tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/dissent-22131/articlesDissent – The Conversation2024-01-25T18:07:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2150452024-01-25T18:07:41Z2024-01-25T18:07:41ZHow to read a Supreme Court case: 10 tips for nonlawyers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569421/original/file-20240115-25-y7ass3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C4479%2C2991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtJuvenileLifeinPrison/ef0a3b52c3bb4859875d5e3de45cc78e/photo?Query=page%20U.S.%20supreme%20court%20decision&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1155&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=39&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-v-rahimi/">gun rights</a> to the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/12/justices-will-review-lower-court-ruling-on-access-to-abortion-pill/">availability of the abortion pill</a> to <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/01/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-trump-plea-to-remain-on-colorado-ballot/">at least one</a> – and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/12/court-wont-hear-trump-immunity-dispute-now/">possibly a second</a> – constitutional case involving former President Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering cases this term that may result in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2023/">momentous decisions in 2024</a>. </p>
<p>If you follow news coverage of these and other cases, you may want to read the Supreme Court decisions for yourself to fully understand what was decided, why and how. But when you read <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/terms/ot2023/?sort=accordion">a Supreme Court case</a> for the first time, the legal language, unique formatting and structure can be daunting, like looking at a giant rock face and not having any clue about how you climb to the top. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.bryant.edu/academics/faculty/bornstein-ilisabeth">taught law to undergraduates for the past 12 years</a>, so I am sympathetic to the nonlawyer’s plight. Here are some techniques I teach my students to help them break a Supreme Court opinion into digestible parts. They should help you begin to understand what was decided, why and how in the important cases being considered by the court this term. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of a legal document, with black print on white paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569670/original/file-20240116-21-hd7otj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The first page of a Supreme Court decision issued in June 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/600us1r55_3dq4.pdf">Supreme Court of the United States</a></span>
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<h2>Where do I find the case?</h2>
<p>First, make sure you know the names of the parties – meaning the different people, companies or organizations involved – in the case. This may require some quick research. For instance, a search for “abortion pill case” results in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/1218332935/mifepristone-abortion-pill-supreme-court">this article</a>. When I skim the article, I learn that the Food and Drug Administration is being sued by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, so these are the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/12/justices-will-review-lower-court-ruling-on-access-to-abortion-pill/">parties in the case</a>. </p>
<p>Once you know the names of the parties, there are several free options available to find the court’s actual ruling, which is called a written opinion. You can search on <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/opinions.aspx">the Supreme Court’s website</a> or on <a href="https://www.oyez.org">Oyez.org</a>. On both sites, the default search option is for cases in the current term, which is October 2023 through October 2024. Take care to adjust your search for the correct time period if you are looking for a case decided in a prior term.</p>
<p>Because the opinions are often long, I recommend getting a PDF version of the case so you can more easily skim and find what you are looking for. </p>
<h2>Is this entire document the opinion of the case?</h2>
<p>No. Once you get the PDF of a specific case, the document begins with the “Syllabus,” which is the court’s summary of what the case is about. It briefly sets out the facts and the legal principles, as well as the outcome of the case. This is like the blurb on a book jacket –– a preview or summary, but not the entire work. </p>
<p>Keep reading to find the part labeled “Opinion of the Court,” which represents the court’s official decision in this case. The opinion will include an opening sentence along the lines of “Justice X delivered the opinion of the court.” </p>
<p>Toward the end of the opinion, you may see what is called a “concurrence” and/or a “dissent.” A concurrence generally means that the justice who wrote it agrees with the decision of the court – what is called the “holding” – but does not agree with the reasoning for getting there. </p>
<p>A dissent, on the other hand, disagrees with the decision of the court for any number of reasons. The top of the page will be labeled either “concurrence” or “dissent” and will also state which justice or justices authored it. There may be more than one concurrence or dissent in an opinion. </p>
<p>While a concurrence and dissent are important records of some justices’ thinking on the issue, they are not part of the opinion. The content of a Supreme Court opinion is considered “binding precedent,” which means all other courts must follow this decision in the opinion. The concurrence and dissent are not binding, meaning no court is obligated to follow those decisions. However, they are both valuable records and can provide guidance for future legal cases about how justices are likely to view certain legal arguments.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Multiple professional looking video cameras and other equipment are stationed closely together outside the Supreme Court on a grey day. A few people also stand with the equipment, with one woman looking toward a camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569654/original/file-20240116-29-arpcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">TV camera crews wait in front of the Supreme Court building on May 2, 2022, shortly before the court announced its opinion on whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/camera-crews-station-in-front-of-the-u-s-supreme-court-news-photo/1395127141?adppopup=true">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How do I make sense of the opinion?</h2>
<p>The opinion is generally made up of four parts: the facts, the issue, the holding and the reasoning. These parts may not be specifically identified with headers, but they are the main ingredients of the opinion. Here’s what each part means.</p>
<p><strong>Facts:</strong> This is a summary of who is suing whom about what and why. It may also describe which lower court or courts decided the issue and how it was decided before the case arrived at the Supreme Court. You’ll find the facts at the beginning of the opinion.</p>
<p><strong>Issue:</strong> This is the question the court is being asked to decide. It might be located at the start of the opinion or at the end of the facts. Sometimes, there may be more than one issue. To find the issue(s), look for key phrases like:
The question before us is …
We are asked to decide if …
We consider the question whether …</p>
<p><strong>Holding:</strong> This is the court’s answer to the question(s) posed. This answer will serve as precedent to guide future cases on this topic at both the Supreme Court as well as lower courts. Sometimes the holding can be found right after the issue. Other times, it appears much later in the opinion or at the end. Some key phrases identifying the holding:
Therefore we conclude …
We hold …
We find …</p>
<p><strong>Reasoning:</strong> Most of the opinion will be the reasoning. The reasoning explains how the court reached its holding. The court may explain which existing precedent – holdings from prior Supreme Court cases – applies. The court may also spend time explaining how to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/598us2r28_5h26.pdf">interpret language in a federal statute</a> or balance conflicting rights, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/562/443/#tab-opinion-1963460">such as one person’s right to privacy and another person’s right to free speech</a>. </p>
<h2>Other tips</h2>
<p>Opinions are often long, so skim first. Consider reading simply for organization, like finding the headings in a textbook chapter to understand the broad ideas. Where does each part begin and end? How many concurrences or dissents are there, and who wrote them?</p>
<p>The concurrence or dissent may not describe the issue the same way as in the opinion. This is precisely why a justice writes a separate explanation – they may feel that the court should have framed the issue differently and perhaps reached a different outcome. </p>
<p>Finally, do not expect to fully understand the content of the opinion at first glance. Even experienced legal professionals need time to carefully read the opinion. Instead, aim to get a feel for the organization and nuance of the opinion. These techniques will give you some footing to begin to make sense of the case and find the parts that are of interest to you.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilisabeth S. Bornstein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a year when the Supreme Court deals with many high-profile cases, a professor who teaches law to undergraduates describes how to read the court’s opinions.Ilisabeth S. Bornstein, Lecturer in Legal Studies, Bryant UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130592023-09-13T12:27:26Z2023-09-13T12:27:26ZHow September 1993, when Latter-day Saints leaders disciplined six dissidents, continues to trouble the church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547132/original/file-20230908-15-io327w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C1977%2C1494&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three decades later, the expulsions of six Latter-day Saints members still have an impact.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/salt-lake-temple-royalty-free-image/532531061?phrase=mormon+excommunicate&adppopup=true">RiverNorthPhotography/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Lavina Fielding Anderson knew she was delivering a bombshell. Anderson, a dedicated Mormon who had previously edited the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ magazines, was also a scholar, writer and feminist. And on this day in August 1992, she was giving a conference presentation detailing how Latter-day Saints authorities had repeatedly <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-lds-intellectual-community-and-church-leadership-a-contemporary-chronology">silenced dissenting congregants</a>. She punctuated her remarks with the revelation that the church had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/22/us/religion-notes.html?searchResultPosition=1">created files</a> on members who had publicly criticized the church – files <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/08/15/mormon-church-keeps-files-on-its-dissenters/">a spokesman later acknowledged</a>.</p>
<p>Thirteen months later, in September 1993, six intellectuals <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/19/us/mormons-penalize-dissident-members.html">were either excommunicated or disfellowshipped from the faith</a>, including Anderson. The episode around the “September Six,” as they were soon known, remains a controversial topic within LDS communities, especially since many of the underlying tensions remain in place today. </p>
<p>Many religious traditions face moments of crisis between intellectual freedom and control. That has been true for the LDS church ever since its early years, <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498657">the focus of my forthcoming book</a> – but September 1993, 30 years ago this month, is one of the more poignant moments. Understanding the episode and its aftermath reveals cultural fissures that one of America’s largest homegrown religions still wrestles with today.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older woman in a coat and blue dress sings into a microphone on an overcast day, with a small group of women visible behind her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547141/original/file-20230908-23-h62afq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nadine Doole leads over 500 people in song as they gathered in support of the ‘Ordain Women’ movement within the LDS church in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nadine-doole-leads-over-500-people-in-song-that-were-news-photo/482981025?adppopup=true">George Frey/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Confronting change</h2>
<p>American Christians have faced difficult questions concerning faith, reason and authority throughout the 20th century. Incidents like <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1100/scopes-monkey-trial">the famous Scopes “monkey trial</a>” about teaching evolution in schools illustrated believers’ struggles to reconcile biblical teachings with modern philosophy, modern science and social changes.</p>
<p>Mormons were no exception, and some worried the faith was losing its moorings. Questions about the church’s direction often centered around gender, as a growing number of LDS women <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V06N02_7.pdf">sought to soften</a> the church’s patriarchal practices and doctrines. Only men are allowed to hold the priesthood, for instance, and they can serve in more leadership positions than women.</p>
<p>A circle of moderate reformers in Boston during the 1970s founded a new magazine called <a href="https://exponentii.org/history/">Exponent II</a>, dedicated to being both faithful and feminist. Later, more radical activists took further steps, like <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/lds-women-and-priesthood-the-historical-relationship-of-mormon-women-and-priesthood/">calling for women’s ordination</a>.</p>
<p>LDS leaders increasingly saw these movements as <a href="https://www.signaturebooks.com/books/p/the-september-six">threats to their authority and doctrine</a>. The church had grown increasingly intertwined with the religious right side of the U.S. culture wars, defending what they defined as the “traditional” family: a working husband, <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/the-latter-day-saint-woman-basic-manual-for-women-part-a/women-in-the-church/lesson-14-the-latter-day-saint-woman?lang=eng">a stay-at-home wife</a> and children.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of around a dozen women holding signs at a protest in the snow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547137/original/file-20230908-15-v2nuih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A small group of demonstrators in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment – which the LDS church opposed – gather in Washington, D.C., in 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-d-c-a-small-group-of-pro-era-demonstrators-news-photo/515410736?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>By the time Anderson <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/22/us/religion-notes.html">delivered her address</a> at the Sunstone symposium in Salt Lake City, the conflict’s stakes were clear. In 1989, one LDS apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, had urged Latter-day Saints <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1989/04/alternate-voices?lang=eng">not to listen to “alternative voices</a>.” Two years later, top leaders <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1991/11/news-of-the-church/statement-on-symposia?lang=eng">issued a statement</a> that denounced gatherings at which participants explicitly critiqued the faith.</p>
<p>But instead of dampening activism, the statements escalated reformers’ resolve. <a href="https://mormonarts.lib.byu.edu/people/maxine-hanks/">Feminist theologian Maxine Hanks</a> published <a href="https://www.signaturebooks.com/books/p/women-and-authority">an explosive volume</a>, “Women and Authority,” in 1992. It included chapters on issues such as the divine feminine, whom the church calls “<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng">Heavenly Mother</a>,” but discourages members from investigating or worshiping. Anderson then <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-lds-intellectual-community-and-church-leadership-a-contemporary-chronology/">published her paper</a> on authorities’ efforts to rein in dissent a few months later.</p>
<h2>Cutting off the six</h2>
<p>Church leaders decided to take action. It was time to <a href="https://archive.org/details/coordinating_council_1993_boyd_k_packer/page/n1/mode/2up">root out the three “major invasions</a>,” apostle Boyd K. Packer declared in May 1993: “the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement” and “the so-called scholars or intellectuals.” </p>
<p>In total, at least six prominent intellectuals <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120215064851/https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/092-65-79.pdf">were disciplined</a> that September, although the church <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-09-18-me-36398-story.html">denied that it was a coordinated purge</a>. Anderson and Hanks were both excommunicated. So was lawyer <a href="https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/paul-toscano/">Paul Toscano</a>, who had criticized church leaders, as well as historian <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/04/22/historian-d-micheal-quinn/">D. Michael Quinn</a>. Lynne Whitesides, the president of an LDS feminist group, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/02/us/as-mormon-church-grows-so-does-dissent-from-feminists-and-scholars.html">was disfellowshipped</a> because of her writings on Heavenly Mother. The final target was Avraham Gileadi, a more conservative scholar whose biblical interpretations were deemed out of line. </p>
<p>The severing did not end there. Janice Allred, a feminist theologian, <a href="https://www.deseret.com/1995/5/11/19174734/lds-excommunicate-feminist-appeal-planned">was cut off in 1995</a>. Her sister Margaret Toscano, who was also Paul Toscano’s wife, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mormons-toscano/">was excommunicated in 2000</a>. Several professors who were feminists or had criticized the church <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/11/us/academic-freedom-is-raised-as-an-issue-in-denials-of-tenure.html">were denied tenure</a> <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1996/07/06/brigham-young-fires-professor-for-heavenly-mother-reference/">or were fired from Brigham Young University</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A few students walk by a sign for Brigham Young University with snowy mountains in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547136/original/file-20230908-17-vuv5u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BYU faculty and policies have often been focal points in debates over gender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-walks-past-the-entrance-of-brigham-young-news-photo/140251396?adppopup=true">George Frey/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The disciplinary actions garnered national attention. Outside critics denounced them as an inquisition. The church has a policy of not commenting on <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-discipline#">disciplinary measures</a>, but internal defenders welcomed what they deemed to be necessary, if tragic, actions.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, leaders solidified their doctrines on gender. In 1995, authorities issued a document titled “<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng">The Family: A Proclamation to the World</a>,” which reaffirmed beliefs such as one that fathers should “preside” over families.</p>
<h2>A new chapter</h2>
<p>The “September Six” have taken divergent routes. Gileadi was quickly rebaptized, and Hanks <a href="https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=54514350&itype=cmsid">rejoined the faith</a> in 2012, though she never repudiated her feminism. Yet others never reentered the fold, even as several continued to affirm <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/09/05/writer-excommunicated/">their belief in core doctrines</a>. </p>
<p>The era had a chilling effect on the broader movement for gender reform. “<a href="https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?itype=storyID&id=100E3AC144F972CC">Where have all the Mormon feminists gone?</a>” the Salt Lake Tribune asked in 2003. Some observers spoke of <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-september-six-and-the-lost-generation-of-mormon-studies/">a “lost generation” of young scholars</a> who did not see a future within the faith.</p>
<p>Yet the internet resurrected these debates. Digital connections eased access to information <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/us/some-mormons-search-the-web-and-find-doubt.html">outside official channels</a> and provided a platform for unorthodox voices. In response, some recent church initiatives have attempted to bring more transparency to controversial issues <a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/">about founder Joseph Smith’s life</a> and <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/10/27/for-mormons-in-a-faith-crisis-the-gospel-topics-essays-try-to-answer-the-hard-questions/">church teachings</a>.</p>
<p>There have been more recent examples of the church disciplining dissenting members, however. Activist Kate Kelly, who agitated for women’s ordination, <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/06/kate-kelly-founder-of-ordain-women-excommunicated-by-the-mormon-church.html">was cut off</a> in 2014. John Dehlin, a podcaster who cultivated a large following of Latter-day Saints who question fundamental church teachings, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/john-dehlin-popular-mormon-podcaster-excommunicated-church-n303656">soon followed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a red jacket smiles while speaking into a microphone as people snap photos of her outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547113/original/file-20230908-21-n5gp3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Kate Kelly talks to supporters on April 5, 2014, as they ask church leaders to open up an all-male conference session to women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kate-kelly-founder-of-ordain-women-talks-to-over-500-news-photo/482981019?adppopup=true">George Frey/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>And the church remains firm on culture war topics related to gender: <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/12/01/new-church-office-cutting-faculty-members-brigham-young">not only homosexuality</a>, but also issues related to <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2021/05/08/latter-day-saints-are/">Heavenly Mother</a>. Church-owned universities have <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/12/01/new-church-office-cutting-faculty-members-brigham-young#">not renewed contracts</a> for several faculty who have been outspoken on LGBTQ and feminist issues, and they now require <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/03/10/new-employment-policy/">a statement of ecclesiastical support</a> from professors. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-jeffrey-r-holland-2021-byu-university-conference">an address to faculty at BYU</a> in 2021, apostle Jeffery R. Holland <a href="https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dallin-h-oaks/challenges-mission-brigham-young-university/">quoted Apostle Oaks</a>, encouraging more metaphorical “musket fire” in defense of LDS doctrine, particularly about marriage and families – language that <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/03/17/thousands-oppose-an-lds-church/">many people criticized</a> as dangerous. It is essential for the school to “stay in harmony with the Lord’s anointed, those whom He has designated to declare Church doctrine,” Holland said. </p>
<p>As in 1993, the time of the September Six, today the LDS church seems eager to make sure that intellectuals are loyal to approved doctrine, especially concerning gender and sexuality – issues that other religious groups must grapple with as well, from calls for women’s ordination <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/07/25/synod-raises-hopes-for-long-sought-recognition-of-women-in-the-catholic-church/">in the Catholic Church</a> to debate over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/nyregion/yeshiva-university-ny-public-funds.html?searchResultPosition=7">LGBTQ student groups</a> at an Orthodox Jewish university. Even if “purges” appear far-fetched today, the underlying tensions remain pressing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Park does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many faiths face conflicts over dissent and institutional control. In Latter-day Saints history, the episode around the ‘September Six’ is particularly memorable.Benjamin Park, Associate Professor of History, Sam Houston State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1923212022-12-13T13:19:55Z2022-12-13T13:19:55ZIranian protesters turn to TikTok to get their message past government censors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496835/original/file-20221122-13-zlg2uv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1038%2C748&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scenes of protest in Iran are difficult to get out of the country, but TikTok users are rising to the challenge.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen capture by The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Images of the protests that followed the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62954648">death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini</a> on Sept. 16, 2022, in Iran and reports of the government’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/11/19/23466689/brutal-suppression-irans-regime-fails-to-contain-mass-protests">brutal crackdown</a> have circulated widely on social media. This flow of information comes despite efforts by the Iranian regime to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/iran-mahsa-amini-internet-shutdown/">throttle internet access</a> and censor information leaving the country.</p>
