The Two Rules of Protests
The Two Rules of Protests
By Abe Greenwald
I have two general rules about leftwing protests. The first is that the stated cause of a protest is always a pretext; the real cause is the protesters’ desire to create chaos and do harm to the United States, its interests, and its allies. That’s why someone like Greta Thunberg can go from lecturing about global warming to screaming about Israel. People have taken to describing this phenomenon as the left’s Omnicause, but I think it’s more helpful to think of it as the Unicause. The left’s various grievances aren’t chosen at random; they all serve the single purpose of prosecuting a case against the U.S.-led West.
The second rule follows from the first: The protests always harm the designated victim group that the protesters claim to be supporting. This is because the activism stems from false motives. It’s mot surprising that every minority group in the country has moved away from the activist left since they social-justice explosion of 2020. Black Lives Matter demonstrations led to defunded and apprehensive police. Violent crime shot up everywhere, but it was especially brutal in poor minority neighborhoods where police were needed the police most. The “pro-Palestinian” demonstrations explicitly support Gazans’ terrorist tormenters. And transgender activism has pushed thousands of kids who were merely going through a rough patch into a life of emotional and physical torment.
It’s with these two rules in mind that I quote from an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal:“The airwaves and social media are saturated with footage of protesters waving Mexican flags atop burning cars, carrying signs claiming California is ‘Stolen land’ and chanting ‘We don’t want ICE or police!’”
If the point of the Los Angeles protesters is to protect illegal immigrants from the consequences of lawbreaking (which is already a wildly unpopular political cause), why are they committing crimes, raising foreign flags, and declaring the State of California illegitimate? Because, as the first rule of protests states, their real aim is to tear down the U.S.
And how, exactly, are illegals (or any immigrants in America) helped by riots featuring crime and claims of foreign loyalty in their name? It doesn’t matter how many times cable-news hosts describe mayhem as “mostly peaceful” or how many New York Times op-eds blame Donald Trump for the violent scenes. The rioters are fanning out across California making the best possible case for Trump’s mass-deportation initiative.
Which, if they were being honest, is exactly what they want. They don’t care about the well-being of one supposedly alienated group or another. They need more of the very thing they claim to be protesting at a given moment. In this case, the left needs more ICE raids and more deportations. Because more ICE crackdowns mean more violent clashes and further opportunities to sow destruction. In the end, the left sacrifices its designated victims to satisfy its own sense of annihilative vengeance. Whomever you are, when the protesters pick out your identity group as needing their help, think about self-deporting while you have time.
Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.
It has been suggested that the Federal entities should consider following Japan’s practice of using dye against protesters. It makes it an efficient method to finding and arresting them.
Failing that maybe they could use paintballs as a “non lethal” weapon.
