Awareness-Raising Protests Won’t Threaten the Richest, Most Well Armed People on Earth
“Making durable changes isn’t always about the raw numbers,” says Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. In this episode, Olúfẹ́mi and Kelly talk about protest, why large “awareness raising” events will not defeat Trump, and the kind of actions and formations we need in these times.
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I was wondering what kind of tortures should be inflicted on theses poeple for inflicting this podcast on the world.
This is in some way a criticism of vanguardism. But there is no specific ethical character to these discussions of forcing change. For example, hiring (or otherwise inciting) street thugs to bring down a regime has been effective from the time of Julius Caesar through the CIA/MI6 destabilisation of Mossadegh’s Iran, to today. Astroturfing may give an impression of numerical support (relied on by lobbyist groups like the Israel supporters in UK). US President Nixon’s silent majority are an imaginary mass. Visibility and other forms of influence are unequal, which is essentially the point. What is 3.5% of the population making decisions for the rest but an elite (the pigs replace humans in Animal Farm)? And in terms of humans making decisions for all the living planet, an elite group within the hegemonic species.
I agree that insistence on ideological purity goes against what we know about humans and the world, lifelong learning, the abuses of power within orthodox hierarchies, the journey from the Cave of Shadows (as well as being counterproductive). There are no good guys.
https://blog.sleepingdog.org.uk/2025/03/democracys-flaws-there-are-no-good-guys.html
But if the greater problem is integration (to create and maintain a coherent worldview with empirical support), then prioritisation and uncovering dependencies is key. Nuclear war tends to trump all other concerns, for example, but also some ‘goods’ are incompatible.
DEI tends to be attached to specific social groupings associated with strong identity politics, but we can look to foreign examples, such as countries which have undergone successful revolutions or anti-colonial struggles, where the children and grandchildren of revolutionary cadres still formally benefit from their ancestors’ recognised roles in bringing about the new status quo. Is it fair that their fellow citizens are excluded from the privileges and opportunities that these chosen ones have inherited? Should DEI be applied in those countries to counter unfair discrimination? Or in countries with an established religion that penalises out-groups?
Mass protests can often be hijacked by much smaller, more organised groups, with sometimes significant consequences.