<p>One effective method the protesters have hit on has been to use TikTok, the video-sharing app better known for young people posting clips of themselves singing and dancing. The way video clips are shared on the social media platform and the protesters’ clever use of labeling have helped activists circumvent the information blockade of Iran’s tech-savvy security services and reach a wide audience.</p>
<p>As a researcher who studies <a href="https://faculty.txst.edu/profile/1922004/activity/scholarly-creative">young people and participatory culture</a> – art and information produced by nonspecialists, including fan fiction and citizen journalism – I believe that TikTok is proving to be an effective tool of political activism in the face of severe repression. </p>
<p>Key to its effectiveness is how TikTok works. Each TikTok video recorded by the user is typically 60 seconds or shorter and loops when finished. Other users can edit or “stitch” someone else’s TikTok video into their own. Users can also create a split screen or “duet” TikTok video, with the original video on one side of the screen and their own on the other.</p>
<h2>Stitching and duetting</h2>
<p>To use TikTok, a protester in Iran typically uses multihop virtual private networks, meaning VPNs that send internet traffic through multiple servers, to route around <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/iran-protests-2022-internet-shutdown-whatsapp/">government internet blackouts</a> just long enough to post a video to TikTok. There, TikTok users who support the protester “like” the video thousands of times, stitch it into other videos, and duet it to then be liked, stitched and duetted again and again.</p>
<p>In the process, identifying information about the original poster is obscured. Within minutes the protester becomes anonymous even as the message spreads. Even if the video is flagged for violating <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines?lang=en">TikTok’s community guidelines</a>, its sharers like and incorporate its duets too quickly for TikTok to remove the original content from the platform completely.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7166795068643249450?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@elica.lebon/video/7147104991767989547?_r=1&_t=8WjhJQEpgY2&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7147104991767989547">one video</a> that has received over 620,000 views, Iranian-American attorney Elica Le Bon urges viewers to share all Iranian content to make sure the world keeps paying attention. In <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@gal_lynette/video/7146189758291594539?_r=1&_t=8WjgPS0de4B&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7146189758291594539">another</a>, TikTok user @gal_lynette directs her 35,000 followers to instantly duet videos made by Iranian women as a form of citizen journalism to “keep their reporting – their story … alive.” </p>
<h2>Gaming the algorithms</h2>
<p>Elsewhere, TikTok user <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@m0rr1gu?lang=en">@m0rr1gu</a> tells her 44,000 followers how to share that content without triggering community guidelines violations. This advice includes using “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/08/algospeak-tiktok-le-dollar-bean/">algospeak</a>,” or code, for bypassing community guidelines violations. For TikTokkers boosting Iranian content, this means altering the word “Iran” in captions, among other tactics.</p>
<p>Gaming TikTok’s algorithm helps ensure that the people most likely to share this content can find it. For example, Iranian-American TikTokker Yeganeh Mafaher tapped a recent celebrity scandal’s virality by titling a video “<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@littleyeg/video/7145873395664604459?_r=1&_t=8WjhmccC0lC&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7145873395664604459">Adam Levine Also DMd Me</a>,” only to announce “Okay, now that I have your attention, the internet is going to be cut off in Ir@n.”</p>
<p>By removing the word “Iran” but leaving Levine’s name searchable, Yeganeh was gaming the algorithm to help her retain her viewers who were seeking Iranian content while also “<a href="https://doaj.org/article/09342ded736c45c3a6c3b8a56a9ac200">hashbaiting</a>” additional users who were following the celebrity scandal. Up to that point, Yeganeh’s most-viewed revolution-related video was a history of hijab laws that garnered nearly 341,000 views. The Levine video exceeded 1.6 million.</p>
<p>Yeganeh’s account had previously recorded her experiences as an Iranian-American citizen and attracted followers interested in Iranian culture. After Amini’s death, she credited her followers with boosting her account to the point that she was interviewed by cable news host Chris Cuomo on NewsNation to discuss the uprising.</p>
<h2>Song of a movement</h2>
<p>A key element of a TikTok video is its audio track or “sound,” often a song that provides a thematic thread across stitched and duetted videos. The sound of many of the videos depicting the events in Iran, with more than 11.7 million views, is the song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0th9_v-BbUI">Baraye</a>” by Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour.</p>
<p>The song’s lyrics are derived from a string of Farsi tweets that detail Iranians’ reasons for revolution. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/oct/04/iran-arrests-musician-anthem-iran-protests-viral-mahsa-amini-shervin-hajipour-baraye">Hajipour was detained</a> because of the song but was later released. “Baraye” has since become a global protest ballad.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z8xXiqyfBg0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour’s protest song ‘Baraye’ has become the unofficial anthem of the uprising.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Worried for Hajipour’s safety, TikTokkers supporting the uprising united in an effort to shield him from backlash by posting thousands of videos directing users to nominate “Baraye” for the Grammys’ newest special merits award, <a href="https://songforsocialchange.grammy.com/">best song for social change</a>. In October, the song had <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-10/iran-protest-song-baraye-dominates-grammy-nominations-for-new-award">received 83% of the 115,000 nominations</a>, which increased international attention on Hajipour and the song. Baraye <a href="https://variety.com/2023/global/news/iran-protest-song-baraye-grammy-amnesty-jailed-activists-1235514072/">went on to win</a> the social change Grammy on Feb. 5, 2023.</p>
<p>“Baraye” and related hashtags are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/style/tiktok-teen-politics-gen-z.html">shared resources</a> that help make TikTok a platform for <a href="https://ypp.dmlcentral.net/sites/default/files/publications/YPP_WorkinPapers_Paper01_8.24.17.pdf">participatory politics</a>. As the world watches Iran, TikTokkers game the platform’s algorithms to amplify Iranians’ videos beyond the reach of the Iranian government.</p>
<p>There are active TikTok campaigns for everything from Grammy nominations to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@gghamari/video/7148198520661544198?_r=1&_t=8Wjfimj3Zco&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7148198520661544198">scripting emails to local representatives</a> and <a href="http://Tinyurl.com/2p8nhrac">global leaders</a>. Videos teach laypeople to discreetly host Iranian web traffic and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sepehr_for_freedom/video/7156292246332034346?_r=1&_t=8WjfX4RpA2o&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7156292246332034346">direct users to local protests</a>. They share petitions for G-7 leaders to <a href="https://www.change.org/p/g7-leaders-expel-iran-s-diplomats-demand-that-political-prisoners-be-freed">expel Iran’s diplomats</a> and the U.N. to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/end-the-protest-bloodshed-in-iran/">hold the Iranian government accountable</a> for its crimes against international law. As <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63939428">state executions of protesters have begun in Iran</a>, the #StopExecutionsInIran campaign has clocked over 100 million views on TikTok.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/siCHErRPVMw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The ‘TikTok generation’ is at the forefront of the protests in Iran.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These interactive tools and the platform’s algorithm for promoting content are what transformed TikTok from teen dance app to powerful global platform for protest and political action. While much is uncertain as Iranians fight for change and their supporters worldwide flood an unlikely platform to boost their voices, one thing seems likely: The revolution may not be televised, but it will be liked, stitched and duetted.</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to include the song Baraye’s Grammy win.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Whitney Shylee May does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The app best known for kids sharing video clips of themselves singing and dancing has become a powerful tool for activists speaking out against repression in Iran.Whitney Shylee May, Ph.D. candidate in American Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770472022-02-15T20:49:14Z2022-02-15T20:49:14ZProtecting infrastructure from the ‘freedom convoy’ could forever silence legitimate dissent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446528/original/file-20220215-23-185h97i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5181%2C2900&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traffic flows over the Ambassador Bridge joining Detroit and Windsor, Ont., a day after protesters who were blocking it were cleared by police under Ontario's declaration of emergency. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Invocation of emergency measures may succeed in breaking the “freedom convoy” siege of Ottawa and restoring the flow of people and goods across the Canada-United States border (estimated to be <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/windsor-bridge-blockade-1.6344714">$300 million a day</a> at the Ambassador Bridge alone). </p>
<p>But we should be concerned that powers instituted in the midst of crises could become permanent fixtures. A plausible outcome of the current crisis is enhanced police powers to stifle legitimate public dissent in the future.</p>
<p>Despite the gravity of Emergencies Act being invoked temporarily at the federal level for the first time, this outcome is most pernicuous at the provincial level. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-in-crisis-why-justin-trudeau-has-invoked-the-emergencies-act-to-end-trucker-protests-177017">Canada in crisis: Why Justin Trudeau has invoked the Emergencies Act to end trucker protests</a>
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<p>Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-announcement-ontario-protests-1.6347810">declaration of emergency</a> on Feb. 11 contained provisions for enhanced police powers in relation to “critical infrastructure” described as “international border crossings, 400-series highways, airports, ports, bridges and railways.” </p>
<p>Ford said he had “every intention” to make the temporary emergency measures pertaining to critical infrastructure “permanent in law” as soon as possible.</p>
<h2>Assigning points to infrastructure risks</h2>
<p>For much of the Cold War, the federal government operated <a href="https://security.frontline.online/content/protection-resilience">a civil defence program known as the vital points program</a>, which is a rough precursor to what we recognize today as critical infrastructure. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2019.5">What I’ve learned</a> from researching 50 years of these efforts is that what’s deemed “vital,” “essential” and “critical” to a country is shaped by expectations of the threats and sources of vulnerability that prevail in a given period. </p>
<p>For example, the list of vital points compiled in 1958 (about 150) to protect civilian industry from sabotage is quite different from the list of vital points crafted only a few years later when the threat of a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/topic/cold-war-culture-the-nuclear-fear-of-the-1950s-and-1960s">nuclear strike became a distinct possibility</a> (about 500). It looked different yet again in the 1970s after the <a href="https://historyofrights.ca/history/october-crisis/">FLQ crisis (about 8,000)</a>. </p>
<p>Each of these lists are glimpses at what was deemed to be important in relation to political calculations on threats, vulnerabilities and collective priorities of the time.</p>
<p>Today there are multiple sources of danger to society: climate change, pandemics and extremist-driven social unrest directed at democratic institutions. Yet the focus on distinct risks to society is almost exclusively economic in nature, particularly the national competitiveness of our largest industries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flooded highway with mountains in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446540/original/file-20220215-25-10p4ui8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Highway 1 is seen covered in flood waters looking towards Chilliwack, B.C., in November 2021 after massive rainfall and flooding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other words, in an era of neoliberal economic expansion in which global competitiveness is paramount, what gets counted as “critical” infrastructure is what links local and regional economic activity to global economic flows. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">What exactly is neoliberalism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While this may seem as obvious and invisible as water is to a fish, the benefit of a historical perspective is in revealing how contingent, fragile and above all recent this particular understanding of critical infrastructure is. </p>
<p>And made invisible in these calculations are the more endemic sources of harm that afflict our most vulnerable and politically powerless populations, such as the lack of safe drinking water for Indigenous and northern communities in Ontario. This and other infrastructure deficits that can be life-or-death for some communities literally do not get accounted for in what is considered “critical” today.</p>
<h2>Enhances police powers</h2>
<p>Ford’s emergency order is intended to enhance police powers in relation to the material systems of global capitalism.</p>
<p>Just look at the Toronto G20 protests for a cautionary tale of how these powers can be misused. The province drew upon the <a href="http://www.slaw.ca/2010/07/02/what-is-the-public-works-protection-act-anyway/">Public Works Protection Act</a> of 1939, which enhanced police powers to secure “any railway, canal, highway, bridge, power works, or any other public works.” </p>
<p>While the public works designation applied to the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre and surrounding security fence, deliberate obfuscation over the limits of the designation led police to arrest people across the downtown core, which contributed to the largest <a href="https://www.oiprd.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/G20-Systemic-Review-2012_E-2.pdf">mass arrests</a> in Canadian history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police surround and club protesters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446539/original/file-20220215-4191-e4rir7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police club a crowd of activists during the protest at the G20 Summit in Toronto in June 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And even if comparable powers are used with restraint today, the sheer density of locales that could be construed as “critical” to some form of important economic activity could make cities like Toronto, Vancouver or Montréal effectively no-go zones for displays of public dissent. </p>
<p>Protests, if allowed to occur at all, will have fewer and less strategic places to be visible at all.</p>
<h2>Shutting down dissent</h2>
<p>Legislation in other provinces, such as Alberta’s <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/protecting-critical-infrastructure.aspx">Critical Infrastructure Defence Act</a>, may provide a model for what Ford envisions for Ontario. Or we may see the cobbling together of existing laws to regulate public dissent in the vicinity of critical infrastructure. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Police swarm protesters near a railway crossing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446527/original/file-20220215-17-1bjzlrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ontario Provincial Police officers make arrests at a 2020 rail blockade in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory as they protest in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en Nation hereditary chiefs attempting to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline on their traditional territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Who loses most? Racialized and marginalized populations whose protest movements who are already subject to ongoing forms of monitoring, infiltration, violence and pre-emptive police action that were conspicuously missing from the convoy now occupying Ottawa. </p>
<p>For them, protesting the conditions of white settler liberalism may be further constrained by enhanced powers to secure critical infrastructure once the immediate crisis has passed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Boyle receives funding from the University of Waterloo and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Racialized and marginalized populations whose protest movements are already subject to ongoing forms of monitoring, infiltration and pre-emptive police action are at risk from the convoy crisis.Philip Boyle, Associate Professor, Public Safety, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645192021-07-20T12:14:34Z2021-07-20T12:14:34ZWe are all propagandists now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411986/original/file-20210719-25-21fqhv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C18%2C6173%2C4097&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rally -- fed by citizen-spread misinformation and disinformation -- that turned into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pro-trump-protesters-gather-in-front-of-the-u-s-capitol-news-photo/1230457865?adppopup=true">Jon Cherry/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. is in an information war with itself. The <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/06/19/public-highly-critical-of-state-of-political-discourse-in-the-u-s/">public sphere, where Americans discuss public issues, is broken</a>. There’s little discussion – and lots of fighting. </p>
<p>One reason why: Persuasion is difficult, slow and time-consuming – it doesn’t make <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X">good television</a> or social media content – and so there aren’t a lot of good examples of it in our public discourse. </p>
<p>What’s worse, a new form of propaganda has emerged – and it’s enlisted us all as propagandists.</p>
<h2>Persuasion versus propaganda</h2>
<p>I <a href="https://www.jennifermercieca.com/teaching">teach classes</a> on political communication and propaganda in America. Here’s the difference between the two:</p>
<p>Political communication is persuasion used in politics. It helps to facilitate the democratic process. </p>
<p>Propaganda is communication as force; it’s designed for warfare. Propaganda is anti-democratic because it influences while using strategies like fear appeals, disinformation, conspiracy theory and more. </p>
<p>Since there are few examples of persuasion in our public sphere these days, it is difficult to know the difference between persuasion and propaganda. That’s worrisome because politics is not war, so political communication isn’t – and <a href="https://theaapc.org/member-center/code-of-ethics/">shouldn’t be</a> – the same as propaganda.</p>
<h2>The manufacture of consent</h2>
<p>Mass propaganda techniques emerged with <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/the-great-war-master-of-american-propaganda/">mass communication technologies</a> like <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wwipos/background.html">posters</a>, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-rotogravures/articles-and-essays/pictures-as-propaganda/">pictures</a> and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-rotogravures/articles-and-essays/pictures-as-propaganda/">movies</a> during the first World War. </p>
<p>That old propaganda model was designed by political elites to “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Public_Opinion.html?id=ZQsaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">manufacture consent</a>” at home so that citizens would support the war, and to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1245869">demoralize</a> the enemy abroad.</p>
<p>According <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213835/media-control-by-noam-chomsky/">to linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky</a>, the manufacture of consent was believed by elites to be necessary because they thought “the mass of the public are just too stupid to be able to understand things…We have to tame the bewildered herd, not allow the bewildered herd to rage and trample and destroy things.”</p>
<p>During World War I, George Creel’s <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/063.html">Committee on Public Information</a>, a federal agency, oversaw the production of pro-war films like the 1918 silent film “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26PI3XbIu_A">America’s Answer</a>.” When Americans went to see the film in theaters, they would often encounter a speech from one of the “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-experiences/about-this-exhibition/over-here/surveillance-and-censorship/four-minute-men/">Four Minute Men</a>” – the local citizens whom Creel enlisted to give patriotic speeches during the four minutes it took to change the movie reels.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411579/original/file-20210715-25-psogra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster for ‘America’s Answer,’ the second official United States war film.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After World War I, according to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499">Herman and Chomsky</a>, all sorts of elites turned to propaganda to “tame the bewildered herd.” The old propaganda was good at taming citizens. But there was a nasty side effect that played out over almost a century of its use: disengagement. Political communication <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584600050178924">scholars</a> in the 1990s and early 2000s worried about what they saw as <a href="http://bowlingalone.com/">the crisis in democracy, which was civic disengagement</a> characterized by low voter turnout, low political party affiliation and rising distrust, cynicism and disinterest in politics.</p>
<h2>The manufacture of dissent</h2>
<p>The elite-controlled old vertical propaganda model couldn’t withstand the changes in communication brought on by the new <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191803093.001.0001/acref-9780191803093-e-1054">participatory media</a> – first talk radio, then cable, email, blogs, chats, texts, video and social media.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191803093.001.0001/acref-9780191803093-e-1054">According to recent Pew</a> research, 93% of Americans are connected to the internet and 82% of Americans <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/">are connected to social media</a>. We now all have direct access to communicate in the public sphere – and, if we choose, to create, circulate and amplify propaganda.</p>
<p>A lot of people use their social media connections and platforms to knowingly and unknowingly spread misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy and partisan talking points – all forms of propaganda. We’re all propagandists now.</p>
<p>Rather than the elite manufacturing consent, a new propaganda model has emerged in the 21st century: what I call the “manufacture of dissent.” </p>
<h2>New crisis in democracy</h2>
<p>The “manufacture of dissent” model takes advantage of our individual abilities to produce, circulate and amplify propaganda. It sets us in motion to, in Chomsky’s words, “rage and trample and destroy things.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199764419.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199764419-e-009?rskey=ZaQJb0&result=3">The new propaganda can emerge from anyone, anywhere</a> – and it is <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html">designed to create chaos</a> so no one knows whom to trust or what is true. </p>
<p>Now we have a new crisis in democracy.</p>
<p>Citizens are called upon and trained by political parties, media, advocacy organizations, platforms, corporations – and more – to become propagandists, even without realizing it. Though both sides of the political spectrum can and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130305100620/http://andrewboyd.com/truth-is-a-virus-meme-warfare-and-the-billionaires-for-bush-or-gore/">have used</a> the new propaganda, it has been embraced more on the right, <a href="https://www.mrc.org/about">largely to counter</a> the old manufacture of consent model embraced by the mainstream. </p>
<p>For example, the slogan topping daily emails sent by <a href="https://www.conservativehq.org/">ConservativeHQ</a>, a longstanding and influential conservative news blog, says, “The home for grassroots conservatives leading the battle to educate and mobilize family, friends, neighbors, and others to defeat the anti-God, anti-America, Marxist New Democrats.” </p>
<p>From this perspective, politics is a “battle,” it’s warfare and ConservativeHQ’s readers can fight by educating and mobilizing – by spreading ConservativeHQ’s propaganda.</p>
<p>Likewise, the conspiracy website <a href="https://archives.infowars.com/about-alex-jones-show/">InfoWars</a> tells its audience “there’s a war on for your mind.” </p>
