looking around at things in 2026
Did it really work?
Comment on EU vs USA
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 4 days agoMLK’s strategy only worked because the powers that be understood that Malcom X was the alternative.
mech@feddit.org 4 days ago
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 4 days ago
MLKs strategies were effective because they were novel and the state hadn’t built up the tools to deal with them. They had been caught off guard.
The state long ago developed strategies to deal with protest including the use of media for narrative management, and the long term the socialization of “peaceful protest as the only acceptable form of protest” among left wing populations.
The state adapted and evolved to be able to safely ignore peaceful protest, and also ran a long term propaganda campaign that “peaceful protest” is the only form of protest acceptable, and even further, has propagandized to convince people it’s the only form of protest even possible or effective.
MLK was effective because the state hadn’t dealt with those strategies before. They adapted to deal with those strategies, then built funnels for grievances to focus exclusively on the tactics they had adapted to be able to ignore.