I’ve seen a lot of ink spilled recently over the Harris campaign’s recent adoption of the tactic of calling Trump and his cronies “weird”. There’s a lot of hand-wringing over the Democrats ceding the high ground or being unserious about serious matters, but this article, and especially the source material it links to by Sdrja Popovic (a non-violent Serbian revolutionary during the Milošević regime) about the power of humor in non-violent movements, really changed my thinking on this.
…who reportedly knows couches in a biblical sense.
Honestly, probably the best way I have seen this stated anywhere.
It’s a pretty incredible phrase.
Protestors threw rainbow confetti on the neo-nazis
Way more of this please
I was reminded of the trend of Milkshaking a few years ago. That wikipedia article includes a quote from a Vice Article on the trend that refers back to Serbian resistance as well.
But there’s a method to all this dairy-based madness. Milkshaking can be seen within a tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience known as “dilemma action”. A term coined by Serbian activists in the 1990s, dilemma action creates a lose-lose situation for the opposition. It’s a genius move reserved for some of the absolute worst people in our society, because there’s no good way to respond to a milkshaking: do nothing and you look like a twat, or fight back and look like you’re overreacting. Plus, a milkshake will really mess up your suit. Still, that’s not to say you should go out and do it, unless you want to risk arrest: the guy who milkshaked Farage has since been charged with assault, after all.
This honestly feels like the left taking back the social position we had in the 90s, which the right has spent the past few years attempting to be a pale, unfunny imitation of. Irreverence is our jam. Defiance is our bread and butter. The left does best when it saves the analytical brain for getting shit done and confidently mocks the presumption that some stuffy authority knows what’s better for us.
Don’t waste your energy arguing with these trolls, just call them weirdos and move on with your day!
Mockery mode activated!
This is a good read. Thanks for sharing
Thanks! I almost skipped it when I saw it pop up this morning, because I’ve seen so many articles about this topic, but I’m glad I didn’t.
Not every book documenting the fascist scourge of the 20th century will mention the power of mockery and laughter in the face of authoritarians, but many have, and the use of such activism – sometimes called laughtivism – has since been documented by scholars and pro-democracy activists. Laughing at the Bad Man, it turns out, puts him in a bind and avoids what he really wants: Conflict and chaos.
I recently read Takeover - Hitler’s Final Rise To Power. He was laughed at and mocked in newspapers and he still came to power. Don’t think we can treat the threat lightly. We have to be vigilant because these people never stop trying.
I don’t think that the author is suggesting that mockery or laughter should be our only action, just that it should be part of the arsenal
I’m just pointing out the seriousness of the issue in case anyone infers it to be trivial to solve.
Yup. Ridicule them, but be ready to do more.
Mostly good article. The end is wrong, though. People do care about policy. Any decent political journalist knows this.
Many people care about policy, but it doesn’t always drive the way they vote.
“Marxists have failed to gain power because they think too much” is one hell of a liberal elitist take from the author of this article.
Honestly, my reading of Marxist theory makes me look to the inverse of this. The uprising Marx and Engels talk about is a reaction to the injustice and instability of capitalism. As resources are consolidated, as capitalists become more entrenched, the forces that create a change increase. More people see it for what it is until eventually we reach a critical mass spontaneously.
Authoritarian communism doesn’t work because it’s trying to jump the gun. It comes from people seeing changes down the road, but they’re not changes that they can force to come too early. The fruit of the proletariat ownership of the means of production and the withering of the state literally isn’t ripe yet.
Ironically, it’s acts of suppression that ripen that fruit. From active attempts to keep it from ripening to socially destructive capitalist practices like elevating C-levels and chasing quarterly profits.
An authoritarian imposition, to my reading, not only won’t work, but slows down the process by essentially letting off steam as well as creating a negative association between communist social structuring and authoritarianism.
At least reform has positive results in the short term, potentially building greater association between distributed resources and greater social benefit at large. But even then, it may literally be the reverse that brings us closer to the end state of universal proletariat throwing off of chains and the eventually withering of the state.
This was just a meme for fun, though I do think people overlook just how effective anti-Socialist propaganda and actual political suppression has been in the US in particular.
But yes, I agree that we’re not yet at a place as a society where a Leftist revolution would even occur, much less have a chance at success. Though we are much more aware of that possibility as a society than even just 10 years ago.
Authoritarian communism doesn’t work because it’s trying to jump the gun. It comes from people seeing changes down the road, but they’re not changes that they can force to come too early.
I have a lot of opinions about what Lenin did to Marxism. In philosophical terms, I’m a Mutualist. In practical terms, I’m a DemSoc. MLs/Tankies are a peeve of mine because I have a lot of respect for Marx and Engels’ view of an idealized society, and Lenin just shits all over it (whether he intended to or not).
An authoritarian imposition, to my reading, not only won’t work, but slows down the process by essentially letting off steam as well as creating a negative association between communist social structuring and authoritarianism.
Agree 1000%, which is why the State Capitalists who call themselves Communist piss me off so much (looking at China and Russia).
But even then, it may literally be the reverse that brings us closer to the end state of universal proletariat throwing off of chains and the eventually withering of the state.
…it’s acts of suppression that ripen that fruit. From active attempts to keep it from ripening to socially destructive capitalist practices like elevating C-levels and chasing quarterly profits.
Sadly, I have no confidence that people will react to authoritarianism/ imperialism/ capitalism/ corporatism in any kind of organized revolutionary movement. I think violent outbursts of despair like suicides and spree murder are more likely (as we’re seeing already), and will just feed the State security apparatus. I think we’re much closer to a real-life Equilibrium, but without the inept state security forces, than we are to another Paris Commune.
This is exactly what I was thinking of. American liberals are almost entirely ignorant of how much violence their government exports – and especially how much of it is targeted specifically at leftists. Marxists haven’t gained power in the US because any time they started to build working-class support they got murdered.
Fear doesn’t always inspire action, it can often inhibit it. I’m glad the Harris campaign has finally acknowledged this, even if many supporters continue to peddle doomsday myths that actively hurt their cause.
Fantastic article, thanks!
