Modern protest movements are transient swarms held together by stimuli, not durable organizations

Evidence

BLM demonstrators, climate strikers, and antilockdown protesters resemble less a militant collective than the aforementioned swarms, a myriad animated by brief, potent stimuli, stirred to action by charismatic influencers and digital demagogues. Anyone can join a Telegram channel or be invited to a group chat; the price of membership is low, the costs of exit even lower. Leaders can, of course, try to choreograph these broods—with social media posts of their own, television appearances, or “anti-disinformation” campaigns. But such choreography is no substitute for durable organization. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 229

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reading purpose: the swarm-vs-organization contrast directly supports the ‘everything is politicized, nothing is organized’ core of hyperpolitics, and resonates with description of What Is To Be Done mass-organizing literature. — connects to: Global protest movements of 2011 coordinated through shared tactics against the 1 percent; Movements run organizing drives and legal attacks in parallel phases; Widespread discontent stays apolitical without an organized agent to mediate it — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1645 (+12 more)