Saturday, March 9, 2024

Theory of Change: "But this time will be different!"


Green Day - Minority


From Matt Yglesias:

When activists do things like throw soup on the Mona Lisa to protest climate change, it barely even seems worth delving into a detailed argument about why this is unlikely to generate useful reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. It’s like believing that if you shoot William McKinley, global capitalism will collapse.

And I think there really is common intellectual DNA here.

The activist shop Momentum, which incubated the Sunrise Movement and has trained a lot of other young progressives, advocates an organizing model that stipulates that disruptive actions will help build popular support for a cause. I have no idea why they think that’s true — if anti-abortion protestors shut down a major art museum demanding a national ban on abortions, I think that would make them look scarier and even more extreme. But it’s basically Propaganda of the Deed, with the violence toned down.

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