It is. It really is, and I'm not just talking about liberals tut tutting about the black block and conservatives fear mongering about planes full of anteeeefas. I'm also talking about anarchists lionizing riots as a tactic and communists discounting the bravery of rioters because they're not organizing.

But: all. of. this. misses. the. point.

The riot is so prominent because it's the only tactic left.

The American left gets most of its tactics from the 60s. Riots, strikes, electoral challenges, and sit ins (now restyled as blockades).

But most of these are impossible now. The modern equivalent to a sit in would be... blocking a cop car? Felony. Mass resisting arrest? Felony. Prison strike? Gets you in lockup.

Strikes are (for most people) out of the question because Reagan decimated the labor movement, and we're still recovering.

Electoral challenges have always been a dead end.

So that leaves rioting. Easy to whip up, easy to get away with, and most of the time is a misdemeanor.

People riot because it's the last tactic we have in our cultural memory that's still accessible.

People are gunning up and making mutual aid networks. This is the birth of a new culture of activism, one that addresses life and death incredibly directly, but it's still nascent. While we build this new culture, riots are all that's left, so whatever you think of them, they're a reality to be navigated, not an action to be analyzed.

  • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    It's always bizarre to me how leftists in the US get disillusioned by the disordered nature of riots, while quoting you MLK at some point.

    If someone has reached a level of consciousness but still wants to just go out and burn shit down, you could probably make them understand that their efforts would be better geared towards educating themselves more and anyone that's willing to listen, perhaps in the hope that somewhere down the line that education can be used to drive a more revolutionary force.

    The conditions for an organized revolution are far different than they were decades and centuries ago. There's a certain reality to how capitalism has led us into a mental paralysis, where the consciousness of the general population hardly ever gets to a point where their movement is going to be collectively oriented towards concrete goals, especially as they relate to socialism. If you go out today and join one of these riots, the mass of people simply aren't going to have a level of consciousness past perhaps something like M4A. Most of them are just disillusioned with no ideological anchor. All they see is warped material priorities, and they act on that feeling.

    Honestly, it's hard to even say where these riots will end up. Could be the start of something better, or could be the start of something more sinister. Either way, there's a certain stasis, individually, if you're looking at these riots from a more learned perspective. Best thing would be to amplify whatever you've learned to anyone that's willing to listen, and in this moment, that's probably a lot of people.