5 ms·

This is an interesting article I'm, but I'm not sure any of this is particularly new in politics and political activism. Using short, simplistic slogans, using

This is an interesting article I'm, but I'm not sure any of this is particularly new in politics and political activism. Using short, simplistic slogans, using word games to try to make your opponents look bad without really engaging with their argument, faddish movements that burn brightly but briefly - these have been around for a lot longer than twitter.

lolinder 5y ago
I don't see OP claiming that this is new, just that it's dangerous. He gives a (positive) example from the abolitionist era.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  I know that people will harp on the January 6th thing, but political discourse in the West is safer (as in free of violence) in the current 2 decades than it probably has been ever before.
  - foolinaround 5y ago
    On the contrary, i would submit, that this country was never as split like this in recent memory...
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine Maybe the country is more polarized, but I think we need to be cognizant of the tendency to make everything today be totally unique. Political violence has a long history in the US, and there are far fewer people getting killed over it today.
Barrin92 5y ago
I don't follow American politics at the more local level closely so I hadn't looked into Yang before this, but I found a Youtube video of him being an anime character, and I immediately had to think of this, A German campaign clip from the 50s for Conservative candidate Adenauer(https://youtu.be/CyH49o5uQ5Q https://youtu.be/CyH49o5uQ5Q), popularizing one of the slogans that stuck for a long time "Keine Experimente", i.e. "no experiments". It really is not new. Slogans and clever imagery are as old as popular media I guess. I'm also not sure it necessarily indicates that a movement is faddish. Most people who congregate under the BLM meme obviously know that it comes with a genuine movement with complex politics.

lolinder 5y ago

I don't see OP claiming that this is new, just that it's dangerous. He gives a (positive) example from the abolitionist era.

whimsicalism 5y ago
I know that people will harp on the January 6th thing, but political discourse in the West is safer (as in free of violence) in the current 2 decades than it probably has been ever before.
- foolinaround 5y ago
  On the contrary, i would submit, that this country was never as split like this in recent memory...
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine Maybe the country is more polarized, but I think we need to be cognizant of the tendency to make everything today be totally unique. Political violence has a long history in the US, and there are far fewer people getting killed over it today.

Barrin92 5y ago

I don't follow American politics at the more local level closely so I hadn't looked into Yang before this, but I found a Youtube video of him being an anime character, and I immediately had to think of this, A German campaign clip from the 50s for Conservative candidate Adenauer(https://youtu.be/CyH49o5uQ5Q https://youtu.be/CyH49o5uQ5Q), popularizing one of the slogans that stuck for a long time "Keine Experimente", i.e. "no experiments". It really is not new. Slogans and clever imagery are as old as popular media I guess. I'm also not sure it necessarily indicates that a movement is faddish. Most people who congregate under the BLM meme obviously know that it comes with a genuine movement with complex politics.