<p>Social media platforms train users to communicate as propagandists: Recent <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348611916_How_social_learning_amplifies_moral_outrage_expression_in_online_social_networks">research</a> shows that platform users learn to express polarizing emotions like outrage through “social learning.” Social media users are taught through app feedback – positive reinforcement through notifications – and peer-learning – what they see others do – to post outrage even if they don’t feel outraged and they don’t want to spread outrage. </p>
<p>The more outrage we see, the more outrage we post. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of ConservativeHQ's home page, where they describe themselves as '...leading the battle to educate and mobilize family, friends, neighbors, and others to defeat the anti-God, anti-America, Marxist New Democrats'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411983/original/file-20210719-27-it6eve.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of ConservativeHQ’s home page, where they describe themselves as ‘leading the battle to educate and mobilize family, friends, neighbors, and others to defeat the anti-God, anti-America, Marxist New Democrats.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.conservativehq.org/">https://www.conservativehq.org/</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dissent and distrust</h2>
<p>Today’s new model of propaganda has dangerous consequences.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/insurrection-at-the-capitol">The Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection</a> was a direct result of the manufacture of dissent. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22217822/us-capitol-attack-trump-right-wing-media-misinformation">Right-wing politicians, citizens and media used</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Outrage-Industry-Political-Incivility-Development/dp/0190498463">disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy, fear appeals and outrage</a> circulated via the old and new propaganda to cast doubt on the nation’s electoral process. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/magazine/trump-voter-fraud.html">President Trump primed</a> his followers to believe that the election would be “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvwrs3BIXqg">rigged</a>,” which led people to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/dangerously-viral-trump-supporters-spread-false-claims-74533348">look for and circulate so-called “evidence</a>” of fraud. </p>
<p>Courts and election officials certified the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/top-officials-elections-most-secure-66f9361084ccbc461e3bbf42861057a5">integrity of the election</a>. Conspiracists saw that as further evidence of the “plot” and supported <a href="https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1349046338927919105">Trump’s Big Lie</a> that the election had been stolen. </p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/how-trump-supporters-spread-false-claims-8cf62c15893c4e8878a471e99ee81459">Trump’s supporters amplified</a> the conspiracy via <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00257-y">posts</a> on social media, videos, text messages, emails and secret groups – spreading <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-55009950">doubt</a> about the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2021/01/11/the-role-of-misinformation-in-trumps-insurrection/">election</a> to their friends, neighbors and audiences.</p>
<p>When Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/capitol-mob-trump-supporters.html">told people</a> to march on the Capitol to <a href="https://twitter.com/jenmercieca/status/1349051561578795008">defend</a> their freedom, they did. </p>
<h2>Politics is war</h2>
<p>But the Big Lie that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was merely part of an even bigger lie. </p>
<p>Since the 1990s and the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/">emergence</a> of the manufacture of dissent, right-wing propaganda’s <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/77078/the-propaganda-playbook-a-section-by-section-dissection-of-tucker-carlsons-communication-strategy/">major premise</a> has been that “politics is war and the enemy cheats.” Every news story from that perspective is an elaboration on that theme, including those about the 2020 election. </p>
<p>When politics is seen as war and the enemy can’t be trusted, then every election is seen as dire and the electoral process that denies your side victory is seen as unfair. According to a recent Monmouth University <a href="https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_062121/">poll</a>, 30% of Americans still believe Trump’s Big Lie.</p>
<p>The legitimacy of the American political system requires the actual consent of the governed, and its vitality and health requires we allow actual dissent. But our broken public sphere has neither. </p>
<p>Both come from persuasion, not propaganda.</p>
<p>This isn’t about nostalgia for traditional propaganda. Both the old propaganda and the new propaganda are anti-democratic. The old propaganda manufactured Americans’ consent, using communication as force to keep people disengaged and compliant. </p>
<p>The new propaganda manufactures dissent. It uses <a href="https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/175471">communication as force</a> to keep people engaged and outraged – and it sets us in motion to trample and destroy things.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-important">The Conversation’s most important politics headlines, in our Politics Weekly newsletter</a>.</em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Mercieca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>America’s public sphere is broken because propaganda has replaced political communication. How did we all become propagandists?Jennifer Mercieca, Professor of Communication, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614012021-06-25T12:21:38Z2021-06-25T12:21:38ZWhat today’s GOP demonstrates about the dangers of partisan conformity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408241/original/file-20210624-21-5fqk2f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C40%2C5422%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rep. Liz Cheney talks to reporters after House Republicans voted to remove her as conference chair on May 12, 2021, in Washington, D.C. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rep-liz-cheney-talks-to-reporters-after-house-republicans-news-photo/1317619853?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Directly following the 2020 election, Republicans seemed to be through with Donald Trump. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/12/power-up-mitch-mcconnell-still-isnt-talking-trump-will-he-vote-acquit-him/">Party leaders</a> stopped speaking to him and voters began <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-04-07/republicans-flee-the-gop-after-capitol-riots">abandoning the GOP</a>, apparently in reaction to Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. </p>
<p>Recently, things have changed. Republicans are once again <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-04/why-republican-politicians-stick-with-trump">aligning with Trump</a>, even to the point of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/us/politics/liz-cheney-elise-stefanik.html">alienating GOP members</a> who criticize Trump for <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-election-crime-of-the-century-gop_n_60a041e4e4b099ba75378944">lying about the election</a>.</p>
<p>The party’s reuniting with Trump may seem puzzling. A one-term and twice-impeached president with a consistently <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/01/18/trump-approval-rating-average-popularity/">low approval rating</a> ordinarily would be a liability. Yet the GOP’s return to Trump is not really a surprise, because of the psychological forces known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/political-polarization-is-about-feelings-not-facts-120397">belief polarization</a> and the <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/black-sheep-effect">black sheep effect</a>.</p>
<p>Though these forces explain why the GOP is sticking with Trump, they also spell trouble. </p>
<p>To be politically successful, coalitions need to be unified. But unity can go only so far. As pressures to unify mount among group members, groups tend to factionalize, splinter and shrink. </p>
<p>And as a coalition shrinks, it becomes less effective in the political arena. This dynamic teaches an important lesson about democracy: To avoid splintering, partisans need to take steps to welcome dissent within their groups. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="President Donald Trump in a blue suit and red tie, standing in front of two American flags and behind a lectern with the symbol of the North Carolina Republican Party." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408243/original/file-20210624-27-2g49wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the North Carolina GOP state convention on June 5, 2021, in Greenville, North Carolina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-u-s-president-donald-trump-addresses-the-ncgop-state-news-photo/1233293236?adppopup=true">Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From unity to extremism</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/openfordebate/2019/05/30/what-polarization-does-to-us/">Belief polarization</a> is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9760.00148">strikingly common</a> phenomenon. When people interact only with like-minded others, they transform into more extreme versions of themselves: They come to adopt more radical versions of their beliefs and grow more confident of the truth of those beliefs. </p>
<p>In shifting toward more extreme beliefs, people also come to see those with whom they disagree as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/10/10/partisan-antipathy-more-intense-more-personal/">irrational, corrupt and depraved</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, as I document in my forthcoming book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sustaining-democracy-9780197556450?cc=us&lang=en&">Sustaining Democracy</a>,” our more <a href="https://quillette.com/2019/05/17/conformity-and-the-dangers-of-group-polarization/">extreme selves are also more conformist</a>. Belief polarization leads group members to become both <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/24363/">more extreme and more alike</a>. As members grow more uniform, they also become increasingly resolute in enforcing conformity. Thus, the group becomes less tolerant of dissension within its ranks and more prone to expel deviating members.</p>
<p>As pressure to conform intensifies, the group also comes to define itself more strictly in terms of its <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034">animosity toward other groups</a>.</p>
<p>Eventually <a href="https://pcl.stanford.edu/research/2018/iyengar-degruyter-partisanship.pdf">group membership</a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12485">expands</a> into an entire <a href="http://theconversation.com/partisan-divide-creates-different-americas-separate-lives-122925">lifestyle</a> set in opposition to rivals. Belief-polarized groups thus insulate themselves from contact with outsiders. </p>
<p>This goes a long way toward explaining the divide between “red” and “blue” states. Even within diverse American cities <a href="https://theconversation.com/partisan-divide-creates-different-americas-separate-lives-122925">there tend to be distinct “liberal” and “conservative”</a> <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/republicans-democrats-cities/">districts</a>. </p>
<p>With this insularity comes increasing reliance on central leaders to establish the standards for authentic group membership. This makes the group internally hierarchical and increasingly fixated on consensus and purity. Belief-polarized groups are also highly susceptible to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420180102">black sheep effect</a>, the tendency to dislike lapsed or deviant members of one’s own group more intensely than one dislikes members of rival groups.</p>
<p>Thus, as belief polarization takes effect, true believers seek to punish and purge anyone appearing to be halfhearted, inauthentic or disloyal. The result is that belief-polarized groups tend to splinter and expel members until only the most extreme and devoted remain.</p>
<h2>GOP polarization</h2>
<p>From <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r474-OYAAAAJ&hl=en">my perspective as a political philosopher</a>, I believe this is where the GOP finds itself. </p>
<p>Belief polarization has become well entrenched within the party after at least four years of defining itself as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/09/995173008/the-republican-party-faces-an-identity-crisis">pro-Trump and in opposition to the Democratic Party</a>, leaving it in need of central leadership that can corral the membership and set the agenda.</p>
<p>This partly explains why Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from her leadership position in the GOP despite her being <a href="https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/members/C001109/117">more conservative</a> than the average Republican House member and having a record of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/07/cheney-was-more-loyal-trumps-agenda-than-stefanik-trump-only-cares-about-loyalty-him/">reliably voting</a> for Trump’s legislative agenda. </p>
<p>To the GOP rank and file, Cheney’s relentless criticism of Trump shows a lack of fidelity to the Republican Party. </p>
<p>Belief polarization also makes sense of why <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/14/996540840/new-yorks-elise-stefanik-installed-as-new-gop-conference-chair">Rep. Elise Stefanik was chosen as Cheney’s successor</a> in the House GOP leadership. Although Stefanik is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elise-stefanik-less-conservative-than-liz-cheney-but-pro-trump-2021-5">less conservative</a> than Cheney, she is a Trump loyalist who, in accepting her new leadership role, pledged to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/liz-cheney-replacement-gop-vote-05-14-21/h_a4f3bc7152ba5656dae273c6595a203f">forge “unity”</a> within the GOP. </p>
<p>As the context of her remarks made clear, by “unity” Stefanik meant uniformity in the party’s public stance. She was sure to indicate that the party would be “unified” in working with Trump, whom she thanked as a “crucial part of our Republican team.”</p>
<p>Belief polarization shows that there’s a price to pay for that kind of unity. Whatever short-term gains there may be in sticking together, eventually conformist groups fragment. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBl1pObgr4A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Former Vice President Mike Pence, heckled as a “traitor” at a recent conference for conservatives.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Be careful what you wish for</h2>
<p>Consequently, further turmoil within the GOP should be expected. With escalating pressure to conform to Trump’s vision of the party, more members will likely be shunned and disciplined as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-wishes-rinos-losers-world-happy-fathers-day-bizarre-statement-1602387">“RINOs”</a> – “Republicans In Name Only” – or worse, including former Vice President <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/559162-pence-heckled-with-calls-of-traitor-at-conservative-conference">Mike Pence</a>.</p>
<p>The current state of the GOP offers a broad lesson for democratic politics. In a democracy, anyone who wants an effective political voice needs to join a choir of similar voices. Political coalitions are thus an indispensable feature of a democratic society.</p>
<p>However, such alliances expose people to forces that push them to more extreme beliefs and drive them to insist upon conformity among allies.</p>
<p>Both pressures are debilitating for political objectives. In a democracy, movements seek to expand coalitions and broaden alliances. Belief polarization presses in the opposite direction, leading toward greater intensity of conviction, but ultimately toward the dissolution of coalitions.</p>
<p>Americans hear a lot about the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/senate-infrastructure-bipartisan-group-biden/2021/06/18/fb500868-d05d-11eb-a7f1-52b8870bef7c_story.html">need for bipartisanship</a>. Surely “reaching across the aisle” is an important part of democracy. </p>
<p>But such efforts are futile unless partisans welcome rather than punish dissent within their ranks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert B. Talisse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To be politically successful, coalitions need to be unified. But that pressure to unify can spell trouble for groups – as today’s GOP demonstrates.Robert B. Talisse, W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1444782020-08-28T12:22:01Z2020-08-28T12:22:01ZThe US has lots to lose and little to gain by banning TikTok and WeChat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355197/original/file-20200827-14-1jiph21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2995%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Banning TikTok and WeChat would cut off many Americans from popular social media.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChinaUSTrumpTiktokWechatOrder/7f2007a5786340f89657a9aac86d826a/photo?Query=TikTok%20AND%20WeChat&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=19&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/trump-admin-expands-its-war-on-chinese-tech">recently announced</a> bans on Chinese-owned social media platforms <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/en/">TikTok</a> and <a href="https://www.wechat.com/en/">WeChat</a> could have unintended consequences. The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/">orders</a> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/">bar</a> the apps from doing business in the U.S. or with U.S. persons or businesses after Sept. 20 and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/order-regarding-acquisition-musical-ly-bytedance-ltd/">require divestiture</a> of TikTok by Nov. 12.</p>
<p>The executive orders are based on national security grounds, though the threats cited are to citizens rather than the government. Foreign policy analysts see the move as part of the administration’s <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/07/trump-ban-tiktok-wechat-china-apps/">ongoing wrestling match</a> with the Chinese government for leverage in the global economy.</p>
<p>Whatever the motivation, as someone who researches both <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7994973">cybersecurity</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X19300417">technology policy</a>, I am not convinced that the benefits outweigh the costs. The bans threaten Americans’ freedom of speech, and may <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/alibaba-pulls-back-in-u-s-amid-trump-crackdown-on-chinese-investment">harm foreign investment</a> in the U.S. and American companies’ ability to sell software abroad, while delivering minimal privacy and cybersecurity benefits. </p>
<h2>National security threat?</h2>
<p>The threats posed by TikTok and WeChat, according to the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/">executive</a> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/">orders</a>, include the potential for the platforms to be used for disinformation campaigns by the Chinese government and to give the Chinese government access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Video of two young women on smartphone screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355198/original/file-20200827-14-yl0l3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">TikTok is an immensely popular social media platform that allows people to share short video clips.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thebetterday4u/46680455555/">Aaron Yoo/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The U.S. is not the only country concerned about Chinese apps. The Australian military <a href="https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/chinas-wechat-gets-banned-by-the-overseas-military-on-security-worries/">accused WeChat</a>, a messaging, social media and mobile payment app, of acting as spyware, saying the app was caught sending data to Chinese Intelligence servers.</p>
<p>Disinformation campaigns may be of particular concern, due to the upcoming election and the impact of the alleged “sweeping and systematic” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf">Russian interference</a> in the 2016 elections. The potential for <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-ban-us-national-security-risk/">espionage</a> is less pronounced, given that the apps access basic contact information and details about the videos Americans watch and the topics they search on, and not more sensitive data.</p>
<p>But banning the apps and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/order-regarding-acquisition-musical-ly-bytedance-ltd/">requiring Chinese divestiture</a> also has a national security downside. It <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-ban-us-national-security-risk/">damages the U.S.’s moral authority</a> to push for free speech and democracy abroad. Critics have frequently contended that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-has-lost-moral-authority-under-trump-the-mueller-report-gives-some-back/2019/04/18/5bd6683c-6227-11e9-9ff2-abc984dc9eec_story.html">America’s moral authority</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/opinions/united-states-moral-credibility-is-badly-tarnished-campbell/index.html">has been severely damaged</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/opinion/donald-trump-and-americas-moral-authority.html">during the Trump administration</a> and this action could arguably add to the decline.</p>
<h2>Protecting personal information</h2>
<p>The administration’s principal argument against TikTok is that it collects Americans’ personal data and could provide it to the Chinese government. The executive order states that this <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-tiktok/">could allow China</a> to track the locations of federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage. </p>
<p>Skeptics have argued that the government <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tiktok-ban-leave-giant-social-182833842.html">hasn’t presented clear evidence</a> of privacy issues and that the service’s practices are <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s">standard in the industry</a>. TikTok’s terms of service do <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executive-order-that-will-effectively-ban-use-of-tiktok-in-the-u-s">say that it can share information</a> with its China-based corporate parent, ByteDance.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="smartphone screenshot showing the WeChat app" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355196/original/file-20200827-24-1jxjutn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">WeChat is a messaging, social media and mobile payment app that is nearly ubiquitous in China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/albert_hsieh/12856611855/">Albert Hsieh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-addressing-threat-posed-wechat/">order against WeChat</a> is similar. It also mentions that the app captures the personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals visiting the United States. However, some of these visiting Chinese nationals have expressed concern that banning WeChat may <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/trump-admin-expands-its-war-on-chinese-tech">limit their ability to communicate</a> with friends and family in China.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://research.checkpoint.com/2020/tik-or-tok-is-tiktok-secure-enough/">TikTok</a> and <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2019/07/05/mps-staff-warned-not-to-use-chinese-app-wechat-due-to-cybersecurity-risks/">WeChat</a> do raise cybersecurity concerns, they are not significantly different from those raised by other smart phone apps. In my view, these concerns could be better addressed by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/21/the-us-needs-a-national-privacy-law-for-personal-data-salesforce-co-ceo-says.html">enacting national privacy legislation</a>, similar to <a href="https://gdpr.eu/">Europe’s GDPR</a> and <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa">California’s CCPA</a>, to dictate how data is collected and used and where it is stored. Another remedy is to have Google, Apple and others review the apps for cybersecurity concerns before allowing new versions to be made available in their app stores.</p>
<h2>Freedom of speech</h2>
<p>Perhaps the greatest concern raised by the bans are their impact on people’s ability to communicate, and whether they violate the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment</a>. Both TikTok and WeChat are communications channels and TikTok publishes and hosts content. </p>
<p>While the courts have allowed some regulation of speech, to withstand a legal challenge the restrictions <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3312673">must advance a legitimate government interest and be “narrowly tailored”</a> to do so. National security is a legitimate governmental interest. However, in my opinion it’s questionable <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-ban-us-national-security-risk/">whether a real national security concern exists</a> with these specific apps.</p>
<p>In the case of TikTok, banning an app that is being used for <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/prison-tiktok-behind-bars-still-posting/">political commentary</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html">activism</a> would raise pronounced constitutional claims and likely be overturned by the courts. </p>
