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My rant on the Left's inability to create spokesmen (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

More siloed than literally the separate but equal era??

I don't think so. MLK Jr. Had to do that shit with zero Black media supporting him. Because black media didn't exist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Separate but equal wasn't about the media

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I promise you. If an effective leader took charge and ownership of one of these groups, entire swaths of online media will follow up.

Oprah, MeidasTouch podcast, TheBulwark, The Atlantic, Guardian, etc. etc.

There's plenty of allied media. But no leader that we can put on our media. We have a media disadvantage but it's not completely dead. We can work with this.