Calling an event ‘riot’ or ‘revolution’ is itself a consequential claim

Evidence

The BLM protests, for whites observing from afar with fear, embodied that very sword. This is why they, and their mouthpieces in mainstream media, castigated the protesters as “looters” and “thugs” and “terrorists,” seeking to strip the legitimacy of their grievances with the dulling edge of the sword they had swung for so long. But what unfolded in Minneapolis and other cities across the world was no sword seeking retribution or vengeance. … What unfolded in the summer of 2020 after Floyd’s murder was indeed a new season. Whites, in fact, marched alongside protestors of all hues who were collectively conspiring to erode the most harmful invention of its era, white supremacy. And once and for all, to topple it, like they did the statues erected to glorify its myth and the misery it spread. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1142 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The naming of a phenomenon provides no warrant that the phenomenon exists, much less that it is causally coherent. Many observers of violent contentious politics speak of street violence as “rioting.” Riot, however, is an authority’s name for public behavior of which the authority disapproves. Under King George I (1714–27), English law codified that perception in the Riot Act. The act provided that if twelve or more persons assembled with what a competent authority judged as the intent to commit an illegal act and refused to disperse within an hour of being warned, they qualified as felons. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 292 (#instantiates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An authority’s name for a gathering does not make that gathering causally coherent — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 292; Contentious gatherings as defined are not restricted to disorderly events; Revolutionary violence must be contextualized rather than used to dismiss its ideals (+1 more)

Related

• Labeling BLM protesters terrorists is a weapon to strip legitimacy from grievances (similarity 0.85)
• An authority’s name for a gathering does not make that gathering causally coherent (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Labeling BLM protesters terrorists is a weapon to strip legitimacy from grievances #exemplifies (0.90) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1142
• Revolutionary violence must be contextualized rather than used to dismiss its ideals #qualifies (0.85)