<p>Whether the bans <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/technology/tiktok-sues-trump-administration.html">hold up in court</a>, the executive orders instituting them put the U.S. in uncomfortable territory: the list of countries that have banned social media platforms. These include <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/egypt-tightens-restrictions-media-social-networks-190319180632151.html">Egypt</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-security-law-china.html">Hong Kong</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/world/europe/turkey-social-media-control.html">Turkey</a>, <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/turkmenistan-where-social-media-is-banned-gets-first-messaging-app-1983887.html">Turkmenistan</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/north-korea-announces-blocks-on-facebook-twitter-and-youtube">North Korea</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/iran-internet-shutoff/">Iran</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/belarus-internet-outage-election/">Belarus</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/09/13/putin-now-plans-100-facebook-instagram-and-youtube-bans-russians-warned/#75ac2fdb57ff">Russia</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-internet-ban-criticism-could-suppress-coronavirus-news-2020-3">China</a>. </p>
<p>Though the U.S. bans may not be aimed at curtailing dissent, they echo actions that harm free speech and democracy globally. Social media gives freedom fighters, protesters and dissidents all over the world a voice. It enables citizens to voice concerns and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/technology/social-media-protests.html">organize protests</a> about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/world/asia/protests-thailand-king-monarchy.html">monarchies</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/12/social-media-users-stir-outrage-against-egypt-sexual-abusers">sexual</a> and other <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/africa/zimbabwe-solo-protest-intl/index.html">human rights abuses</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-lawmaking-socialmedia-trfn/cambodian-women-post-swimwear-photos-to-protest-law-on-how-they-dress-idUSKCN2521YQ">discriminatory laws</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/technology/social-media-protests.html">civil rights</a> violations. When <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-governments-fear-even-teens-on-tiktok-140389">authoritarian</a> governments clamp down on dissent, they frequently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/tech/hong-kong-internet-block-emergency-powers-intl-hnk/index.html">target</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/egypt-tightens-restrictions-media-social-networks-190319180632151.html">social media</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Risk of retaliation</h2>
<p>The bans could also harm the U.S. economy because other countries could ban U.S. companies in retaliation. China and the U.S. have already gone through a cycle of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lawmakers-keen-to-break-up-big-tech-like-amazon-and-google-need-to-realize-the-world-has-changed-a-lot-since-microsoft-and-standard-oil-143517">reciprocal company banning</a>, in addition to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/crowds-wave-chinese-flags-and-take-selfies-as-us-consulate-closes-in-chengdu">reciprocal consulate closures</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. has <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-suspends-android-support-for-huawei-what-it-means-for-your-smartphone-tablet/">placed</a> Chinese telecom firm Huawei on the <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2019/05/department-commerce-announces-addition-huawei-technologies-co-ltd">Bureau of Industry Security Entity List</a>, preventing U.S. firms from conducting business with it. While this has <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/5/21124888/us-5g-huawei-white-house-trump-china-alternative-telecom-standard">prevented Huawei from selling wireless hardware</a> in the U.S., it has also <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-suspends-android-support-for-huawei-what-it-means-for-your-smartphone-tablet/">prevented U.S. software sales to the telecom giant</a> and caused it to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-struggles-to-escape-u-s-grasp-on-chips-11592740800">use its own chips instead of buying them from U.S. firms</a>. </p>
<p>Over a dozen U.S. companies <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/corporate-america-worries-wechat-ban-could-be-bad-for-business-11597311003">urged the White House</a> not to ban WeChat because it would hurt their business in China. </p>
<p>Other countries might use the U.S. bans of Chinese firms as justification for banning U.S. companies, even though the U.S. has not taken action against them or their companies directly. These trade restrictions harm the U.S.’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-steps-up-as-us-steps-back-from-global-leadership-70962">moral authority</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/economy/us-china-trade-war-resume-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html">harm the global economy</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/19/economy/us-china-trade-war-resume-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html">stifle innovation</a>. They also cut U.S. firms off from the <a href="https://itif.org/publications/2020/08/07/once-again-shooting-ourselves-foot-banning-trade-wechat-parent-tencent-only">high-growth Chinese market</a>. </p>
<p>TikTok is in negotiations with Microsoft and Walmart and an Oracle-led consortium about a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/technology/walmart-tiktok-deal.html">possible acquisition</a> that would leave the company with American ownership and negate the ban.</p>
<h2>Oversight, not banishment</h2>
<p>Though the TikTok and WeChat apps do raise some concerns, it is not apparent that cause exists to ban them. The issues could be solved through better oversight and the enactment of privacy laws that could otherwise benefit Americans. </p>
<p>Of course, the government could have other causes for concern that it hasn’t yet made public. Given the consequences of banning an avenue of expression, if other concerns exist the government should share them with the American public. If not, I’d argue less drastic action would be more appropriate and better serve the American people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Straub is the associate director of the NDSU Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research and a Challey Institute Faculty Fellow. He has received funding related to cybersecurity from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Security Agency and the North Dakota State University. The views presented are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of NDSU or funding agencies.</span></em></p>Banning the Chinese-owned social media platforms raises free speech concerns and could worsen the US-China trade war.Jeremy Straub, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1259082019-11-19T14:05:15Z2019-11-19T14:05:15ZSo you want to be an autocrat? Here’s the 10-point checklist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301991/original/file-20191115-66973-yui06c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two autocrats: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, left, and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, right, in Budapest, Hungary, Nov. 7, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Hungary-Turkey/48aaa69934e54e75bcfd17fdf9a67980/201/0">AP/Presidential Press Service</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democracy is in trouble, despite popular uprisings and dynamic social movements in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/10/26/lebanon-protests-wedeman-pkg-vpx.cnn">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49317695">Hong Kong</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news+protest">across Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-government-chased-from-its-capital-a-president-forced-into-exile-a-storm-of-protest-rages-in-south-america/2019/11/14/897f85ba-0651-11ea-9118-25d6bd37dfb1_story.html">Latin America</a>.</p>
<p>Scholars say countries across the globe are experiencing a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2019.1582029">rise in autocratic rule</a>, with declines in democratic ideals and practice. Autocratic rule – also known as authoritarianism – is when one leader or political party exercises complete power to govern a country and its people. </p>
<p>The year 2008 was when democracy peaked, according to a prominent democracy advocacy group, Freedom House. That’s when the world had the highest percentage ever of fully <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Feb2019_FH_FITW_2019_Report_ForWeb-compressed.pdf">“free countries,” at 46.1%.</a> </p>
<p>That declined to 44.1% in 2018, though full or <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/levitsky/files/SL_elections.pdf">partial democracy</a> is still the <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/99/de/99dedd73-f8bc-484c-8b91-44ba601b6e6b/v-dem_democracy_report_2019.pdf">most common</a> form of governance. </p>
<p>Definitions <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-018-9268-z">of democracy vary</a>. All citizens in a democracy have the ability to vote in elections, which should be free and fair. Independent media, freedom of speech and assembly and the rule of law feature in most contemporary perceptions of democracy. </p>
<p>Democratic declines are most notable in the regions with the <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/99/de/99dedd73-f8bc-484c-8b91-44ba601b6e6b/v-dem_democracy_report_2019.pdf">world’s largest concentration of democracies</a>. That includes Europe, North America and Latin America. </p>
<p>One example: The United States in 2018 was rated a “flawed democracy,” dropping from <a href="https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index">21st to 25th place</a> among 167 countries and territories.</p>
<p>In the old days, autocrats often came to or retained power through military coups and violent crackdowns. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316474594_Trends_in_Nonviolent_Resistance_and_State_Response_Is_Violence_Towards_Civilian-based_Movements_on_the_Rise?te=1&nl=the-interpreter&emc=edit_int_20191025?campaign_id=30&instance_id=13365&segment_id=18239&user_id=9f7ca6259bbbdc663bd7579b69b6a1b8&regi_id=77941339">Now</a> the shift from democracy to autocracy is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2019.1582029">slower and less obvious</a>. </p>
<p>While control over security forces remains essential in the autocratic playbook, overt strong-arm tactics aren’t. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301994/original/file-20191115-66941-i5m60k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pro-democracy protests, like this one in Hong Kong on Nov. 13, 2019, have erupted across the globe during a rise in authoritarian rule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Hong-Kong-Protests/4b2f728571aa48fa88bf5211fd6b1361/54/0">AP/Kin Cheung</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Top 10 list</h2>
<p>I spent more than 15 years with the United Nations, where I advised governments and democracy advocates on how to strengthen the rule of law, human rights and democratic governance. I’m now <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/hrc/inglis-shelley.php">a scholar of international law</a>. </p>
<p>I’ve learned that today’s leaders with authoritarian tendencies aren’t just interested in using brute force to rise to power. </p>
<p>They <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/breaking-down-democracy-goals-strategies-and-methods-modern-authoritarians">are smarter, more resilient and can adjust</a> their methods to take account of new developments, like modern technologies and a globalized economy. </p>
<p>Here are some of the newest tactics used by would-be authoritarians: </p>
<h2>1. Extend executive power</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/607612/pdf">mainstay of today’s authoritarianism</a> is strengthening your power while simultaneously weakening government institutions, such as parliaments and judiciaries, that provide checks and balances. </p>
<p>The key is to use legal means that <a href="https://theconversation.com/autocracies-that-look-like-democracies-are-a-threat-across-the-globe-110957">ultimately give democratic legitimacy to the power grab</a>. Extreme forms of this include abolishing presidential term limits, which was done <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-term-limit-explainer.html">in China</a>; and regressive constitutional reforms to expand presidential power, like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-election-factbox/turkeys-powerful-new-executive-presidency-idUSKBN1JI1O1">in Turkey</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Repress dissent and citizen efforts to hold government accountable</h2>
<p>Restrictions on funding and other bureaucratic limitations <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT3096472019ENGLISH.PDF">silence the ability of the people to hold accountable those in power</a>. More than 50 countries have passed laws that stifle citizen groups. <a href="https://www.openglobalrights.org/undemocratic-civil-society-laws-are-appearing-in-democracies-too/">Democracies</a> have also jumped on this bandwagon. Limitations on permits for public protest, detention of protesters and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1051011">excessive use of force to break up demonstrations</a> are frequently used tools. </p>
<h2>3. Capture elite support and, when needed, demonize them too</h2>
<p>Economic growth and prosperity are critical to retaining elite or oligarchical support for autocratic leaders. Whether through state-owned businesses, media conglomerates or more sophisticated connections between governments and free-market corporations, money and politics, translated into government favors for the rich, can be a toxic mix for democracy. </p>
<p>Ironically, popular distaste with elite corruption is so high that modern autocratic populists, such as President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, have even risen to power <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-bolsonaro-factbox/factbox-far-right-brazilian-candidate-thrives-on-controversy-idUSKCN1II2T3">on anti-corruption promises</a>. </p>
<h2>4. Appeal to populism and nationalism</h2>
<p>Most would-be autocratic leaders today exploit existing tensions within complex societies in order to solidify their support. </p>
<p>In many places, fears of migrants and refugees have <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-24/how-brexit-campaign-used-refugees-scare-voters">fueled resurgent nationalism</a>, driving policies like U.K.’s Brexit. In India, religiously based nationalism has maintained the power of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/23/indias-modi-has-been-bellwether-global-populism/">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a>. </p>
<p>Blaming external forces for a country’s problems, such as Hungarian leader <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/hungary-viktor-orban-george-soros">Viktor Orban’s demonization of George Soros</a>, a Hungarian-born philanthropist who supports democracy-building, is also common.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301996/original/file-20191115-66979-lvz2a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained power in part based on religious nationalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Elections/9228ba94caa4404299c3a2638ee3f4a2/164/0">AP file photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Control information at home; misinform abroad</h2>
<p>While propaganda and state-owned media is not new, control of modern technology and information has become a key battleground. </p>
<p>China has developed sophisticated technologies to <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/modern-authoritarianism-origins-anatomy-outlook">censor and prevent</a> the circulation of unwanted information and to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2gMNrUuEY">track individuals in society</a>. </p>
<p>Russia is at the vanguard of state media control at home while <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/modern-authoritarianism-press-freedom">generating misinformation abroad</a>. Many smaller countries have used <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/africa/internet-shutdown-zimbabwe-censorship-intl/index.html">internet blackouts</a> to block organizing and communicating by social movements. </p>
<h2>6. Cripple the opposition</h2>
<p>Damaging the opposition parties, while not completely destroying them, is now essential. Infiltrating parties, co-opting members and using pure scare tactics are some possible actions in the autocrat’s playbook. This serves the purpose of retaining a target for pseudo-political competition while also stymieing the potential for new, more democratic forces to gain traction. </p>
<h2>7. Covert election manipulation</h2>
<p>Mostly gone are the days of vote-rigging and vote-buying as a path to power. Would-be autocrats have found cleverer ways to tilt the playing field in their favor. These new tactics include hampering media access, gerrymandering, changing election and voter eligibility rules and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/607612/pdf">placing allies on electoral commissions</a>.</p>
<h2>8. Play the emergency card</h2>
<p>Some autocratic leaders continue to use traditional strong-arm tactics, like declaring states of emergency, to enable further repression. </p>
<p>Since 2001, using the threat of terrorism or organized crime has played well for furthering autocratic rule. President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, which seems to have resulted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/world/asia/philippines-duterte-killings-un.html">in thousands dead</a> in the Philippines, is one illustration. </p>
<p>Since an attempted coup in 2016 up until 2018, for example, Turkey was under a state of emergency which enabled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to jail and persecute academics, government officials, media <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/26/632307755/turkeys-state-of-emergency-ends-while-erdogans-power-grows-and-purge-continues">and human rights advocates</a>.</p>
<h2>9. Extend your model and influence</h2>
<p>Today’s autocratic rulers are not keeping to themselves. </p>
<p>Using the international stage and their growing economic prowess, countries like China are spreading their influence through funding initiatives such as the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative">Belt and Road</a> to build infrastructure across <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-worldwide-investment-project-is-a-push-for-more-economic-and-political-power-125190">Asia to Europe.</a> They’re hiring professional consultants <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/modern-authoritarianism-origins-anatomy-outlook">to advise and lobby foreign capitals for</a> policies that reinforce their power.</p>
<h2>10. Learn and share</h2>
<p>Characterized as “<a href="https://rsa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21599165.2017.1307826?scroll=top&needAccess=true">autocratic learning</a>” by scholars, national authorities from Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Belarus, Syria and other places are developing and exchanging models for containing threats of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/1875984X-00901006">social movements and the so-called “color revolutions.”</a> </p>
<p>International meetings and intergovernmental clubs can provide a platform for exchange. For example, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia has successfully rallied neighbor governments to help oppress opposition to his rule using the regional <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/world/asia/cambodia-hun-sen-mu-sochua.html">organization ASEAN</a>. Government officials in Malaysia recently blocked Cambodian opposition members from returning to their country via Malaysia.</p>
<h2>Direction unknown</h2>
<p>Some experts claim the world is at a <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/02/16/liberal-democratic-order-crisis/">“tipping point”</a> where decreasing faith in democracy will drive the dominance of autocracy globally. </p>
<p>The social movements of today inspire some hope that civil society – a key ingredient for democracy – though under pressure, is fighting the trend. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, strengthening democracy across the globe will prove impossible if even the most established democracies today fall prey to the tactics of would-be autocrats.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125908/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelley Inglis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s autocrats rarely use brute force to wrest control. A human rights and international law scholar details the modern authoritarian’s latest methods to grab and hold power.Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256762019-11-15T10:24:29Z2019-11-15T10:24:29ZThe psychology of riots – and why it’s never just mindless violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301617/original/file-20191113-77326-ugjqfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fanning flames.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/the-joker-to-guy-fawkes-why-protesters-around-the-world-are-wearing-the-same-masks-126458">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It seemingly can happen anywhere – and at any time. From <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-this-is-the-age-of-dissent-and-theres-much-more-to-come-52871">London</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-protesters-shouldnt-pin-hopes-on-outsiders-to-solve-their-impasse-with-beijing-125693">Hong Kong</a>, apparently peaceful cities can sometimes erupt suddenly into widespread, and often sustained, unrest. But what role does psychology play in this? And can it explain how, why and when crowds turn to violence?</p>
<p>The recent film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY">Joker</a> tells the bleak story of how a mentally ill loner, Arthur Fleck, becomes the infamous comic book villain – and inspires a riotous popular movement. In the film, the stage seems well set for a riot. Gotham City is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/28/he-is-a-psychopath-has-the-2019-joker-gone-too-far">depicted as</a> “… a powder keg of lawlessness, inequality, corruption, cuts and all-round despair”.</p>
<p>But is the crowd protesting this – or acting as a mindless mob? As commentator Aditya Vats has <a href="https://medium.com/@adityavats/understanding-joker-a-psychological-view-90da73bfd557">pointed out</a>, the film appears to reflect the views of the 17th-century philosopher <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/hobbes_thomas.shtml">Thomas Hobbes</a>, who argued that society has a drive towards chaos and destruction. In the film, Fleck is portrayed as the individual who unleashes these apparently innate tendencies when he brutally kills first three wealthy young bankers – and then a TV talk show host live on air. Subsequently, thousands of rioters in clown masks are shown rioting, looting and killing, seemingly inspired by his actions.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zAGVQLHvwOY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>This is a simple, and popular, representation of real-world crowd violence. But does it accurately reflect the true psychology underpinning “riotous” behaviour?</p>
<p>There are three “classical” <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mad-Mobs-Englishmen-Myths-realities-ebook/dp/B006654U9U">theoretical explanations</a> of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/nov/18/mad-mobs-englishmen-2011-riots">the crowd</a> that endure in the popular imagination. The first, “mad mob theory”, suggests that individuals lose their sense of self, reason and rationality in a crowd and so do things they otherwise might not as an individual. </p>
<p>The second is that collective violence is the product of a convergence of “bad” – or criminal – individuals enacting their violent personal predispositions together in the same space.</p>
<p>The third is a combination of the first two and is captured in the narrative of Joker: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mad-Mobs-Englishmen-Myths-realities-ebook/dp/B006654U9U">“The bad leading the mad”</a>. To quote from a book on the 2011 English riots <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mad-Mobs-Englishmen-Myths-realities-ebook/dp/B006654U9U">Mad Mobs and Englishmen</a>: that “evil and unscrupulous people – often outsiders or enemies – take advantage of the gullibility of the crowd in order to use them as a tool for destruction”.</p>
<h2>What really happens</h2>
<p>While these explanations are often well rehearsed in the media, however, they do not account <a href="http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/82292/">for what actually happens</a> during a “riot”. This lack of explanatory power has meant that contemporary social psychology has long rejected these classical explanations as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963662516639872">inadequate and even potentially dangerous</a> – not least because they fail to take account of the factors that actually drive such confrontations. In fact, when people riot, their <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/014466601164876">collective behaviour</a> is never mindless. It may often be criminal, but it is structured and coherent with meaning and conscious intent. To address the causes of such violence, we need to understand this.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-this-is-the-age-of-dissent-and-theres-much-more-to-come-52871">Hard Evidence: this is the Age of Dissent – and there's much more to come</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Contrary to expectations, there are actually important boundaries and limits during riots relating to 1) what goes on (and what doesn’t) and 2) what (and who) becomes influential. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/57/4/964/2623988?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Research and modern crowd theory</a> suggest that these behavioural limits of crowd action relate in important ways to the limits of social identification.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2420140102">Steve Reicher’s analysis</a> of the 1980 <a href="https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/st-pauls-riots-37-years-17634">St Paul’s “riot”</a>, in Bristol, England. Reicher demonstrated that the crowd’s actions were governed by the individuals’ shared sense of social identity as members of the St Paul’s community. This identity was partly defined by a united opposition to police “aggressors” who symbolically were seen to be attacking the community by raiding the Black and White cafe, an important local hub.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301618/original/file-20191113-77295-ukspt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A street protestor in Kyiv, Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/street-protests-kiev-revolution-263735459?src=c4bad0b2-2a16-4f52-8789-2bfb35912567-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reicher also showed how this collective identity placed important constraints on what happened during the “riot” – and where. First, there were clear limits on who and what constituted a legitimate target, with only those viewed as being in opposition to the St Paul’s identity – largely, the police – being attacked. Second, there were defined geographical limits – the police were only attacked while they were within the boundaries of St Paul’s and were left alone once they had left.</p>
