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This is the most interesting part of the whole phenomenon. I think the answer is that everyone is scared to confront them. The modus operandi of this movement

This is the most interesting part of the whole phenomenon. I think the answer is that everyone is scared to confront them. The modus operandi of this movement is to personally attack the character of anyone who disagrees with them. They've toppled university presidents, CEOs, and politicians. They got Rolling Stone to publish a completely unsubstantiated article falsely accusing a bunch of young men of a vicious gang rape. No one wants to be next.

gaius 11y ago
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals
- MollyR 11y ago
  Wow thank you for this link. Its interesting to see where these horrible tactics come from. It certainly frightening to see things like rule 13 “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. This is horrifying to see codified, and what I assume being practiced on purpose, like what those yale students did to their professor, or at least tried too.
  - gaius 11y ago
    Yep once you know "the rules" you can easily analyze all these protests or incidents.
    - diydsp 11y ago
      I am strangely relieved that their perception of power is this basic: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
I think they're winning because the overall premise is just correct. Black death and torture is one of the most serious moral issues the U.S. faces today. There are some people with poor impulse control who get in the news a lot. The opposition promotes the hell out of those people (as we are doing right now) in order to try to discredit the leaders. The fact that the movement is still winning despite the countercampaign is because so many of the other people in the movement are extraordinary, grounded people speaking for truth.
- marcoperaza 11y ago
  Generational poverty and crime are definitely serious issues, but that's not the movement's "overall premise". The movement's philosophical underpinning is a complete abdication of personal agency and responsibility. They perceive themselves to be part of a powerless and oppressed group (which is false, especially for some of these 'victims' that are Ivy League students with many open doors). To support that, they've built a revisionist narrative of Western civilization, espoused in works like "A People's History of the United States", that centers on oppression of these out-groups and on the evils on capitalism. They have a paranoid sense that everything is an act of oppression, see "microaggressions" and "cultural appropriation". They are hostile to freedom because their goals of changing how individuals relate to each other socially cannot be achieved without coercion.
  - fleitz 11y ago
    Freedom is not their goal, the goal is equality of outcome.
  - erikpukinskis 11y ago
    You are accurately characterizing a subset of behaviors but I don't think they are characteristic of the movement's day to day operations.
thelastguy 11y ago
>I think the answer is that everyone is scared to confront them. Yep. They're winning because people are too afraid to confront them. And people are too afraid to confront them because this is what happens when you confront them... At Work: They complained to HR that you sexually harass them. You get fired. As an Administrator at Universities, Schools: They accused you of being racist, and you get fired. As a Student at Campus: They and their 100 mob of students surround you. They are clearly angry. 100 people. Surrounded you. Angry. Anything goes. You will obviously have to apologize for having a different view than them, if you want to get out of there in one piece. Online: They accuse you of doxxing them. The mods bans you. And so on and so on...

gaius 11y ago

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals

MollyR 11y ago
Wow thank you for this link. Its interesting to see where these horrible tactics come from. It certainly frightening to see things like rule 13 “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. This is horrifying to see codified, and what I assume being practiced on purpose, like what those yale students did to their professor, or at least tried too.
- gaius 11y ago
  Yep once you know "the rules" you can easily analyze all these protests or incidents.
  - diydsp 11y ago
    I am strangely relieved that their perception of power is this basic: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.

erikpukinskis 11y ago

I think they're winning because the overall premise is just correct. Black death and torture is one of the most serious moral issues the U.S. faces today. There are some people with poor impulse control who get in the news a lot. The opposition promotes the hell out of those people (as we are doing right now) in order to try to discredit the leaders. The fact that the movement is still winning despite the countercampaign is because so many of the other people in the movement are extraordinary, grounded people speaking for truth.

marcoperaza 11y ago
Generational poverty and crime are definitely serious issues, but that's not the movement's "overall premise". The movement's philosophical underpinning is a complete abdication of personal agency and responsibility. They perceive themselves to be part of a powerless and oppressed group (which is false, especially for some of these 'victims' that are Ivy League students with many open doors). To support that, they've built a revisionist narrative of Western civilization, espoused in works like "A People's History of the United States", that centers on oppression of these out-groups and on the evils on capitalism. They have a paranoid sense that everything is an act of oppression, see "microaggressions" and "cultural appropriation". They are hostile to freedom because their goals of changing how individuals relate to each other socially cannot be achieved without coercion.
- fleitz 11y ago
  Freedom is not their goal, the goal is equality of outcome.
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  You are accurately characterizing a subset of behaviors but I don't think they are characteristic of the movement's day to day operations.

thelastguy 11y ago

>I think the answer is that everyone is scared to confront them. Yep. They're winning because people are too afraid to confront them. And people are too afraid to confront them because this is what happens when you confront them... At Work: They complained to HR that you sexually harass them. You get fired. As an Administrator at Universities, Schools: They accused you of being racist, and you get fired. As a Student at Campus: They and their 100 mob of students surround you. They are clearly angry. 100 people. Surrounded you. Angry. Anything goes. You will obviously have to apologize for having a different view than them, if you want to get out of there in one piece. Online: They accuse you of doxxing them. The mods bans you. And so on and so on...