The Gilets Jaunes deliberately evaded easy identification and categorization.

Evidence

The weekly descent of yellow-vest-wearing farmers and rural commuters at the Champs-Élysées was a sight no less strange than that of the K-pop fans’ takeover of the iWatchDallas app and the Trump 2020 merchandise website. Hence, the Gilets Jaunes protests eschewed identification; they were distinctively unstraightforward, difficult to anticipate or to pin down. The lack of a general consensus about their demographic makeup, their diverse ideological origins, and their heterogeneous demands befuddled France’s liberal commentariat. The movement was steeped in confusion and conspiracy. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 334

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is the movement’s elusiveness best read as deliberately strategic or as a genuine artifact of heterogeneous membership? Worth chasing whether ‘eschewed identification’ is the author’s inference or the activists’ stated intent.