<h2>Behavioural ‘contagion’</h2>
<p>The St Paul’s study demonstrates that people in riots act according to their assumed social identities and do not behave mindlessly, as if subject to an irrational “group mind”. For example, crowd members described throwing stones at police officers as normative and widespread – “a few bricks went in and then people closed the road and everybody started doing it”. Attacks against other targets, however, were isolated and widely denounced – “a bus … got one window smashed … Everyone went ‘Ugh’, ‘idiots’.” </p>
<p>But why do individual acts of violence spread and “infect” others, inciting them also to riot?</p>
<p>Classical crowd theories, like the narrative of the Joker, suggest that mere exposure to the behaviour of others leads observers to act in the same way. According to this line of thinking, behaviour is spread via a process of “contagion”, transmitted automatically from one person to another. This would mean the mere act of watching the Joker kill live on TV could explain why others turned to violence on the streets of Gotham.</p>
<p>But this notion of behavioural contagion cannot explain the clear patterns and boundaries of precisely what behaviour <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2376">“spreads” and what doesn’t</a>. Why, for example, did the riots that swept England in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14436499">August 2011</a> – and which followed the shooting by police of Mark Duggan – spread from London to some cities, but not others?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-joker-to-guy-fawkes-why-protesters-around-the-world-are-wearing-the-same-masks-126458">The Joker to Guy Fawkes: why protesters around the world are wearing the same masks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The answer to this is related to how people construct group boundaries (we are more influenced by fellow in-group members than out-group members) and the extent to which actions are in line with prevailing <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/beyondcontagion/">group norms</a>. As rioting swept across England in August 2011, research suggests that it was those who identified as anti-police that mobilised onto the streets and were subsequently empowered through their localised interactions with the authorities and each other. The targets of their subsequent collective rioting were not random, but focused predominately on the police, symbols of wealth and large retail outlets owned by big corporations.</p>
<p>Seen in this light, the Joker’s actions didn’t merely invoke a Hobbesian dystopia but instead are better understood as unwittingly galvanising a simmering anti-wealth movement brought about by structural inequality and injustice. And based on research on riots in multiple disciplines such as social psychology, history and criminology, the spread of the subsequent unrest would have been far from random.</p>
<p>In a real world Gotham, only those who identified as “anti-wealth” would have been subject to the crowd’s influence during the riots, and only those actions consonant with this identity (for example, attacking and looting symbols of wealth) would have been “acceptable” to the Joker’s foot soldiers. As the riots developed, the apparent disempowerment of the authorities in one location, would have led those who identified as “anti-wealth” in other parts of the city to mobilise onto the streets and take on their erstwhile “common enemy”. </p>
<p>Of course, Joker isn’t real life but its narrative of contagion and random violence is common as an “explanation” of real life. But behind the scenes, with closer <a href="https://figshare.com/articles/Re-reading_the_2011_English_riots_-_ESRC_Beyond_Contagion_interim_report_pdf/7687433">rereading of riots</a>, social psychology can help bust the myth of the irrational mob and begin to explain how the fictional city – as well as countless real ones – can and do transform from tranquillity into widespread and enduring crowd violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clifford Stott receives funding from ESRC ES/N01068X/1</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Radburn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>According to research, a strong sense of social identity and empowerment often dictates how rioters behave.Matthew Radburn, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Keele UniversityClifford Stott, Professor of Social Psychology, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1111302019-04-23T10:44:13Z2019-04-23T10:44:13Z‘I’m not a traitor, you are!’ Political argument from the Founding Fathers to today’s partisans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270278/original/file-20190422-28090-1f3bt50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How partisans argue tells a lot about how the public sees democracy</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/461048545?src=fN-CyDBk5Z02yUiDirK4dA-1-7&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump is <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/12/17/464235/following-the-money/">working with the Russians to enrich himself</a>. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/21/republicans-are-responsible-trump-fiasco-now-must-fix-it/?utm_term=.97ea09c9deda">Republican Party is shielding him</a> from accountability.</p>
<p>The Democrats want to win elections by <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/08/03/kris-kobach-democrats-long-term-strategy-is-importing-foreign-voters-to-replace-americans/">repopulating the country</a> with foreigners. Then they’ll be able to <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/15/exclusive-mo-brooks-democrat-strategy-of-importing-foreign-voters-will-turn-america-into-california/">permanently transform</a> the racial and cultural makeup of American society.</p>
<p>These are versions of stories told by, first, Democrats, and second, Republicans. Let’s set aside the merits of these stories – at least for the moment (I know, it’s not easy to do!).</p>
<p>These stories are, essentially, allegations of disloyalty. And they foretell national ruin if the other side achieves its goals. </p>
<p>I teach and study U.S. politics and I have researched the way partisans in America argue about major issues.</p>
<p>American history is filled with examples where one partisan side alleges that some idea embraced by the other side threatens to compromise American national strength or sovereignty – and even threatens the existence of the country.</p>
<p>But it’s unusual to see what is happening in America today. </p>
<p>Now, it’s not just one side of the partisan divide accusing the other of disloyalty and disdain for American safety and values. It’s both sides. One need look no further than the cable news networks for evidence of how entrenched this form of partisanship has become.</p>
<p>It turns out that the way partisans debate has an impact on how Americans view democracy itself. </p>
<p>So what does it mean to America that both sides are accusing each other of betraying their country?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270286/original/file-20190422-1403-q3759q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have each used apocalyptic accusations against the other.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trump: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais; Pelosi: AP/J. Scott Applewhite</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Patterns of partisan debate</h2>
<p>As I discuss in my book, “<a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15520.html">Embracing Dissent: Political Violence and Party Development in the United States</a>,” it was common in the past for accusations of disloyalty to be lodged by partisans. </p>
<p>For example, during the Civil War, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Union_Divided/sJqfMGRh2d0C?hl=en">the principle</a> that “every Democrat may not be a traitor, but every traitor is a Democrat” was a familiar refrain in the Republican North. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, <a href="http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Cold%20War%20&%20Red%20Scare/II.html">Republicans questioned whether Democrats were sufficiently anti-communist</a> to protect the country. </p>
<p>Democrats often responded to these attacks, both in the 19th and 20th centuries, in a cautious and defensive manner. </p>
<p>Instead of counter-attacking, Democrats often tried to change the subject by focusing public debate on other issue areas. In many cases, Democrats attempted to defend themselves by echoing the positions and talking points of their more nationalistic rivals.</p>
<p>Similarly, in American political history, when accusations about loyalty to America erupted, it’s usually been one-sided. The “accused” side remains on the defensive, protesting its commitment to the country without advancing an accusatory counterclaim. </p>
<p>This pattern tends to consolidate public opinion. One party accuses, the other denies, but both sides publicly appear in relative agreement about the nature of the national threat. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Republicans labeled Democrats as <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Enemy_at_Home.html?id=EcufLyb4Bo8C">“soft” on terrorism</a> and claimed that their reluctance to increase the number of troops committed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/middleeast/27cong.html">embolden</a>” America’s enemies.</p>
<p>Democrats <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Stand_Up_Fight_Back/v5X0PYgrjc4C?hl=en">backpedaled</a> in response. They asserted that they too were committed to fighting terrorism, but that they would use a different approach to address this threat. </p>
<h2>Both sides then – and now</h2>
<p>In my research I found that the partisan politics of the 1790s featured a pattern of mutual recrimination that is comparable to today’s polarized political debates. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.history.org/foundation/journal/autumn12/election.cfm">Federalists who supported George Washington’s presidency</a> accused the new party in opposition, the Jeffersonian Republicans, of <a href="https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/french-revolution">advancing the French revolutionary cause</a>. </p>
<p>Jeffersonian Republicans alleged that if Federalist leaders had their way, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-us/federalist-party">the U.S. would be recolonized by the British</a>. </p>
<p>During this period, there were few policy disputes that were considered safe from these incendiary suspicions. Disputes ranging from trade and immigration to fiscal and monetary policy all seemed to trigger accusations among partisans that their rivals were <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Age_of_Federalism.html?id=9RyG29bER3QC">under the spell of foreign interests and ideas</a>.</p>
<p>As a new generation of partisan newspapers took center stage, the media abetted the conflict. A rising class of “<a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2944">printer-editors</a>” forged new partisan channels for the circulation of political news. These printer-editors expanded their newspaper readership by increasing coverage of political scandals and public controversy. Sound familiar?</p>
<p>Many of the leading political controversies conveyed in the partisan press of the 1790s, moreover, stirred up apocalyptic fears. Partisan opponents accused each other of national disloyalty. They said the republic would be irreversibly damaged if their opponents were not stopped. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270283/original/file-20190422-28106-6em1sx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1798 cartoon shows Congressman Matthew Lyon, a Jeffersonian Republican, and Roger Griswold, a Federalist, fighting in Philadelphia’s Congress Hall after Griswold insulted Lyon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661719/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Partisans conceive of irreparable consequences in different ways. The idea of surrender to a hostile foreign power is one way of envisioning national ruin. Partisan accusations in the 1790s that the other side would submit to the control of Great Britain or France fit this pattern. <a href="http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Cold%20War%20&%20Red%20Scare/II.html">The Cold War accusation</a> that left-leaning Americans took orders from the Kremlin followed a similar logic.</p>
<p>Today’s version of the foreign influence accusation is the alarm raised in recent months by many of Trump’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/11/30/was-trump-compromised-is-he-still/?utm_term=.9e0038a7d1b9">critics</a> that President Trump may have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-has-become-the-pro-russia-party/2019/01/21/9960f0d4-1dbf-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?utm_term=.1117afbef757">under Vladimir Putin’s thumb</a>. </p>
<p>Contemporary conservatives are focused on a different national security threat – and a different partisan culprit.</p>
<p>Liberal Democrats, they argue, are hellbent on repopulating the country with “<a href="https://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/">Third World foreigners</a>.” </p>
<p>Such accusations often include reference to the problem of permeable borders. This is the belief that an otherwise whole or united country will be penetrated by foreign gangs and other “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AneeacsvNwU">bad hombres</a>,” in the president’s phrase.</p>
<h2>Apocalyptic partisanship’s consequences</h2>
<p>Apocalyptic narratives raise the stakes of partisan disputes. They induce opposing sides to dig in when engaged in public negotiation. They also deny the legitimacy of their opponent’s participation in the political process. </p>
<p>Without a shared understanding of the opposition’s legitimacy, political competitors treat one another like enemies. This doesn’t necessarily lead to political violence or civil war. </p>
<p>This pattern of debate does, however, come with a key drawback. </p>
<p>The resulting maelstrom of suspicion and distrust undermines the standing of professionals in vital fields like science and journalism and in institutions like the courts, the military and intelligence agencies. Experts, in this context, can’t be completely apolitical, impartial and above the political fray, can they? After all, if politicians of the opposing party can’t be trusted, then their allies in other institutions can’t be either. </p>
<p>It may not be evident to partisans in the thick of the fight, but apocalyptic narratives alter the hopes and aspirations Americans have for democracy itself. </p>
<p>Should Americans hope for a politics that allows for compromise and mutual adjustment? Or is democracy little more than a forum where rivals draw lines in the sand and hurl recriminations at one another? </p>
<p>Should Americans expect and accept a political process that yields incremental policy change over time? Or does the republic face challenges so great that nothing short of a dramatic course correction will suffice to save the country? </p>
<p>Much depends on the nature of issues that are up for debate. But much also depends on how Americans choose to debate them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Selinger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>US history is filled with instances where one partisan side charges that the other side’s positions will lead to national ruin. Now, both sides accuse the other of betraying their country.Jeffrey Selinger, Associate Professor of Government, Bowdoin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1109572019-02-06T11:42:59Z2019-02-06T11:42:59ZAutocracies that look like democracies are a threat across the globe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256887/original/file-20190201-103164-to7fhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A rally celebrating the second anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea, March 18, 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Russia-Crimea/d572a67ffa844324a14d389cbbaa6ac5/27/0">AP/Ivan Sekretarev</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/20/us/politics/russia-interference-election-trump-clinton.html">Russia’s successful interference</a> in the 2016 U.S. presidential election may inspire other countries to do the same. </p>
<p>These other countries don’t look threatening. They look like democracies. But they’re not. </p>
<p>They’re a special kind of autocratic regime that masquerades as a democracy. And what looks like benevolent conduct by these countries can quickly change into aggressive, politically charged behavior. </p>
<p>Autocracies, often known as “authoritarian regimes,” maintain power through centralized control over information and resources. Political opposition is either forbidden or strongly curtailed and individual freedom is limited by the state.</p>
<p>Autocracies that look like democracies are different because their leaders permit political opponents to run for election – even though they rarely win.</p>
<p>These countries’ capitalist systems have some of the trappings of liberal democracies in the West. But these regimes use capitalism to further their authoritarian rule.</p>
<p>These so-called “dominant party authoritarian regimes” have surged in number from around 13 percent of all countries before the end of the Cold War to around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108186797">33 percent today</a>. </p>
<p>Most are located in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. They are also present in Eastern Europe and in the Americas. Russia is one of them; so are Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore and Venezuela. </p>
<p>These regimes often engage in the same kinds of bad behavior as other autocracies. But their behavior is critically different in both the motivations and methods used to further authoritarian ends, as detailed in my new book “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108186797">Authoritarian Capitalism</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256890/original/file-20190201-108334-dhuupg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Russian military intelligence service building; 12 of its officers hacked into the Clinton presidential campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Russia-US-Trump-Probe/39c1c0cf812c4522b3152d7b348c664d/1/0">AP/Pavel Golovkin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political control</h2>
<p>Part of the danger with dominant party authoritarian regimes is that their veneer of democracy permits political opponents to run for election. But when incumbent rulers face a threat to their power, the autocrats often respond by targeting political dissidents and taking aggressive actions toward foreign enemies to bolster popular support.</p>
<p>For example, Russian leader Vladimir Putin faced an unprecedented challenge from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%932013_Russian_protests">citizen protests during the 2012 presidential election</a>. The protests continued into 2013.</p>
<p>Putin punished the protesters. New York Times correspondent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/world/europe/in-russia-a-trendy-activism-against-putin-loses-its-moment.html">Ellen Barry reported in 2013</a> that “new laws prescribe draconian punishments for acts of dissent. … Mr. Putin … embraced a new, sharply conservative rhetoric, dismissing the urban protesters as traitors and blasphemers, enemies of Russia.”</p>
<p>Shortly afterward, Russia’s foreign activities became even more <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/McFaul%20Testimony%209-6-18.pdf">belligerent than during the Soviet period</a>. This accomplished just what Putin wanted: Following his annexation of Crimea in 2014, his approval ratings <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/24/putins-approval-ratings-hit-89-percent-the-highest-theyve-ever-been/?utm_term=.cdbd4c686102">skyrocketed</a>. </p>
<p>Another recent example is Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s repression of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/05/erdogan-cumhuriyet-turkey-journalists-arrested-detained-dissent">domestic political dissidents</a> following the failed July 2016 coup against him. According to The Guardian, the regime arrested or suspended “more than 110,000 officials, including judges, teachers, police and civil servants.”</p>
<p>Erdogan went after foreign-based dissidents too, allegedly orchestrating a plot to kidnap opposition leader <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mueller-investigating-michael-flynn-plot-kidnap-turkish-opposition-leader-708053">Fetullah Gulen</a> from Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>And while he won the presidential election in June 2018, Erdogan’s foreign-based critics remain concerned about his threats. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/sports/kanter-knicks-erdogan-turkey.html">Enes Kanter</a>, a Turkish NBA star, declined to travel to London in January 2019 out of fear that Turkish spies might kill him.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256888/original/file-20190201-127151-199bf61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turkish NBA star Enes Kanter curtails foreign travel for fear of kidnapping by the Turkish government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mavericks-Knicks-Basketball/627009ce8b004df39b8c836df302337b/10/0">AP/Kathy Willens</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Information control</h2>
<p>Another distinction that characterizes dominant party authoritarian regimes is how they exploit Western legal and financial systems against Western media outlets critical of the regime.</p>
<p>Normally, <a href="http://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-3">autocrats control information and resources</a> to retain power. But rather than relying on the typical autocrat’s crude hostile attacks or outright censorship, dominant party authoritarian regimes use legal or financial methods regarded as legitimate by the West.</p>
<p>In other words, they sue the media or they buy them.</p>
<p>A slew of foreign news organizations – including <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/opinion/global/24iht-opednote.html">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122791989311765753">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04pubed.html">Bloomberg</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04pubed.html">The Economist</a> – were sued by the Lee family, autocratic rulers of Singapore, for political and financial reporting after the 2008 global financial crisis. </p>
<p>The family maintained the coverage defamed them. As the Wall Street Journal’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122791989311765753">editors wrote in 2008</a>, “We know of no foreign publication that has ever won in a Singapore court of law. Virtually every Western publication that circulates in the city-state has faced a lawsuit, or the threat of one.”</p>
<p>Malaysian political authorities deployed similar tactics when their rulers felt threatened.</p>
<p>Following the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and in the months leading up to the November 1999 general election, wealthy ruling party supporters in Malaysia filed a flurry of <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/1999/05/rights-malaysia-on-a-media-suing-spree/">defamation lawsuits</a> against foreign journalists and media organizations, such as the Asian Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.</p>
<p>Russia’s means of pressuring foreign media are slightly different, but they also involve taking advantage of Western legal-financial systems.</p>
<p>Russia has engaged in <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">disinformation campaigns</a> that exploit weaknesses in the West’s freedom of speech protections, as documented by experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at the Center for the Study of Democracy. </p>
<p>And Russian companies have acquired sufficiently large <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">ownership stakes</a> in foreign media companies to influence their operations. </p>
<p>This has involved both the manipulation of their coverage and a reduction in media freedoms of the country in which they are located. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">Delyan Peevski</a> is a controversial member of the Bulgarian Parliament who advocated for pro-Russian policies. Peevski built and sustained a media empire that controls around 40 percent of Bulgaria’s print sector and 80 percent of the newspaper distribution with loans from a partially Russian-owned bank.</p>
<h2>Resource control</h2>
<p>In contrast to firms located in other types of autocracies, state-controlled businesses in dominant party authoritarian regimes often comply with international financial regulations. This helps them gain access to Western countries’ corporate and financial systems.</p>
<p>Under cover of legitimate business operations, their autocratic leaders can pursue political objectives with less scrutiny. </p>
<p>Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1mdb">1MDB</a>, engaged in <a href="http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/why-malaysians-should-be-worried-about-1mdb%E2%80%99s-debts">aggressive investment tactics</a> with corrupt practices – including “abnormally high payback” for investment bankers – that extended across the globe. </p>
