Comment on The Activist’s Dilemma: Extreme Protest Actions Reduce Popular Support for Social Movements
Contramuffin@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Perhaps not that surprising. It’s the same currency that politicians use. You earn and spend support to keep yourself politically afloat. What this really means is that a good activist should have a healthy “income” of support, meaning that they need to do outreach in equal or greater measure than they do large political actions
iii@mander.xyz 1 week ago
The paper does not look at size of action, but method, such as use of violence, innocent victims, …
The paper suggests something else as more effective: small unknown groups benefit from violent action, as they’ve little to no support to lose. Later, when emotional response has died down, but having gained notoriety, they gain broader support with a more moderate messaging.