You keep framing the extremists as a tiny faction. They are the organizers. They set the agenda. Anyone who participates in their actions is taking radical action whether they think of themselves as radical or not.
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Replying to @beyerstein
I think Michelle's article makes if very clear that the organizers are far-right extremists with seditionists goals. That's not the same as saying everyone who joined the protest is that.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
So, you have to make the very charitable assumption that the people participating in this action are a) telling the truth when they demur from socially unacceptable views, and b) Don't ascribe to the official motives of the protest they're laying their bodies on the line for.
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Replying to @beyerstein
Having participated in a few protests, I think it's good to talk to people at marches & not assume an identity between leadership and grassroots. To do otherwise is to fall into the madness of Christopher Hitchens in 2003 who thought the whole anti-war movement was Stalinist.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
But you should also take care not to get rolled. Goldberg doesn't seem to have done the work to make these claims responsibly.
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Replying to @beyerstein @HeerJeet
She's not grappling with the evidence of the deeds, she's just going by the possibly self-serving words of protesters who are parroting the official message of the protest, which we all agree is organized by right wing extremists.
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Replying to @beyerstein
That's just not a fair reading of the article which repeatedly mentions the racism/misogyny/homophobia & bullying of some of the protesters as well as organizerspic.twitter.com/TPyaI862ng
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Replying to @HeerJeet
The ass-covering makes the piece incoherent. She agrees that this is a protest organized by untrustworthy extremists, but she's happy to take seemingly participants at their word when they insist they don't accept the organizing principles of the siege they're participating in.
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Replying to @beyerstein
Again, I can only speak to my experience but people at protests don't always accept the official agenda of the protests they participate in or have much commonality. The anti-war protests I went to in 2000s had everyone from Pat Buchanan style isolationists to Marxist-Leninists
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Replying to @HeerJeet
Anti-Iraq war protests weren't Stalinist in the leadership or in their demands. The siege of Ottawa is explicitly anti-democratic, violent, and radical. Its demands are clear and its strategy and tactics are public.
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Here is Christopher Hitchens on organizers of 2003 protests.pic.twitter.com/JQ1Dxe2tGz
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