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Quality Contributions to the Main Motte
Contributions for the week of December 29, 2025
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Notes -
Concerning the @Catsnakes_ comments about the gamification of the two opposing sides of the protest movements, I see a lot more of a narrative forward thinking in those movements. The Left has long since taken on the roles that have long been associated with scrappy underdog rebels from Three Amigos to Star Wars and Revenge of the Nerds. They look in the mirror and cast themselves into whatever roles suit them in that narrative. And they seem to lack the self awareness to understand the substantial differences between being a movie rebel and being an actual real rebel. The differences are obviously stark, starting with real rebels needing to do actual unsexy work, needing to keep quiet about their membership in such a group, etc. But of course this misunderstanding and ignorance extends to the dangers of actually rebelling which, historically has lead to deaths. What’s funny is that as an outsider looking in, im not even sure of the actual game plan. They’re showing up and they’re blowing whistles (like exactly what is that doing? The ICE agents don’t seem to be sneaking in), blocking roads, holding signs. Early into the Trump presidency, there was the viral idea that if there were 300K protesters “resisting” (and the term was very loose, including sidewalk protests that featured bouncy houses and DJs. Yes, No Kings block parties counted as resistance.), that apparently the Trump Nazi MAGA regime would just disappear into the ether. All of this makes sense from a narrative standpoint. There’s no need to have a plan because in the movies just the mere fact that you show up and stand up to the Big Bad is enough to win.
The right has a similar narrative on their side of perhaps the Red Dawn or other invasion movies. The idea being that they’re insurgents fighting back against Big Elites who want to destroy the country from within using various front groups. And again outside of Trump I don’t think a lot of the people on the Right have much of a clue of how to actually get things to happen.
The protestors do not pose a military threat to the government. Rather, they pose a rhetorical, political, and optics threat. Civil disobedience, hunger strikes, tying oneself to a tree, blocking roads; these are all ways to bait someone (usually government) into a heavy-handed reaction. The theory (and practice) is that the reaction drums up sympathy for the protestors and their cause. The force comes from the one-sided media though, not the protesting itself. Protest should be understood as a tool that the citizens (at the media's direction) use against the government - very similar to 2nd Amendment.
Protest organizations clearly say that it is about creating scenes with Law Enforcement.
So, yes these protests are social functions. And yes, there is no need for the protestors to actually think they are fighting fascism. If people really actually believed the were fighting a fascist regime, we'd see more deadly attacks on Law Enforcement and less protesting. The rhetorical and political power of the media can indeed cause governments to act (or not), so it's kind of reasonable for protestors to think they are invincible. They are of course, the rightful side of legitimate American power. Do not mind how they call themselves the underdog - that's part of the theatre script.
The issue I have isn’t that they’re making noise or something to get attention. It’s that they have little interest in a message let alone any message discipline. The 1960s Civil Rights Movement, had all of those things. They had a clear message and agenda and everything they did was in service to those ends. The counter sit ins worked because it was disruptive, but it was also a quiet but powerful protest because the point was that no one should get served unless everyone does, and they were willing to be arrested to get that message out. Even the Rosa Parks incident had been carefully set up — in fact there was another woman who was refused the privilege of being the woman who refused to give up her seat because she had skeletons in her closet and they needed the credibly that a woman with a clean past would give to the movement. It wasn’t random people blocking cars, there was a message and the planning happened to get the message out and use that message to get an actual change. It was entirely predicated on making a real change and worked to achieve it.
The difference is that the goals of this protest movement would be highly unpopular if it were stated directly. Likely, a lot of the protestors themselves aren't consciously aware of the goal of the movement. That goal is demographic and policy changes that favor the Democratic party (no voter ID, no immigration enforcement, handouts for underclass clients) as well as increasing enthusiasm and entrenching identity among the Democratic base.
The part that is mentioned out loud is the socially acceptable tip of the iceberg (kindness to immigrants). And we do see messages of kindness and fairness repeated with some degree of uniformity and discipline.
Sort of. I see the average rank-and-file person more or less playing Knighthood in the manner of Don Quixote— it’s not so much that they even care about the cause as often as they care about the images of themselves as the heroes of a great drama opposing the big bad. If you really want to make it hard for the government to find illegal immigrants, it’s seem rather obvious that moving some to the suburban white neighborhoods the protestors hailed from would be much more effective than showing up with signs around the all Latin neighborhoods where ICE will find them. Or quietly donating to a legal charity for immigration lawyers. But those aren’t sexy or require actual sacrifice without validation.
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