Protest events alone do not change anything without ongoing political organization

Evidence

Political gains have frequently required protest or “insurgent politics” (Eisinger, 1974; Lipsky, 1968; McAdam, 1983; Morris, 1984). … In sum, many of the crucial gains that blacks have made came through the establishment of effective political networks and organizations of their own (Morris, 1984) and through protest politics. The historical record of black recourse to insurgent politics is underscored by blacks’ tendency to feel alienated from white society (Schuman & Hatchett, 1974; Turner & Wilson, 1976), to express fairly high levels of power discontent and group consciousness (Gurin, Miller, & Gurin, 1980; Pitts, 1974; Shingles, 1980), and to endorse protest and demonstration as legitimate political tools (Bobo, 1985; Eisinger, 1974; Isaac, Mutran, & Stryker, 1980; Robinson, 1970). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3355 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Rather than a mobile “mass,” today’s QAnon troops and antilockdown protests look more like the infamous swarms: a group responding to short and powerful stimuli, driven by charismatic influencers and digital demagogues—the power to irritate, maybe a few stings here and there, but little more. Anyone can join a Facebook group with QAnon sympathies; as with all online media, the price of membership is very low, the cost of exit even lower. Leaders can, of course, try to choreograph these swarms—with tweets, television appearances, or supposed Russian bots. But that choreography still does not summon up a durable organization. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 343 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But protesting racist policies can never be a long-term solution to eradicating racial discrimination—and thus racist ideas—in America. Just as one generation of powerful Americans could decide or be pressured by protest to end racial discrimination, when the conditions and interests change, another generation could once again encourage racial discrimination. That’s why protesting against racist power has been a never-ending affair in America. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1259 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Left protest shifted from workplace to spectacle because it lacked embedded organizations. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 156; Sometimes the right political action is to wait and organize instead of disrupt — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 908; Black political advancement depended on protest and own-group organization. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3355 (+5 more)

Related

• Black political advancement depended on protest and own-group organization. (similarity 0.85)
• Digital protest crowds behave like swarms that cannot be organized durably (similarity 0.83)
• Movements run organizing drives and legal attacks in parallel phases (similarity 0.80)
• Political movements must seize fleeting protest moments or lose them to ruling patience (similarity 0.80)
• Modern protest movements are transient swarms held together by stimuli, not durable organizations (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Black political advancement depended on protest and own-group organization. #corroborates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3355
• Digital protest crowds behave like swarms that cannot be organized durably #corroborates (0.82) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 343
• Protest alone cannot permanently eradicate racial discrimination because interests shift #corroborates (0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1259
• Events are reversals of power that inaugurate wholly new states of affairs #contradicts (0.80) — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 178
• Sometimes the right political action is to wait and organize instead of disrupt #qualifies (0.75) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 908