coordination to build up these movements. But time-and-time again, the movement rises up. Then the right attacks it.
Then mysteriously a few very violent actors show up (maybe its far-left. Or maybe its right-wing false flaggers). I dunno, but the violence ALWAYS shows up. BLM had groups trying to take over parts of town. I know Trump agitated the protesters with unwarranted acts of force (see the Laffeyette clearout).
But it doesn't matter "how" the violence begins. The point is some level of damage starts to occur. Its inevitable and we need to not only accept it, but plan for it.
Now what? The violence gets amplified by right-wing media and then... the movement is defeated. I shit you not. Its the death of every leftist movement for the past 15 years. The movements become a symbol of violence in the mainstream's eyes and loses all power.
We're entering the same period right now with 50501 and TeslaTakedown. The violence has begun: lots of Tesla vehicles have been smashed and arsons have started to spread.
What we need is a spokesman, who can navigate and sell the situation to the public. Martin Luther King Jr. was the spokesman of the Civil Rights era, and his "branding" was the most important element of all. If you want a violent movement, that's fine. But create a spokesman. Malcom X, to counter-act and differentiate between philosophies.
Without spokesmen (like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X), we conflate the violence and the messages. And ultimately, that destroys our movements.
Please, for the love of whatever diety you worship. Get a fucking spokesman. Now. Sooner is better. Maybe its too late for TeslaTakedown and 50501, but we need movements that truly are rallied behind a singular face who can serve as the ideological leader to the general public.
Similar feelings, although for different reasons.
One of the struggles left-wing movements have been having lately is that they struggle to coordinate between different sub-groups, many of whom are often in general agreement but slightly misaligned. When you look back at a lot of historical left-wing movements, there was strong coordination between people who didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye on everything, but agreed that there are some very important things which they ought to be addressing now.
Modern left-wing movements seem to really struggle with that. Not only do we not have the unifying drive of a single leader, but this ends up leaving the various sub-groups to promote their own leaders - who, because they are originating from representing that narrower sub-interest, also tend towards more exaggerated positions which put them out of alignment with the other movements. This effectively self-sabotages any effort to get a broader consensus going.
I am honestly rather jealous of right wing movements' ability to get groups which aren't totally aligned - sometimes even at odds on issues - to nonetheless coalesce around a broader vision.
The French solved this problem by creating a separate Congress to represent the people.
Ignore the like 40 years of violence and infighting. But I do believe that we need something more akin to this. If the Democratic party is dead then we build our own.
Democrats are invited of course, lol. And hell, might as well invite Republicans too. But in any and all cases, it needs a leader that can speak for everyone and is responsible for the actions of everyone.