From Hong Kong to Moscow, Protests Are Changing

> people-powered demonstrations seemed part of what political scientists refer to as a wave of democratization—a larger narrative about inevitable progress toward ever-greater freedom.

One could argue the opposite, that the governments around the world have only been increasing in size and power (see: surveillance has massively increased and speech is increasingly restricted), they’re not getting any smaller or more liberal, putting greater pressure on citizens freedoms. This could merely be a reaction to that, not some proactive ideological shift seeking greater freedom - just not constantly less.

There was a famous study showing that almost all the major Arab spring protests were initially spark by food prices and similar failures directly affecting peoples day to day lives, not simply changes in political world-views.

There’s also some claiming the policies of the World Bank and IMF have been a big catalyst for these “bread” riots since the 1980s. As they often pushed for greater amounts of food exports as a means of being economically self sustaining. What ended up happening was a top down movement which replaced normal food production with things like fruit popular in foreign countries and run by a bunch of mini cartels in each country backed by the elite. Which only increased the public’s dependency on gov subsidies for basic food costs as it cannibalized the farmers industry and did little to increase the average workers income.

However it is a fact, and not conspiracy theories, that a lot of the protests and their leaders are directly sponsored by some specific powers from the outside.

E.g. the text by Peter Pomerantsev in the article:

"Or take the 2000 Serbian revolution, where students demonstrating against Slobodan Milošević opposed his government’s war-mongering nationalism in favor of a Serbia integrated with the international community."

But Roger Cohen in the New York Times, 2000:

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/26/magazine/who-really-broug...

"Backed by extensive financing from the United States, Otpor..."

"Just how much money backed this objective is not clear. The United States Agency for International Development says that $25 million was appropriated just this year"

"At the International Republican Institute, another nongovernmental Washington group financed partly by A.I.D., an official named Daniel Calingaert says he met Otpor leaders ''7 to 10 times'' in Hungary and Montenegro, beginning in October 1999. Some of the $1.8 million the institute spent in Serbia in the last year was ''provided direct to Otpor,'' he says."

"But other American help was as important as money. Calingaert's organization arranged for a seminar at the luxurious Budapest Hilton from March 31 to April 3. There a retired United States Army colonel, Robert Helvey, instructed more than 20 Otpor leaders in techniques of nonviolent resistance."

Those trained and financed there were then later engaged at other places and "revolutions":

E.g.

Georgia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmara

"It was formed by the Georgian student activists which received training by the Serbian Otpor! through the funding of the OSI."

Egypt:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_6_Youth_Movement

"Mohammed Adel, a leader in the April 6 movement, studied at the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, an organization founded by former Otpor! members"

And there's even more in Wikipedia.

This is the result of cheap decentralized information. There are no more large organizations deciding where and when the protests occur. There is no more centralized subjects for protesters. This is entirely self organized in small knowledge clusters. The centralized government is dieing, so is the democratic authority. This will be more noticeable in more restrictive environments but soon will be much more widespread. The mainstream media will attack these changes since this go against their own existence, but even them will no least a long time to stop these changes.