<p>The U.S. accuses former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/28/1mdb-inside-story-worlds-biggest-financial-scandal-malaysia">family friend</a> of masterminding the theft of US$2 billion from the fund. And its capital was also <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/28/wsj-reports-malaysia-pm-najib-razak-used-700m-donation-to-win-2013-elections.html">channeled to politicians and projects</a> to help the ruling party win the 2013 elections.</p>
<p>Russia has also used <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">state-linked companies</a> to gain influence over Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria’s crucial energy sectors via purchases of ownership stakes in listed companies.</p>
<p>This granted the Russian state access to other key sectors of these economies, such as finance and telecommunications. <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">Russia then was able to influence government policies</a>. </p>
<p>In one case, the Serbian government <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ac12dd62-c881-11e7-ab18-7a9fb7d6163e">chose not to enforce the European Union’s sanctions against Russia</a>. That was a risk for Serbia, because it has wanted to qualify for European Union membership by 2025.</p>
<p>Even bolder actions occurred with Russia’s interference in the U.S. 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told the Senate in September 2018 that never before had the Kremlin violated American sovereignty so <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/McFaul%20Testimony%209-6-18.pdf">“illegally, aggressively and audaciously”</a> – even during the high-stakes rivalry of the Cold War.</p>
<p>It is now common knowledge that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/grand-jury-indicts-thirteen-russian-individuals-and-three-russian-companies-scheme-interfere">Russian-controlled agencies and businesses</a> played a strategically vital role in the election interference.</p>
<h2>Resisting influence</h2>
<p>Can democracies defend themselves against such aggressive regimes?</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/kremlin-playbook">Kremlin Playbook</a>,” written by Heather A. Conley, James Mina, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, is an extensive study of Russian influence in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Serbia. It provides a detailed list of policy recommendations to resist Russian influence that can be applied to other dominant party authoritarian regimes.</p>
<p>They include strengthening intelligence gathering and cooperation between the U.S. and its allies; increasing U.S. and allied governments’ assistance to vulnerable countries; and stronger protections for and enforcement of transparency measures.</p>
<p>But I believe an important addition to this list is the need to monitor the strength of the ruling party’s hold on power. That’s because aggressive, politically charged activities are most likely to occur when incumbent rulers face an elevated threat. </p>
<p>With its attack on the U.S. 2016 election, Russia showed that it’s possible to interfere destructively in the most powerful Western democracy. I expect that other autocracies that look like democracies will follow suit – across the globe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Carney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Almost one-third of countries around the world are authoritarian regimes with the trappings of democracy. Their bad behavior poses a threat to real democracies, as the United States recently learned.Richard Carney, Professor, China Europe International Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073392018-12-07T11:40:13Z2018-12-07T11:40:13ZMass protests in Colombia mar president’s first 100 days but reveal a nation marching toward peace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248853/original/file-20181204-34142-1xq4ays.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University students ask for a higher budget for public higher education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Colombia-Student-Protest/bf231de170214c5693b68b5d76fd849d/8/0">AP Photo/Fernando Vergara</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ivan Duque has only been Colombia’s president since August, but already <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/11/16/colombia/1542387103_783744.html">his government is in crisis</a>. </p>
<p>The country that has been gripped by near-constant <a href="https://www.rcnradio.com/economia/dignidades-campesinas-se-suman-movilizaciones-del-28-de-noviembre">protest</a> since the 42-year-old conservative took power. But the mass demonstrations that criticize Duque’s young government may actually be a good sign for Colombian democracy.</p>
<p>Duque, who has <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombia-elects-a-conservative-who-promises-to-correct-its-peace-accord-98273">never before held elected office</a>, pledged that his government would “<a href="https://theconversation.com/colombia-elects-a-conservative-who-promises-to-correct-its-peace-accord-98273">correct</a>” the perceived mistakes of the centrist former president Juan Manuel Santos, who left office after eight years with <a href="https://colombiareports.com/santos-to-leave-office-with-one-of-the-worst-approval-ratings-ever/">19 percent public support</a>. </p>
<p>Voters blamed Santos for failing to reign in corruption, allowing Colombia’s economy to stagnate and signing an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-a-new-colombian-peace-agreement-come-so-quickly-after-the-referendum-no-vote-69749">unpopular peace treaty</a> with the country’s main guerrilla group. Now, as Duque recently <a href="https://twitter.com/IvanDuque/status/1063830442409906176">acknowledged on Twitter</a>, they are angry that his floundering government has struggled to deliver on any campaign promises in its first 100 days.</p>
<h2>Protests grip Colombia</h2>
<p>Duque’s economic reform package, which proposed <a href="https://www.dinero.com/pais/articulo/ivan-duque-anuncia-sus-primeras-reformas-economicas/260749">tax exemptions for industrial developers and a tax hike on food</a>, was seen as pro-business and anti-poor. The government is also feeling the fallout of the massive <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/11/17/colombias-biggest-corruption-scandal-gets-more-complicated?frsc=dg%7Ce&fbclid=IwAR3-iWNpuZWCvNO7Cm6XZNtyadTnT8qcW0ZkyGR-LhNViivdJaOOPcNz0GQ">Odebrecht corruption scandal</a> that has implicated high-ranking public officials across Latin America, including in Colombia.</p>
<p>The president’s approval rating <a href="https://www.financecolombia.com/approval-rating-of-colombian-president-duque-plummets-just-months-after-taking-office/">plummeted</a>, from 47 percent in October to 27 percent in November. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.ideaspaz.org/publications/posts/1710">the number of street protests has more than tripled</a> since Duque took office, according to an analysis by the think tank <a href="http://www.ideaspaz.org/">Fundación Ideas para la Paz</a>.</p>
<p>Students and school <a href="http://www.fecode.edu.co/index.php/notas-principales-1.html">teachers</a> have <a href="https://www.semana.com/educacion/articulo/movimientos-estudiantiles-historicos-en-colombia/529694">demonstrated</a> to demand higher public education investment, better teacher pay and improved educational access nationwide. Their marches have been joined by <a href="http://www.onic.org.co/comunicados-onic/2599-indigenas-de-colombia-onic-apoya-y-lucha-por-el-derecho-a-la-educacion-superior-gratuita-y-pluricultural">indigenous groups</a>, who express solidarity with the students and demand an autonomous indigenous education system. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otras-ciudades/protesta-de-cocaleros-bloquean-vias-en-norte-de-santander-279888">Coca-leaf growers</a> have marched in different provinces, protesting the government’s renewed focus on eradicating their illicit crop rather than on helping farmers plant substitutes like cacao and coffee. </p>
<p>And Colombian truckers <a href="https://www.larepublica.co/economia/el-proximo-viernes-distintos-lideres-de-los-camioneros-empezarian-un-paro-nacional-2795125">went on strike over what they say are excessively high fuel, VAT and toll prices in late November</a>, demonstrations that now risk paralyzing commerce. </p>
<h2>Ending Colombia’s armed conflict</h2>
<p>In Colombia, a protest movement with so much power and stamina is not necessarily a bad sign. As a scholar of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jjkUy0wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">peace and conflict</a>, I see these public displays of dissent as proof that peace is effectively taking hold in Colombia after decades of bloody violence.</p>
<p>The Colombian conflict, which began in the late 1940s and continues today, is one of the world’s longest-running armed struggles. It involves the Colombian armed forces, leftist guerrillas seeking to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36605769">overthrow the state</a>, drug lords who control huge swaths of territory and right-wing paramilitary groups.</p>
<p>Clashes between these factions – which have included bombings, firefights, kidnappings and <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-murder-rate-is-at-an-all-time-low-but-its-activists-keep-getting-killed-91602">targeted assassinations</a> – have killed more than <a href="https://www.unidadvictimas.gov.co/es/registro-unico-de-victimas-ruv/37394">1 million civilians since 1985</a> and given Colombia <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2017/">the world’s second-largest displaced population</a>. </p>
<p>In late 2016, after a lengthy negotiation, President Santos <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-a-new-colombian-peace-agreement-come-so-quickly-after-the-referendum-no-vote-69749">signed</a> a <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-to-yes-in-colombia-what-it-would-take-to-reintegrate-the-farc-66710">controversial treaty</a> with the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC guerrillas. </p>
<p>The FARC was the biggest and most tenacious player in Colombia’s conflict, with around 7,000 troops stationed across the country. Disarming these Marxist revolutionaries was an important step toward deescalating violence and convincing <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-colombias-most-stubborn-rebel-group-agree-to-peace-71835">other armed groups</a> to enter talks with the government.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248856/original/file-20181204-34134-rykhkg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, center left, shakes hands with FARC commander Timochenko after signing a peace accord.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/The-Week-That-Was-in-Latin-America-Photo-Gallery/c252dad242cd4409b95ba59533955502/2/0">AP Photo/Fernando Vergara</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Colombian government has faced <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-threat-to-colombias-peace-process-murders-a-kidnapping-delays-and-of-course-politics-73895">numerous</a> hurdles to fully <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-latest-threat-to-peace-in-colombia-congress-87810">implementing</a> the agreements it made with the FARC, and many Colombians reject <a href="https://theconversation.com/negotiating-with-terrorists-diplomacy-triumphs-in-colombias-peace-process-65775">negotiating with terrorists</a> entirely. Skirmishes continue, and a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-rights-killings/human-rights-activists-say-hitmen-are-targeting-them-in-colombia-un-idUSKBN1O22OW">spate of activist killings</a> has international observers worried. </p>
<p>Peace is still fragile.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the year after the accord came into effect, on Nov. 30, 2016, FARC fatalities <a href="http://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/acuerdos-de-gobierno-y-farc/el-primer-ano-de-la-paz-en-cifras-GE7745778">declined from 3,000 to 78</a>, Colombia’s murder rate dropped to <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-murder-rate-is-at-an-all-time-low-but-its-activists-keep-getting-killed-91602">a historic low</a>, and <a href="https://razonpublica.com/index.php/politica-y-gobierno-temas-27/10958-colombia-seguir%C3%A1-el-asesinato-de-los-l%C3%ADderes-pol%C3%ADticos.html">attacks by armed groups declined 52 percent</a>.</p>
<h2>Peace stretches its wings</h2>
<p>The current protest movement is another consequence of Colombia’s new peace. </p>
<p>During the FARC’s 52-year insurgency, social movements in Colombia were frequently accused of being an <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/article-abstract/8/1/57/15433">extension of the guerrilla group</a> or of <a href="https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/ministro-de-defensa-dice-que-grupos-armados-financian-la-protesta-social/582944">being infiltrated by its members</a>. That allowed public officials to discredit protesters as terrorists and ignore their demands.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-deal-with-the-farc-could-bring-peace-or-create-a-power-vacuum-48130">FARC accord</a> changed that. </p>
<p>For the first time in its modern history, there’s room for dissent in Colombia. </p>
<p>Politicians from the left and right now openly <a href="https://twitter.com/angelamrobledo/status/1067841633453072386">support the marches</a> organized by students, teachers, coca-growers, indigenous people, Afro-Colombians and trade unions. Political backing gives protesters more legitimacy and shields them from possible police repression – previously a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/es/countries/americas/colombia/report-colombia/">common response to non-violent and violent protests alike</a>. </p>
<h2>Police protection, not repression</h2>
<p>National policing reforms <a href="https://www.policia.gov.co/sites/default/files/ley-1801-codigo-nacional-policia-convivencia.pdf">passed in 2016</a>, which sought to safeguard the <a href="http://www.constitucioncolombia.com/titulo-2/capitulo-1/articulo-37">constitutional right to protest in Colombia</a>, have also led to a more restrained response by law enforcement.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BEBlCzQPoBs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Officers greeting student protesters from the National University of Colombian in October.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When marches shut down city streets and snare traffic, Colombian riot police typically escort and protect protesters, rather than confront them. On the last day of a student strike in October, officers in the town of Popayán even <a href="http://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/regionales/policias-recibieron-con-flores-a-estudiantes-que-marcharon-en-popayan/20181018/nota/3813348.aspx">gave protesters flowers</a>. </p>
<p>Confrontations between <a href="https://www.facebook.com/senadorcarlosfelipemejia/videos/214353412794707/">Colombian police and protesters still occur</a>, sometimes <a href="https://twitter.com/YaoMedinaMar/status/1063192485852266497/photo/1">violently</a>. </p>
<p>On Nov. 11, as officers in riot gear arrested students during a massive education march in Bogota, video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlhSSp7suQA">footage</a> appears to confirm protesters’ allegations that <a href="https://twitter.com/angelamrobledo/status/1063211204460593152">plainclothes police</a> threw stones at the officers to incite violence.</p>
<p>Colombian police seem to use force more often in confronting rural marches by <a href="http://www.vanguardia.com/actualidad/colombia/230136-indigenas-denunciaron-abusos-del-esmad-durante-las-protestas">indigenous</a>, <a href="http://www.defensoria.gov.co/es/nube/enlosmedios/6402/Defensor-del-Pueblo-llama-la-atenci%C3%B3n-por-abusos-del-Esmad-en-paro-de-Buenaventura-Buenaventura-ESMAD-Fuerza-P%C3%BAblica-crisis-humanitaria-orden-p%C3%BAblico-Derechos-colectivos.htm">Afro-Colombian</a> and <a href="http://www.hchr.org.co/index.php/compilacion-de-noticias/52-fuerza-publica/8270-denuncian-abuso-del-esmad-tras-disturbios-por-exploracion-petrolera-en-caqueta">peasant</a> protesters, my analysis shows. In part, that’s because the 2016 police reforms – like most government initiatives in Colombia – have been more fully adopted in the capital and other major cities. </p>
<p>Urban protesters also have better access to the legal and PR help they need to hold law enforcement accountable for abuse, and their causes tend to enjoy more political support.</p>
<p>Police are not the only ones changing their protest tactics in the new Colombia. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fkatherin.ayala%2Fvideos%2F10156958456776410%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="100%" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
<p><em>Colombians dance at a protest in the main square of Bogota on Nov. 11 (Katherin Ayala/Facebook)</em></p>
<p>Advocacy groups have demonstrated creative, <a href="https://youtu.be/BEBlCzQPoBs">peaceful forms of protest</a>, using art, dance and music to convey their message. Most <a href="http://extra.com.co/noticias/nacional/alejandro-palacios-lider-estudiantil-rechaza-actos-de-vandal-478506">explicitly reject</a> violence as a strategy.</p>
<p>In a country where for so long dissent was met with repression, stigma and accusations of terrorism, these vibrant protests are signs of positive change indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Strikes and rallies have gripped Colombia for months. That’s bad news for its new government but a sign of progress in a country that had little tolerance for dissent during its 52-year civil war.Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Researcher on Conflict, Peace and Development, International Institute of Social StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1069672018-11-21T11:49:39Z2018-11-21T11:49:39ZRock ‘n’ roll is dying in Bangladesh<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246524/original/file-20181120-161621-1o0xso5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'It's really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh," says Samir Hafiz, a guitarist in the heavy metal band Warfaze. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/warfazefans/photos/p.10157052113310832/10157052113310832/?type=1&theater">Facebook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The seeds of rock ‘n’ roll culture were planted in Bangladesh during the birth of the country in 1971, after a war for liberation separated this majority-Muslim territory from Pakistan. </p>
<p>For most of the 20th century, the region was a traditional Southasian agrarian society. Its soundtrack: Bengali folk music, featuring instruments like the tabla drum set, harmonium pump organ and the ek tara, a one-stringed guitar.</p>
<p>Then came a bloody war for freedom. And that political rebellion allowed some musical rebellion to take root, too, as my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NVrdzV4AAAAJ&hl=en">historic research in the country shows</a>. </p>
<h2>Rock spurs social change</h2>
<p>After independence, a handful of Bangladeshi performers – top among them <a href="http://www.theindependentbd.com/arcprint/details/2287/2015-06-05">Azam Khan</a>, a freedom fighter-turned-musician – began looking West for artistic inspiration, listening to Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and The Doors. </p>
<p>Khan’s band Uccharon introduced drums, guitars and keyboards into their renditions of local music. Bangladeshi audiences had never heard anything like it. With his long hair, bell-bottom jeans, stadium concerts and powerful lyrics – which often delivered a social and political message – Khan became a pop culture phenomenon. </p>
<p>In one famous track from 1970s, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBmFwuYzms&start_radio=1&list=RDkFBmFwuYzms&t=53">Bangladesh</a>,” Khan paints a grim picture of his young nation, which was gripped by extreme poverty and <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eneudc2012/docs/paper_289.pdf">famine</a>. </p>
<p>He sings of a boy “born in a slum near the rail lines” whose death leaves “his hopeless mom crying.” Throughout the melancholic, guitar-driven song, Khan depicts the desperation of Bangladesh’s early years, punctuating his lament with cries of “Oh, Bangladesh!”</p>
<p>Khan, who died in 2011, influenced a generation of young Bangladeshis to critically reflect on their country’s traditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kFBmFwuYzms?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The late Azam Khan, performing here in 2005, brought rock to Bangladesh in the 1970s.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As in the United States a decade prior, where rock music helped <a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Shook-Up-Changed-American/dp/0195177495">change cultural values</a> about race, religion and sexuality, Bangladeshi rock ‘n’ roll – dominated by Azam Khan’s star power – showed people that a different life was possible. </p>
<p>Khan “was a rebel to the dominant culture,” said one man I interviewed, who saw Khan live in the 1980s. He traded his traditional Bengali garb for jeans, he said, because “I saw Azam Khan used to wear jeans.”</p>
<p>The changes Khan pushed went beyond aesthetics. </p>
<p>“He was redefining Bangladeshi culture and promoting liberal values like freedom,” the man told me. “Freedom from conservative values.”</p>
<p>As another fan said, “We were becoming politically aware.”</p>
<h2>Bangladeshi rock goes mainstream</h2>
<p>Political awareness was a subversive thing in newly independent Bangladesh.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the government alternated between <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/article/shifting-tides-south-asia-bangladesh%E2%80%99s-failed-election">military dictatorship, illiberal democracy and autocracy</a>. And though rural development spurred some economic growth, 41 percent of <a href="https://www.theigc.org/blog/can-we-eradicate-extreme-poverty-in-bangladesh-2/">Bangladeshis still lived in extreme poverty</a> by the early 1990s. </p>
<p>Founded as a secular nation, Bangladesh – which has a Muslim population <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/who-supports-suicide-terrorism-in-bangladesh-what-the-data-say/F2A83C327946BBA345752E09A7A64DFE">bigger than</a> that of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt combined – adopted Islam as its state religion in 1988. </p>
<p>That decision, which the nation’s highest court <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/bangladesh-court-upholds-islam-religion-state-160328112919301.html">upheld in 2016</a>, made Bangladesh more socially and religiously conservative. </p>
<p>Rock culture was a kind of alternative universe – one where criticism of the government was encouraged and religious zealotry was uncool. </p>
<p>Guns N’ Roses, Pink Floyd and Aerosmith all became popular in Bangladesh in the 1990s. Local groups with English names – the metal pioneers <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/2018/09/04/rockstrata-to-premiere-reunion-show-dvd-on-silver-screen">Rockstrata</a>, hard-rocking <a href="https://www.facebook.com/warfazefans/">Warfaze</a>, the popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Runs_Blind_(LRB)">Love Runs Blind</a> and a dozen others – performed to stadiums full of long-haired fans wearing tee shirts, boots and chain necklaces. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246516/original/file-20181120-161638-4amve3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bangladeshi band Rockstrata, in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstrata#/media/File:RS_First_Lineup.jpg">Mahbub19702002/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was revolutionary in a place where musical performances were historically quiet, calm and disciplined.</p>
<p>Rock concerts were loud. Fans smoked cigarettes, headbanged, and got in fights. Artists used alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, if not as heavily as their American or British counterparts. </p>
<h2>A rock democracy</h2>
<p>As Bangladesh’s economy opened up to the world in the late 1990s – its <a href="http://www.ide.go.jp/library/Japanese/Publish/Download/Report/2011/pdf/410_ch6.pdf">textile exports</a> leaving the country while Hollywood films and luxury vehicles <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alyssaayres/2014/10/28/bangladesh-capitalist-haven/">flowed in</a> – inequality also <a href="https://www.jica.go.jp/activities/issues/poverty/profile/pdf/bangladesh_e.pdf">rose quickly</a>, particularly in rapidly growing cities, where poverty persisted and new wealth accumulated.</p>
<p>Bangladeshi rockers were unsparing critics of these disparities.</p>
<p>In the 1998 track “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yckKfuVqkkI">Dhushor Manchitro</a>,” or “Faded Map,” the metal band Warfaze sings of a “hopeless time,” with “dead bodies on the street every day” and “arrogant blue Mercedes” rushing past, “democracy winking” at the injustice.</p>
<p>In the 1997 track “Gonotontro,” or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLr2nPdWnGI">Democracy</a>,” singer Maqsood O’ Dhaka calls Bangladesh’s democracy a “constitutional thugocracy.” </p>
<p>Rock artists also denounced Bangladesh’s growing religious conservatism. </p>
<p>In the video for his anti-militancy song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtOlVObjbLo">Parwardigar</a>,” Maqsood O’ Dhaka opens with an anti-extremist message. Over images of terrorist attacks and peace rallies, he insists that “blind fanatics and fundamentalists simply cannot snatch away our future.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RtOlVObjbLo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The decline of Bangladeshi rock</h2>
<p>Most of those social and economic problems have only <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/bangladesh">worsened since then</a>.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who took power in 2008, has overseen some remarkable <a href="https://editorials.voa.gov/a/outstanding-progress-bangladesh/4227027.html">economic development</a>. Today, Bangladesh is a <a href="https://medium.com/@stitchdiary/what-makes-bangladesh-a-hub-of-garment-manufacturing-ce83aa37edfc">manufacturing hub</a> with a <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/bangladesh-sources-of-economic-growth-by-kaushik-basu-2018-04">booming economy</a>.</p>
