The myth of the mindless activist

queeranarchism:

I hate claims like ‘radical activists don’t consider the consequences of their actions’ or ‘people who destroy property don’t care about politics’. Its always bullshit and if people actually considered activist voices they’re know that.

People who break laws as part of their activism can not defend themselves openly and as a result news on these topics is dominated by people who know nothing about it or who actively oppose the activists. Radical groups publish their own perspectives in press releases, magazines, websites, blogs etc but they can only do so once they are sure that their publication won’t endanger anyone involved. Since most media either don’t bother to get the activist perspective or don’t consider something news 2 weeks after the fact, activist perspectives are often completely absent from the mainstream perspective and as a result bullshit like ‘activists don’t consider the consequences of their actions’ can thrive. Examples of a few actions that went very wrong get repeated over and over as if they’re representative of the activism even though they’re anything but.

The simple truth is: when an activist choses a radical illegal action they are risking physical violence to their person, they are risking imprisonment, in some cases their are risking death. Ask yourself: do you really think activists would do that without carefully considering their consequences of their actions? Does that sound at all likely to you?

It doesn’t sound likely to me. In fact, I know from experience that it’s bullshit. In reality, activists risk a lot when they take illegal action and as a result so so much planning, debating and boring meetings precede most actions and so much analysis and evaluation comes after it. Pros and cons get measured extensively.

And sure, sometimes people still make the wrong choice but if you haven’t been at the table when the decision was made it is likely you don’t have a good idea of what all the options were and why these choices were made. It is easy to look at a fuck up and claim that ignorance was the cause when you weren’t the one making a dificult choice. The truth is that when you do this you are the one using a false sense of superiority to cover up your own ignorance.  

If an article suggests that activists ‘didn’t think about their actions’, you should immediately throw that article in the trash. The person who wrote it has never spoken to a radical activist in their lives.

(reworking of a reply into a seperate post)