The 2010s saw more mass protest than any prior decade

Evidence

On the night of June 13, the crowd erupted into a chant as we were tear-gassed: “Love is over. Turkey is here!” They were referring to protests and repression going on at the same time in Istanbul. I put this on Twitter and—in one of my first experiences with the ups and downs of social media—it went viral. Over the next few weeks, I received photos and messages from people in Gezi Park, the site of the Turkish protest, holding signs saying things like “the whole world is São Paulo” and “Turkey and Brazil are one.” By 2020, after street battles from Chile to Hong Kong, the world had experienced more mass protest in the previous decade than at any other point in human history, exceeding the famous global cycle of contention in the 1960s. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 45

Categorization

• CANDY: The chant ‘Love is over. Turkey is here!’ and the cross-national solidarity signs are vivid, sharable little anecdotes.
• SHARE: The specific detail that Brazil protesters chanted about Turkey and Gezi Park signs echoed ‘the whole world is São Paulo’ would delight someone following either protest movement.
• XREF: connects to: Over ten million people protested worldwide against the 2003 Iraq war invasion — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 123; The 2010s exceeded the 1960s as the largest protest decade in history — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 45; Global protest activity surged sharply after 2010 following decades of decline — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 172 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The 2010s exceeded the 1960s as the largest protest decade in history #corroborates (0.98) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 45
• Global protest activity surged sharply after 2010 following decades of decline #corroborates (0.88) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 172
• The 2008-2020s protest wave managed elite-mass relations rather than shifting them #qualifies (0.75) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 25
• Legalizing demonstrations made claim-making less violent but more frequent #expands (0.72) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1326