<p>But while there’s good news economically, Hasina’s administration has suppressed <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/10/04/bangladeshs-slide-towards-authoritarianism-is-accelerating">dissent</a> in Bangladesh. </p>
<p>In the past year, two outspoken government critics – the photographer <a href="http://www.bjp-online.com/2018/10/alam-award/">Shahidul Alam</a> and sociology professor <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/court/2018/10/30/cu-teacher-maidul-islam-freed-on-bail">Maidul Islam</a> – were jailed for spreading “propaganda and false information,” a charge that carries up to 14 years in prison. </p>
<p>The nonprofit group <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/08/bangladesh-end-crackdown-opposition-supporters">Human Rights Watch</a> has called on Hasina’s government to stop the arbitrary arrests of opposition activists. Bangladesh’s <a href="http://www.newagebd.net/article/42635/jails-crammed-with-85859-inmates">prisons</a> reportedly house <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-09/hasina-looks-to-extend-10-year-bangladesh-rule-in-dec-23-vote">thousands</a> of people <a href="https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/bengali/opposition-arrests-10092018173451.html">charged</a> with “subversive activities.” </p>
<p>Religious extremism is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/faith-dissent-and-extremism-how-bangladesh-is-struggling-to-stay-secular-68927">rising</a> in Bangladesh. Since 2013 a string of violent attacks targeting <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22424708">secular bloggers</a>, artists, religious minorities and free thinkers has shown the narrowing scope of civil liberties and acceptable public discourse. </p>
<h2>The decade the music died</h2>
<p>Bangladeshis could use a protest music like rock. Instead, rock culture is fading away.</p>
<p>Partly, it has lost ground to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714420601168491?src=recsys&journalCode=gcrv20">Bollywood music</a> from neighboring India, with its colorful power anthems celebrating life and love. Bollywood songs dominates Bangladeshi radio, and pirated versions are available online for free. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a budding underground hip-hop scene <a href="https://theconversation.com/bangladeshi-rappers-wield-rhymes-as-a-weapon-with-tupac-as-their-guide-96324">has largely replaced rock as music of Bangladeshi rebellion</a>.</p>
<p>Domestic law has also failed to protect the financial interests of the artists who once drove Bangladesh’s vibrant rock scene. Industry groups <a href="https://www.dhakatribune.com/uncategorized/2013/09/14/stop-piracy-to-protect-music-industry-urge-musicians">say</a> that just 10 percent of music in Bangladesh is purchased legally and estimate that music piracy annually costs US$180 million in lost earnings. </p>
<p>“Ideas such as intellectual rights and royalties are not strongly embedded in our culture,” Samir Hafiz, Warfaze’s guitarist, told me. “It’s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh.”</p>
<p>Increased religiosity, which rejects all things Western in favor of a traditional lifestyle, has also hurt Bangladesh’s rock scene. Some young Muslims I spoke with even <a href="https://resolvenet.org/research/language-youth-politics-bangladesh-beyond-secular-religious-binary">see rock ‘n’ roll as a sin</a>. </p>
<p>Rock music helped change Bangladesh. Now, there’s little room left for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mubashar Hasan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For decades, Bangladesh had a very vibrant – and highly political – rock scene. But the genre is struggling to survive the country’s crackdown on dissent and increasing Islamic conservatism.Mubashar Hasan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of OsloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/969752018-05-24T10:23:28Z2018-05-24T10:23:28ZCould protest curb school violence? Lessons from the opt-out movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220014/original/file-20180522-51115-1egdc1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students walk out of school in March 2018 as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/School-Shooting-Mobilizing-A-Movement/5a28cb010acf4a4cab85b7453598f6a3/147/0">Lynne Sladky/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of the Santa Fe, Texas, school shooting, former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan voiced support for a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/05/20/612859118/to-pressure-lawmakers-on-gun-control-a-push-to-boycott-school">school boycott</a>. The boycott – which Duncan has said could take place in September – would involve keeping kids out of school until changes are made to the nation’s gun laws to make America’s schools safer. It is unclear how long the boycott would last.</p>
<p>If parents, students and others decide to stage a national school boycott, it would pay for them to take a few pages out of the <a href="https://files-eric-ed-gov.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/fulltext/EJ1100171.pdf">playbook</a> from a different protest: the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/10/26/556840091/2-years-after-opt-out-are-students-taking-fewer-tests">opt-out movement</a> that seeks to reduce burdensome testing. I make this observation as the author of books on <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-for-Dissent-Citizenship-Education-and-Political-Activism/Stitzlein/p/book/9781612052298">political dissent in schools</a> and the <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190657383.001.0001/acprof-9780190657383">state of public education</a>.</p>
<h2>A more compelling argument</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.tc.columbia.edu/media/news/docs/Opt_Out_National-Survey----FINAL-FULL-REPORT.pdf">opt-out movement</a> draws attention to the suffering of children, reveals <a href="http://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2016/august/results-from-a-national-survey-on-opting-out-of-standardized-tests/">political and economic concerns</a> with individuals and corporations who benefit from testing, and exposes the learning time lost to testing. Since school safety carries more significance than testing, a school boycott to change gun laws may employ similar justifications in an even more compelling way.</p>
<p>The opt-out movement has effectively <a href="http://educationnext.org/opt-out-reflects-genuine-concerns-of-parents-forum-testing/">raised awareness</a> about problems introduced by testing, including the stress inflicted on teachers and students. It has done so through public demonstrations at sites such as the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/shaun-johnson/occupying-the-department-_b_1378555.html">Department of Education</a>, but also by generating smaller <a href="http://www.unitedoptoutnational.org/">local conversations</a> with other stakeholders. </p>
<p>Importantly, opt-out leaders have invited a wide and <a href="http://www.tc.columbia.edu/media/news/docs/Opt_Out_National-Survey----FINAL-FULL-REPORT.pdf">diverse collection</a> of parents into their movement. They have proposed <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/national/alternatives">alternative forms of assessment</a>. They have effectively pressured legislators to <a href="http://wrvo.org/post/ny-makes-substantial-changes-standardized-tests-curb-opt-out-movement">reduce testing</a> in states like New York and to remove “zero score” penalties for children who do not take the test.</p>
<h2>Overcoming complacency</h2>
<p>The consciousness-raising actions of opt-out organizations have forced some people who see testing as an unavoidable part of life in schools to rethink their assumptions. A school boycott could lead to rethinking among those who feel powerless to stop school shootings.</p>
<p>The school boycott cannot just focus on troubling, but rare mass shootings. Based on what I know about effective political dissent, boycotters would need to expose widespread smaller forms of violence in our schools in order to paint a more complete picture of the problem and spur change. Like the Opt Out movement, boycotters would also need to highlight related practices, such as lock down drills and the arming of teachers, to expose ways in which those practices deprive classrooms of educational time, <a href="http://neatoday.org/2018/03/13/nea-poll-arming-teachers/">concern teachers</a>, and <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/metroparent/features/2018/03/02/school-lockdown-drills-routine-young-children-and-terrifying-their-parents/378245002/">cause fear in children</a>. Boycotters should reveal how insecurity due to violence create a climate that lacks the stability and focus children need to learn well.</p>
<h2>More than just skipping school</h2>
<p>Finally, boycotting doesn’t mean simply staying home. It requires public demonstrations to raise awareness and to pressure legislators by letting them see the dissatisfaction and demands of the public. It entails a call to deliberate with other citizens, gun advocates, teachers, legislators and others to reach moments of compromise and consensus as well as to craft alternatives.</p>
<p>These alternatives might take the form of particular gun laws, but may also relate to other aspects of <a href="https://theconversation.com/improving-school-climate-not-just-security-is-key-to-violence-prevention-96898">school culture</a> that impact school violence, such as bullying, stress and exclusion.</p>
<p>How do we preserve educational opportunity if classrooms are empty? At a minimum, boycotters must model quality political dissent for students so that they learn how to be effective citizens, one of the most longstanding and widely accepted <a href="http://pdkpoll.pdkintl.org/;%20Jennifer%20L.%20Hochschild%20and%20Nathan%20B.%20Scovronick,%20The%20American%20Dream%20and%20the%20Public%20Schools%20(Oxford:%20Oxford%20University%20Press,%202003).11.%20%20And%20Phi%20Delta%20Kappan%20annual%20poll%202016%20http:/pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/581">educational aims</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, parents should join up with students who’ve already led the charge through staging <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-national-school-walkout-says-about-schools-and-free-speech-93327">national school walkouts</a> in the wake of Parkland and other shootings. And they should collaborate with organizations like <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/14/17120796/national-school-walkout-race-gun-violence-protests">Black Lives Matter</a>, who have already been championing the need for safety in schools, in order to craft better informed plans for change.</p>
<p>A sufficiently robust boycott could prompt new forms of gun legislation and bring new practices to curb violence to America’s schools. All the while, parents may become more active citizens in the democratic process of public education and students may witness – and participate in – political dissent in action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Stitzlein receives funding from the Center for Ethics and Education and the Spencer Foundation. </span></em></p>Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called for a school boycott to change the nation’s gun laws and make schools safer. A scholar who studies protest explains how the boycott could work.Sarah Stitzlein, Professor of Education and Affiliate Faculty in Philosophy, University of Cincinnati Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/907252018-02-09T12:44:07Z2018-02-09T12:44:07ZMembers of Congress respond to more than money – sometimes<p>Does citizen activism really affect the actions of elected officials?</p>
<p>Despite the <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo27316263.html">ubiquitous role</a> of money in campaigns, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1065912917749323">elections</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673X11416920">policymaking</a>, some citizens clearly still believe in the power of protest.</p>
<p>In the month of December 2017 alone, an organization called <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/crowdcountingconsortium/home">The Crowd Counting Consortium</a> “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/01/25/in-december-thousand-of-americans-protested-against-the-tax-plan-for-daca-and-about-all-the-other-usual-suspects/?utm_term=.cac4dde30652">tallied 796 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins and rallies</a>,” some of them featuring thousands of people, across the country. Over the past year, the offices of many members of Congress and other elected officials have been jammed with constituents voicing their opinions on the Affordable Care Act, the immigration program called DACA, abortion and sexual harassment, among others. </p>
<p>But does all of this sign waving and sitting in actually influence elected officials?</p>
<p>As social scientists, we have long been interested in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1XMWY78AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">political participation</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1065912912436695">online activism</a>. We used this knowledge to design a study that looks at <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/representation-in-an-era-of-political-and-economic-inequality-how-and-when-citizen-engagement-matters/CBAC4BC7085D4DA96CFFEFACD14C1B64">whether activism changes the votes of elected officials</a> – and whether the effect is strong enough to mitigate the power of donated money. </p>
<p>What we found is that citizens can make their voices heard – at least some of the time.</p>
<h2>Activism, an American tradition</h2>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1364-8">Signing petitions, contacting officials and protesting</a> are potentially powerful because congressional elections occur only every other year, while representatives cast votes on important issues much more frequently.</p>
<p>The country’s founders believed deeply in the right of citizens to act on their political beliefs. They enshrined that right in the <a href="http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1.html">First Amendment</a>. </p>
<p>Protests – from the original Tea Party in 1773 to the 1960s civil rights marches to abortion clinic activists in recent years – offer dramatic examples of citizens making their voices heard. But protests are not the only way citizens communicate with elected officials. Americans also have a rich history of attending town halls, writing letters to elected officials and signing petitions. </p>
<p>Despite the variety of ways citizens can express what they want their elected officials to do, most citizens believe that politicians, and especially Congress, are <a href="http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/HTML%20Reports/the-frustrated-public-americans-views-of-the-election-issue-brief.aspx">failing in their roles</a> as the public’s representatives. </p>
<p>Cynics, as well as <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10671.html">some</a> <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo27316263.html">scholars</a>, suggest that taking political action may be irrelevant or simply pales in comparison to the more powerful influence of money in politics. After <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality">decades</a> of <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/892939587">increasing income inequality in the U.S.</a>, and growing amounts of special-interest money helping to fund election campaigns, a common finding in recent research is that elected officials respond to the opinions of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10831.html">the wealthy more than to those of the poor</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1205&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205335/original/file-20180207-74506-1q41iab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">America’s activist tradition: An 1871 petition to Congress requesting the right to vote for women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But other research suggests that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2005.00357.x/abstract">members of Congress respond to more than just the power of money</a>. That research found that members of Congress respond more to voters in their districts than to nonvoters when making policy. Knowing that, it seemed reasonable to ask whether elected officials in Congress respond to political activism in the same way.</p>
<h2>Founders’ faith affirmed</h2>
<p>Our survey looked at four issues that were on the congressional agenda in 2012, a year for which good data is available. The issues were the repeal of the ACA, approval of the Keystone Pipeline XL, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which would allow gays to serve openly in the armed services, and approval of the Korean Free Trade Agreement, which would remove tariffs on trade between the U.S. and South Korea. We asked survey respondents what their preferred policy was and then compared that to votes their members of Congress cast. </p>
<p>On two of these issues, we found that elected leaders’ choices on roll call votes aligned better with voters in their districts compared to nonvoters. Those issues were the ACA and Keystone Pipeline. </p>
<p>For the ACA, activists and donors, especially activists and donors of the same party as their representative, also enjoyed greater similarity with their representatives than non-activists and non-donors. </p>
<p>For the Keystone Pipeline, donors were also better represented than non-donors. </p>
<p>So – especially for the ACA – activists were better represented by their elected officials than non-activists. </p>
<h2>Activism pays on high-profile issues</h2>
<p>These striking findings led us to another question: Was the power of activism strong enough to counter the influence of money?</p>
<p>Among voters who are not politically active in additional ways, we found that those who have the highest income are better represented than those with the least income. But activism changes this: When the poor become politically active in addition to voting, they are represented about the same as the wealthy.</p>
<p>This effect held true only for the ACA, not for the other issues we studied.</p>
<p>We believe that the effectiveness of activism directed toward House members is likely restricted to high-profile issues that are well-covered by the media, where partisan positions are strong and well-established and the issue itself is highly contentious to the public. In these circumstances, activist citizens can potentially have a stronger influence than the wealthy over the policies Congress produces.</p>
<p>Our findings lead us to two more observations. </p>
<p>First, activism may be more effective in competitive congressional districts, where elections are often won by small margins.</p>
<p>Voter turnout in these competitive districts is a common topic of discussion and it is often used as a political strategy to win the election. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S000305541600006X">Political engagement beyond Election Day</a> is less discussed, yet perhaps just as important.</p>
<p>Second, in the House of Representatives, where many claim “all politics is local,” we expected to find that members are more responsive to citizen activism on a wider set of issues than the ACA. Perhaps this is true in state legislatures and city councils, where elected officials have smaller and often more homogeneous districts to represent, and where issues may not be so partisan.</p>
<p>In any case, the founders’ faith in the power of citizen activism has been borne out, at least partially. Elected officials do respond to citizens who do more than vote — and they also respond to those activists in a way that might well counter the advantages of the wealthy in American politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Citizen activists can influence the policy positions of their elected representatives. Their activism might well counter the advantages of the wealthy in America.Jan Leighley, Professor of Government, American University School of Public AffairsJennifer Oser, Senior Lecturer of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769922017-05-05T06:06:34Z2017-05-05T06:06:34ZWhat happens when scientists stand up for science<p>The 2017 <a href="https://satellites.marchforscience.com/">March for Science</a> was a powerful political statement by scientists. The marchers opposed political interference, budget cuts and lack of support for science at a government level. </p>
<p>More commonly, though, scientists stay in their labs and avoid the public political spotlight. </p>
<p>CSIRO scientist John Church – who initially acted as an individual (not a representative of his research institution) to “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-02/csiro-missing-in-action-on-climate-advice/8479568">stand up for science</a>” in 2015 – is cited as a recent example of the career ramifications that can flow from public activity. </p>
<p>Actually, he’s not alone. For years, outspoken scientists have encountered career difficulties and personal repercussions. </p>
<p>But climate science and the advent of digital and social media shape how scientists speak publicly about science now. </p>
<h2>Decades of attacks on scientists</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-edit-science-part-5-so-what-is-science-74550">Science</a>, an effective system for generating knowledge, is inextricably linked with economic, military and political activity. </p>
<p>For decades, <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo3638376.html">scientific research has been shaped</a> by the agendas of the most powerful groups in society, primarily governments and corporations. The period following World War II has been described as the era of “<a href="http://derekdesollaprice.org/little-science-big-science-full-text/">big science</a>” with generous funding for research. </p>
<p>Periodically though, research findings connect with emerging social movements. </p>
<p>In the early 1970s, CSIRO scientist <a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/86is/Springell.html">Peter Springell</a> reported that he was blocked from publishing articles on environmental topics using his CSIRO affiliation, after he criticised CSIRO’s lack of environmental research. </p>
<p>According to Springell, he was targeted with a punitive transfer and <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120035676/">recommended for dismissal</a>. To my knowledge, there has been <a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/86is/Springell.html">no public response from CSIRO</a> to this claim. </p>
<p>Claims have also been made regarding repercussions after scientists spoke up about hazards from <a href="https://academic.oup.com/spp/article/13/6/312/1612999/Nuclear-suppression">nuclear power</a>, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306312708089716">genetic modification</a>, <a href="http://www.goingsomewherebook.com">electromagnetic fields</a> or <a href="http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74">using treated sewage sludge</a> on agricultural land. </p>
<p>In several scientific fields, there is a pattern of <a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/99rsppp.pdf">suppression of dissent</a>. In many of these cases, scientists have challenged either the orthodoxy in the field or policy positions. </p>
<p>Whether these challengers are right or wrong is not the focus of this analysis. Rather, the point is that their claims should be evaluated scientifically and that the scientists should not be subject to unfair treatment.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/WilsonBarnes95.pdf">survey</a> of Australian environmental scientists undertaken in the mid 1990s contained 70 participants. Over half of respondents believed that scientists who spoke out about environmental issues could jeopardise their research funding or career prospects. </p>
<p><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/307/5711/854.summary">Surveys</a> conducted in 2002/2003 in “a sample of researchers drawn from prestigious U.S. academic departments” reported that “nearly half the researchers felt constrained by explicit, formal controls, such as governmental regulations and guidelines codified by universities, professional societies, or journals”. </p>
<h2>And then came climate change</h2>
<p>In the past two decades, the usual pattern of scientific research shaped by social interests has been challenged in several ways. A key factor is climate science. The scientific orthodoxy today – that global warming is occurring and largely due to human influences – is contrary to the interests of the fossil fuel industry. </p>
<p>Because climate change is the world’s most prominent environmental issue, this causes unprecedented tensions in countries such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-climate-politics-in-2017-a-guide-for-the-perplexed-70526">Australia</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-rural-america-is-acting-on-climate-change-without-calling-it-climate-change-69866">US</a>, where some politicians appear sympathetic to climate scepticism.</p>
<p>Under the US administrations of George W Bush and Donald Trump, this tension has been exacerbated by concerns about <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/abuses-science-case-studies#.WQl7bVKB1Uc">overt political interference</a> in research agendas.</p>
<p>Removal of references to climate change on the White House website is cited as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-marching-for-science-in-australia-73907">one of the triggers</a> for the global March for Science movement. </p>
<h2>Control and trust</h2>
<p>The emergence of open access research published online, plus social media has changed how scientific findings are distributed and read, and who drives dialogues about science. Scientists, governments and other groups can’t control conversations about the implications of research in this environment. </p>
<p>Action groups can more readily access research findings, and use them to support their causes. This occurs in all sorts of fields. </p>
<p>Public trust in authorities is in decline, including those in <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0198295685.001.0001/acprof-9780198295686">government</a>, <a href="https://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/climate-change/politicization-science-public-sphere-trust-united-states">science</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-trust-crisis-in-healthcare-9780195176360?cc=au&lang=en&">health</a>. </p>
