3 ms·

This is getting close to being a No True Scotsman type of situation. I'm reasonably sure that mobs were present during the French revolution, for instance.

• gojomo 16y ago
  Indeed it is approaching 'No True Scotsman' hair-splitting, and that's unfortunate, but shared definitions are important for discussion. My objection is to the watering-down of 'mob' to mean any 'group of people', including those who have the noblest aims. A 'mob' is not a 'movement', nor is it a 'rebellion' or 'revolution'. It's angry people breaking rules and doing unfocused damage with the exercise of raw bulk power. That we can cherry-pick a few examples where similar action caused (or more likely, just correlated with) beneficial change shouldn't make 'mob' a positive-connotation term for the 'group of people' that via its 'support' determines whether society is 'free, just, and rational'. We should prefer to rely on free speech, elections, courts, legislatures, voluntary assemblies, armies and even 'well-organized militias' over angry anonymous 'mobs'.