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Comment by wk_end | Hacker News Reader

The article asserts without evidence that this is a new phenomenon, as though there were no violent protests or riots ever, as though the civil rights movement consisted entirely of "negotiations" between, I guess, MLK Jr. and LBJ, sitting in a room and hashing out the issues debate-club style.

Pretty sure this is entirely ahistorical.

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Didn't Samuel L. Jackson hold board members hostage at his school, and among the members was MLK Sr.? And he wasn't even part of a radical movement like Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers.

If you watch a video of a debate between politicians in the last few years, you think the style of conversation is not significantly different than that in videos of debates from many decades ago?

If the article were trying to make a point about politicians instead of protestors that might be relevant.

FWIW though, politicians have only really gotten appreciably stupider in the US. They’re not great here in Canada but they never have been. Even as far-right politics have gained renewed prominence in Europe (notoriously not new), they’re not being carried by MTG-esque bozos.

This suggests that an analysis that blames a global phenomenon like social media is flawed.

Going for shock value (which leads to more media exposure) over peaceful protesting is new, you can’t ignore that. It is in fact the most valid point of this clearly conservative-biased article. Before, you were looking for people to sympathize with your plea and behave nicely as a consequence, today it’s all about getting more clicks and eyeballs and feeding outrage.

Black Panther Party famously brought guns to the California Statehouse in Sacramento: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6woXE-RPY7A and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party#Protest_at...

Do you really want to compare the Black Panthers to Just Stop Oil?

I don't have any numbers but pretty sure violent protests, attacking monuments and historic sites, or just doing extremely provocative stuff was the exception, not the norm? Of course there will be plenty of historical events, but I don't even remember the last pacific protest or sit-down I've seen recently. These days your local beekeepers association is resorting to these tactics, because it's the only thing that works in the social media era. Combine that with general restlessness in western societies, increased police violence, and here we are...

It’s a nice and pat explanation, but like I said, it’s ahistorical. Gen Z didn’t invent provocation. Flag burning at Vietnam War protests was deliberately shocking. May 1968 was not “behaving nicely”. The Stonewall Riots weren’t “behaving nicely”. The Boston Tea Party was not “behaving nicely”.

I think the suffragettes would like to have a word...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette_bombing_and_arso...

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