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Notes -
I find this pretty convincing.
Americans export awareness of our CW battle lines.
Some domestic occurrence looks vaguely like an American one
Domestic activists realize they can tap this giant well of cultural awareness
American hashtags on domestic media
The important bit is 3, where some journalist realizes the potential of appealing to an American export. It’s potent because it seeped into the domestic public before anyone was really defending against, as you said, those wacky Yanks. Tie it to the hashtag or slogan and even your enemies will know what you’re talking about. That’s a seductive feeling—and one that rewards the wielded with clicks and clout.
I'm sceptical of this hypothesis because there were large scale nationwide BLM protests in Ireland long before anything BLM-related actually happened here. After George Nkencho was shot dead by police officers in December 2020, I could almost detect a palpable sense of relief among Irish progressives - finally we have something that looks like a legitimate grievance, the accusations of tilting at windmills won't land quite as easily as they did before.
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