One worrying thing about current protests -- and a seeming contrast with many previous movements -- is the inability of ANY protest organization to survive past the initial surge of enthusiasm without degenerating into infighting.https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/07/portlands-wall-of-moms-crumbles-amid-online-allegations-by-former-partner-dont-shoot-pdx.html …
-
Show this thread
-
A burst of enthusiasm is good, but past experience suggests that it's not sufficient to bring real change. You need orgs. Stable, tenacious, effective organizations that do the hard follow-up work after most of the protesters go home to their jobs and families.
10 replies 12 retweets 74 likesShow this thread -
My worry is that
@mgurri is right, and that social media-driven protests have an inherently difficult time creating stable organizations, because the leadership of any such org will be overthrown (cancelled) by successive waves of enthusiasm from below.https://www.amazon.com/Revolt-Public-Crisis-Authority-Millennium/dp/1732265143 …8 replies 7 retweets 55 likesShow this thread -
I often think of social media as primarily a tool for gekokujo -- grassroots revolts against institutional hierarchies. Can protest/reform movements survive and maintain purpose and effectiveness without any institutional, hierarchical stability?https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-03/leaders-who-act-like-outsiders-invite-trouble …
1 reply 2 retweets 36 likesShow this thread -
Past experience suggests that movements with a lot of enthusiasm but little long-term organization can achieve some short-term results -- e.g. toppling a leader -- but struggle to build anything lasting. An example would be the anarchist movement of 100 years ago.
8 replies 7 retweets 37 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @Noahpinion
This is a very, very, very old problem.
@zeynep wrote an entire book about this wrt to new media technologies.2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
Yeah, imagine that. 
-
-
This looks great: https://www.twitterandteargas.org/
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.