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"The strength of activists, social change, and opposition movements seems to be decreasing around the world. The trend is reinforced by the seemingly old tactic

"The strength of activists, social change, and opposition movements seems to be decreasing around the world. The trend is reinforced by the seemingly old tactic of discrediting, deception, building mistrust among members, and disinformation spread by various political and state actors, who over the millennia perfected their methods." Could the decrease in "strength" (i.e. interest and involvement by its participants) be possibly due to how unpopular the demands of the activists are to the general public? It seems the author has a very myopic view of the situation. People are seeing what "defund the police" leads to, and what their kids are being taught in schools -- they see it, and they're judging it, and their response is increasingly "NO". The democrats in the US see their polling numbers plummet, and are recognizing that pursuing the agenda demanded by the activists will take them out of power altogether. The examples cited are COINTELPRO and the Soviet Stazi? Those were quite a long time ago, and not at all part of any suppression of today's activists. The article fails to mention that for the most part, "big tech" has supported opposition movements, and show clear bias against conservatives.

matthewdgreen 5y ago
There is only really one issue, and that's the rapidly increasing atmospheric CO2 level and the potential impacts it will have on our ability to maintain a functioning society. The fact that you're focused on a bunch of telegenic activists and police defunding (which appears to not be actually happening, anywhere) illustrates how successfully we've been distracted from matters that affect our own survival.
- kerneloftruth 5y ago
  There has indeed been defunding and redirecting funds to other purposes...and several cities have recently reversed course due to the uptick in crimes: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-de... https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/13/at-least-13-cities-are-defunding-their-police-departments/?sh=2ecff55a29e3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/13/at-leas... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/refund-the-police-cities-are-reversing-cuts-to-police-budgets/ar-AAKrXau https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/refund-the-police-cities-a... https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2021/11/15/denver-refunds-police-department-reform https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2021/11/15/denver-refunds... ...and others easily searched. Also, I'm leery of "There is only really one issue". The environment and climate are very real concerns, but a singular focus leads to zealotry and extremism -- which are discredits the cause(s) they're advocating. Anti-abortion activists learned that bombing clinics and assassinating doctors did not help their cause.
  - matthewdgreen 5y ago
    From what I can tell, studies that have tried to find a correlation between police funding (and rare, temporary "defunding" efforts) have come up with very little. In some cities that reduced police funding, crime rose. But then in some other cities that increased police funding, crime rose. And vice versa in other cities. And the overall magnitude of the budget cuts is tiny. Even the examples you cherry picked, the budget cuts are hilariously small compared to recent increases. For example, your last link shows that Denver has been increasing its police budget ~5% a year since 2017 (well above inflation), and they decreased it by 0.75% for a single year during a pandemic. That's a city that's seen a 75% overall increase in police funding since 2012 and still has a visible upward crime trend that clearly predates the "defund" movement (http://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/Per-capital-crime-rates.png http://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/Per-c...) This is exactly the kind of statistical nothingburger you'd expect to see if someone was inventing an issue to try to make people emotional and distract them from real problems.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    > bombing clinics and assassinating doctors did not help their cause. What evidence do you have of this?

matthewdgreen 5y ago

There is only really one issue, and that's the rapidly increasing atmospheric CO2 level and the potential impacts it will have on our ability to maintain a functioning society. The fact that you're focused on a bunch of telegenic activists and police defunding (which appears to not be actually happening, anywhere) illustrates how successfully we've been distracted from matters that affect our own survival.

kerneloftruth 5y ago
There has indeed been defunding and redirecting funds to other purposes...and several cities have recently reversed course due to the uptick in crimes: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-de... https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/13/at-least-13-cities-are-defunding-their-police-departments/?sh=2ecff55a29e3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/13/at-leas... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/refund-the-police-cities-are-reversing-cuts-to-police-budgets/ar-AAKrXau https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/refund-the-police-cities-a... https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2021/11/15/denver-refunds-police-department-reform https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2021/11/15/denver-refunds... ...and others easily searched. Also, I'm leery of "There is only really one issue". The environment and climate are very real concerns, but a singular focus leads to zealotry and extremism -- which are discredits the cause(s) they're advocating. Anti-abortion activists learned that bombing clinics and assassinating doctors did not help their cause.
- matthewdgreen 5y ago
  From what I can tell, studies that have tried to find a correlation between police funding (and rare, temporary "defunding" efforts) have come up with very little. In some cities that reduced police funding, crime rose. But then in some other cities that increased police funding, crime rose. And vice versa in other cities. And the overall magnitude of the budget cuts is tiny. Even the examples you cherry picked, the budget cuts are hilariously small compared to recent increases. For example, your last link shows that Denver has been increasing its police budget ~5% a year since 2017 (well above inflation), and they decreased it by 0.75% for a single year during a pandemic. That's a city that's seen a 75% overall increase in police funding since 2012 and still has a visible upward crime trend that clearly predates the "defund" movement (http://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/Per-capital-crime-rates.png http://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/Per-c...) This is exactly the kind of statistical nothingburger you'd expect to see if someone was inventing an issue to try to make people emotional and distract them from real problems.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  > bombing clinics and assassinating doctors did not help their cause. What evidence do you have of this?