<p>Yet another factor is the increasing role of <a href="https://theconversation.com/35-years-for-manning-and-time-for-better-whistleblowing-laws-17333">whistleblowing</a>. Speaking out in the public interest occurs in all sorts of areas, including schools, police, the military, the public service, churches and businesses. So why not in scientific fields?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/15sls.html">Public interest leaking</a> — or anonymous whistleblowing — has received enormous attention due to WikiLeaks and the spectacular disclosures by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. It’s an option some scientists may choose to take. </p>
<h2>Group and anonymous activity</h2>
<p>Systems of power have always led to <a href="http://alicedreger.com/GMF">attacks on scientists</a> who are seen as a threat by governments, corporations or (in recent decades) members of identity groups such as transgender activists. Most of these cases involve both power and a clash of worldviews. </p>
<p>There is safety in numbers, and this is why the March for Science is so important. <a href="https://satellites.marchforscience.com/">Reports</a> say that thousands of scientists across more than 600 cities stood up for science on April 22, 2017. </p>
<p>It remains risky to speak out as an individual, so the option of leaking information to the media or to action groups may become increasingly attractive. </p>
<p>However, in Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/unesco-report-surveillance-and-data-collection-are-putting-journalists-and-sources-at-risk-77038">surveillance and data retention</a> may make it more difficult to maintain anonymity. </p>
<p>Individual scientists may still choose to become advocates to support informed public debate and policymaking. Because of the risk of reprisals, such scientists would be wise to learn media skills, campaigning techniques and how to be more effective when speaking out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Martin is vice president of Whistleblowers Australia. </span></em></p>It’s not a new phenomenon that scientists who challenge the orthodoxy or policy positions suffer career ramifications.Brian Martin, Honorary professorial fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/610372016-06-20T13:43:36Z2016-06-20T13:43:36ZDisagreement can become an act of love and reconciliation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126578/original/image-20160614-22418-1mp98e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people find the very idea of disagreement, and of disagreeing with another human being face to face, terrifying. They arrange their personal and professional lives to avoid disagreements of any kind – particularly those that may generate some level of emotional discomfort.</p>
<p>The roots of this attitude can be found in a range of factors: cultural norms, individual psychological makeup, gender, race, poverty and other forms of marginalisation. Women, for instance, have traditionally been socialised to be agreeable, to acquiesce and to comply. </p>
<p>Under apartheid <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/influence-apartheid">“baasskap”</a>, or white power, ensured that black South Africans “knew their place”. Being independent of thought or disagreeing with a white person face to face could result in considerable trouble. A highly conditioned and contrived air of agreement became an act of survival for black South Africans.</p>
<p>Today, South Africa is on an often untidy journey towards a democratic future. It has officially eradicated colonialism, apartheid and patriarchy. But the vestiges remain. To challenge these, the country may have to build a mental infrastructure that will enable people to individually and collectively engage in a bold, courageous and truthful dialogue. South Africans will have to learn to candidly confront the many disagreements that are so apparent in their midst. </p>
<p>What role can universities, and particularly law faculties, play in building this mental infrastructure?</p>
<h2>Where disagreements build knowledge</h2>
<p>There are some places where disagreements are intrinsic to the entire enterprise. Disagreement is a learning experience. Learning comes about through disagreement. Conclusions or “truths” are reached through a process of argument and counterargument. Logic and reasoned analysis are the best method of persuasion. I am referring here, of course, to universities and – given my own <a href="http://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=9244">particular interest</a> – law faculties.</p>
<p>Law faculties must educate the next generation of legal professionals who may become advocates for others. For the student, this means several things: intellectual disruptions, confronting uncomfortable truths, facing insecurities and fears, and developing the capacity to engage intelligently and effectively in civil debates. All of this has to happen on the path towards becoming a well-rounded, empathetic legal professional. </p>
<p>The advocacy system in the world of law is based on the notion that the nearest truth and the fairest outcome result from two opposing points of view, both strenuously asserted. Presentation to a judge is called oral argument. But even some legally trained people, including legal academics, shy away from vigorous debate in their personal or parts of their professional lives. They worry that arguing is perceived as hostile or a way to silence or demean another.</p>
<h2>Learning through disagreement</h2>
<p>During 2015, starting with the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/nov/18/why-south-african-students-have-turned-on-their-parents-generation">#Rhodes Must Fall</a> movement at the University of Cape Town and followed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/feesmustfall">other movements</a> across South Africa, students forced universities to engage in a national conversation about the 1994 transition to democracy. Students voiced their displeasure loudly and vociferously. They imposed across universities a range of divisive and uncomfortable encounters and conversations, particularly around race and “white privilege”.</p>
<p>One of the students’ demands was for “safe spaces” across campuses, a call which has also <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21678223-obsession-safe-spaces-not-just-bad-education-it-also-diminishes-worthwhile-campus">emerged</a> at US and UK universities in recent years. In South Africa, students insisted they shouldn’t have to confront constant reminders of the country’s authoritarian colonial past. </p>
<p>But the desire for “safe spaces”, although well-intentioned, often allows room only for placard-ready and bumper-sticker statements – not reasoned argument and persuasion. It also reinforces preexisting views that further entrench bias and polarisation – a phenomenon referred to as <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/confirmation_bias.htm">“confirmation bias”</a>. It precludes open and sincere dialogue about weighty societal issues that may call for nuance and complexity. </p>
<p>As US President Barack Obama put it during <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/23/remarks-president-obama-town-hall-young-leaders-uk">a speech</a> in London in April 2016:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you spend time with people who just agree with you on any particular issue, you become even more extreme in your convictions because you’re never contradicted and everyone just mutually reinforces their perspective. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As I’ve said, this reticence may be a result of culture or socialisation. Yet among many individuals, families, cultures and subcultures, arguing is the way to show caring and engagement. It helps people to honestly and transparently reach understanding and perhaps reconciliation. That has been true for me, growing up in Cape Town’s <a href="http://global.britannica.com/topic/Coloured">Coloured</a> community and also, in my experience, among the African-American and Jewish communities in my former home in New York City.</p>
<p>These lessons can be applied in universities.</p>
<h2>An act of love</h2>
<p>In the setting of a university disagreement should be seen not as a negative impulse or activity, but as an act of love and reconciliation. It is signalling that one cares enough about another’s opinion to engage deeply and question in an effort to understand. It is about working through opposing viewpoints to reach a common understanding, even without ultimate agreement. It is about engaging with the other in a respectful manner by signalling the importance of such engagement.</p>
<p>Honest arguments respectfully made may lead to a deeper understanding, coming to terms with difference, and possibly even reconciliation and compromise. On the other hand, feigned agreement and acquiescence in the face of disagreement, while disregarding the argument of another, risk greater misunderstanding and mistrust.</p>
<p>When disagreement is an act of love, even an occasionally raised voice does not denote an effort to silence the other person. Rather, it’s a sign of engagement and an invitation to participate in a spirited exchange. How can universities, especially law faculties, enable this?</p>
<p>In the wake of continued contestation around the meaning, role and possibilities of the Constitution, law faculties are well-suited to create the space in which contestation and dialogue are nurtured and sustained. The content of individual classes provide fine venues for debate and disagreement. </p>
<p>For example, courses in property law may confront the violence of land confiscation from indigenous communities during colonialism and apartheid, and what that means for the contemporary beneficiaries of such land confiscation. A course on criminal law may confront the law of rape and its impact on victims and society beyond the formal legal rules regarding rape. </p>
<p>Structures could also be introduced that encourage dialogue. UCT’s Law Faculty holds assemblies that are open to all staff and students to discuss items of relevance and concern. Or law faculties could host public conversations that cover controversial topics, such as <a href="http://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=9552">an event</a> about race, law and transformation that UCT hosted earlier in 2016. </p>
<p>After all, the skill of debate, disagreement and argumentation is the bread and butter of law; one of its most notable features. It may also be one of its most durable contributions to South African democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penelope Andrews does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa needs to build a mental infrastructure that will allow people to individually and collectively engage in a bold, courageous and trutfhul dialogue.Penelope Andrews, Dean of Law and Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/528712016-01-11T06:21:06Z2016-01-11T06:21:06ZHard Evidence: this is the Age of Dissent – and there’s much more to come<p>The year 2011 is widely viewed as the peak of protest and dissent in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the austerity agenda that followed it. It was the year of the Arab Spring, Occupy, UK Uncut, <em>indignados</em>, urban riots and anti-austerity and tuition fee protests – and in which Time magazine famously named “The Protester” <a href="http://content.time.com/time/person-of-the-year/2011/">as its person of the year</a>. </p>
<p>Yet in the UK, protests continue to occur at a rate rarely seen prior to the global economic crisis in 2008. Indeed, 2015 seems to have confirmed the suggestion, made at the beginning of the year, that 2011 was “<a href="https://roarmag.org/essays/protests-2014-global-uprisings/">really only just the beginning</a>”. </p>
<p>In fact, we appear to be facing a longer-term age of contestation, perhaps prompted by the experience of low growth, and the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08935696.2013.843250">hardening of attitudes</a> by mainstream politicians despite growing popular demands.</p>
<h2>Raising the protest banner</h2>
<p>As part of a <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bp/journal/v9/n1/abs/bp201326a.html">research project looking at protest events in the post-2008 context</a>, I have recorded a catalogue of UK-based protest events reported in major British national newspapers, spanning back to the late 1970s. And it suggests that 2015 actually had the highest level of visible dissent in the UK since before the 1980s.</p>
<p>In updating the dataset of protest events, and building on <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bp/journal/v9/n1/abs/bp201326a.html">earlier estimates made on the basis of data covering the period up until 2012</a>, we can see that the frequency of protests peaked in 2010-2011 and subsided slightly in 2012 – perhaps as a result of despondency after some of the big anti-austerity movements, such as the tuition fee protests, were ignored and/or <a href="http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/files/pdf/dtrtp_victory_for_alfie_and_zak.pdf">heavily repressed</a>. But from 2013 onwards dissent has returned to levels witnessed during earlier stages of the anti-austerity movement, and continued to rise through to a new high in 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average number of protest events per year, 1980s-2015.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can also use this dataset to assess changes to the types of protester involved. As the figure below shows, dissent in the 1980s was overwhelmingly conducted by workers and organised labour. In contrast, the protests during the heyday of the anti-austerity protests in 2010-11 were conducted predominantly by three main groups: workers, students, and those anti-cuts activists identifying explicitly with the anti-austerity movement, such as <a href="https://twitter.com/UKuncut">UK Uncut</a>.</p>
<p>What was noteworthy about the dissent and protest which took place in 2015, however, was its considerably more pluralist nature which involved seven key groups of protesters dominating protest politics. While workers and environmentalists conducted around one-third of all protest events in 2015, another five groups – housing activists, students, pro-minority groups (including those supporting refugees and asylum seekers), anti-cuts activists and right-wing groups – each contributed between 6% and 10% of the total protest activity for the year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of protest events, by protester type.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can also use the catalogue of protest events to identify changing patterns of protest. Thus, the figure below shows trends for the seven most popular forms of dissent between the 1980s and 2015. In the 1980s, strikes and wildcat strikes made up 50 per cent of protest events, a figure which shrank to 17.5 per cent in 2010-11 and remained at around that level in 2015 (22%). </p>
<p>The big change in 2015, however, was the rise in the “other” category – that is, protest events that did not fit within the most common forms of protest. This was largely explained by the relatively large number of “stunts” carried out by protesters in 2015 – reflecting growing innovation among contemporary protesters (itself possibly explained by the increased need to stand out in order to attract media and public attention). </p>
<p>This includes the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/01/seven-activists-arrested-during-protests-against-fossil-fuels-across-the-uk">baring of the bottoms</a> of the 12 Reclaim the Power protesters outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, adopting the slogan, “wind not gas!” at the beginning of June. It also included <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/sep/11/vivienne-westwood-tank-protest-fracking-david-cameron-chadlington">Vivienne Westwood’s driving a tank</a> to David Cameron’s home to protest against fracking in September and the public <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/08/forces-veterans-protest-downing-street-against-british-airstrikes-syria">discarding of medals by veteran soldiers</a> protesting against the government’s decision to begin the bombing of Syria in December. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of protest events, by form of protest.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what’s the gripe?</h2>
<p>Given that 2015 had the highest frequency of reported protest events in the UK since the 1970s, we might also identify what these protests were about. </p>
<p>In terms of strike actions, the transport sector witnessed some of the biggest strikes, with Unite overseeing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31139088">strike action by bus drivers</a> in a dispute with London bus companies over the standardisation of pay, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2015/jul/09/tube-strike-london-underground-live-updates">RMT tube workers taking strike action</a> over the introduction of all-night tube services. </p>
<p>2015 also saw the beginning of a novel form of quasi-strike action by solicitors and barristers in their move to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/15/barristers-vote-to-join-solicitors-legal-aid-protest">cease taking on new cases</a> in protest at the government’s cuts to legal aid. There was also an escalation of the dispute led by PCS union members at the National Gallery over privatisation, leading to an <a href="http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/pcs_comment.cfm/first-day-of-national-gallery-all-out-strike-stronger-than-ever">all-out strike</a> which began in August and which was only <a href="http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/national-gallery/latest-news.cfm#thanks">resolved in October</a> after negotiations led to a deal on pay and conditions, as well as the reinstatement of one of the sacked trade union reps involved in the dispute. </p>
<p>The housing crisis also prompted a large increase in 2015 of housing-related protests, including the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/19/sleepover-protest-led-by-russell-brand-draws-150-to-sweets-way-estate">occupation of Sweets Way Estate in March</a>, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/14/focus-e15-housing-activist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-squatting">occupation in April</a> by members of the Focus E15 housing campaign group of a flat from which resident Jasmin Stone had earlier been evicted and the occupation of empty properties by groups such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/18/former-manchester-united-star-occupiers-of-hotel-winter-ryan-giggs-gary-neville">Manchester Angels</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12073854/Squatters-occupy-Royal-Mint-site-to-protest-against-homelessness.html">Camden Mothership</a> protesting against homelessness (as well as trying to find opportunities for housing). </p>
<p>Some of the biggest demonstrations of the year continued to focus on the government’s austerity measures, including the 100,000 attendees at the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jun/20/anti-austerity-demonstrations-live">People’s Assembly Against Austerity</a> in June and 50,000 people protesting <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/04/anti-austerity-protestors-march-manchester-demonstration-conservative-party-conference">outside the Conservative Party Conference in October</a>. September also saw <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/12/london-rally-solidarity-with-refugees">30,000 demonstrators calling for the government to do more to help refugees</a>, and in November <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/29/protesters-gather-around-the-world-for-a-strong-climate-change-deal">50,000 environmentalists demonstrated</a> in support of stronger government action to be agreed at the Paris summit.</p>
<h2>But did it change the world?</h2>
<p>Finally, while some commentators have begun (again) to <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4614615.ece">proclaim the futility of protest</a>, some important concessions were also won as a result of the 2015 protests, <a href="http://ser.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/1/5">confirming recent research</a> which suggests that only direct action protest consistently produces desired results in times of stagnant economic growth. </p>
<p>Sports Direct <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a2f74f6-af96-11e5-b955-1a1d298b6250.html">recently agreed</a> to pay all staff above the national minimum wage, following protests which included <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/09/sports-direct-investors-revolt-against-chairman-and-pay-policy">Unite members dressing up as Dickensian workers</a> to protest the pay and conditions suffered by employees of the company outside its AGM. </p>
<p>The tube workers’ strike resulted in the <a href="http://www.cityam.com/226602/transport-for-london-to-cut-out-unions-and-go-direct-to-workers-over-night-tube">apparently indefinite delay</a> of the implementation of all-night opening.</p>
<p>After more than 60,000 people signed a <a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_protest_loc/?pv=76&rc=fb">petition</a> in February against what was perceived to be an attempt to charge for the right to protest, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/26/met-backs-down-on-refusal-to-police-climate-and-womens-marches">Metropolitan police backed down</a> in its attempt to make two organisations – Campaign Against Climate Change and the Million Women Rise campaign – pay the policing costs necessary for them to be able to hold demonstrations. </p>
<p>Direct action protests by milk farmers also resulted in a number of concessions from supermarkets, including Asda agreeing to a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33915371">minimum payment per litre for milk</a>. And the <a href="http://anticuts.com/2015/10/16/victory-for-the-ucl-rent-strike-students-win-nearly-100k-compensation/">students staging a rent strike at UCL won nearly £100,000 in compensation</a> – or £1,368 per head – following a successful campaign against the university which also led to it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/11/university-college-london-students-withhold-rent-over-building-works">backing down over its threat</a> to prevent students from graduating unless they ended the strike.</p>
<p>While the frequency of reported protest events in the UK rose in 2015 to its highest level since the end of the 1970s, 2016 looks set to bring still more discord. The ongoing <a href="http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/what_is_the_housing_crisis">housing crisis</a>, the <a href="http://oneprofession.bma.org.uk/">industrial dispute over junior doctor’s contracts</a>, and the apparent willingness of Jeremy Corbyn to use his position as Labour Party leader to fuel further mobilisation and dissent (for instance, by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-urges-dft-to-stop-rail-fare-rises-as-he-highlights-the-absurdity-of-foreign-a6795406.html">recently attending the passenger protest against rising rail prices</a>), suggest that 2016 will be a year in which protests, in the ongoing context of prolonged economic stagnation, continue to gather pace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David J. Bailey receives funding from the ESRC as part of a seminar series on the post-crisis landscape, including on democracy and political participation since 2008.</span></em></p>There were more protests in Britain last year than at any time since the 1970s.David J. Bailey, Lecturer in Politics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/499662015-10-29T19:24:51Z2015-10-29T19:24:51ZHow free are we really?<p>Freedom. A word redolent with benevolence. We like the idea of being “free”. We are outraged at the thought of being “un-free”. It is often presented to us as a polarity: free expression, free choice and democracy, on the one hand – and repression, censorship and autocracy on the other. We are to guard the former from the latter.</p>
<p>But is that all? What is the “freedom” we are told about, think about and experience? What does it consist of? What uses do we put it to or – perhaps even more importantly – not put it to?</p>
<p>In the advanced capitalist polities of the West, we are repeatedly told that freedom is the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html">defining value of our time</a>, that it is a precious possession to preserve by almost any means, even a measure of un-freedom, say, in the form of <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/">increased surveillance or accelerated militarisation</a>. As such, it is a word that is put to many dubious uses including, of course, the now familiar idea of “bringing” freedom and liberty to a “recalcitrant world”, as <a href="http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/reading/Criticism%20and%20Culture%20-%20Colonialism%20and%20the%20Question%20of%20'Freedom'.pdf">David Harvey puts it</a>. He asks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we were able to mount that wondrous horse of freedom, where would we seek to ride it?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Where indeed?</p>
<h2>Freedom ‘thingified’</h2>
<p>Has “freedom” turned into one of those buzzwords honoured more in the invocation than in its exercise? A talismanic utterance commandeered for various agendas including offering a reinforcing platform to the rich and the powerful, even when some of those people are responsible for squashing free expression and academic freedom – and worse – in their own states?</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99849/original/image-20151027-4971-1iuxzfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Would you like dignity with those?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PROistolethetv</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Free speech” – rather than being the nurturing and encouragement of real courage and the opening up of the imagination to new possibilities – is in danger of becoming one of the great banalities of our day, trotted out much more by the establishment for explaining its more degraded moves than a channel for producing meaningful dissent that could lead to material alternatives for the majority.</p>
<p>As something “thingified” – to borrow a word from Aimé Césaire’s <a href="http://www.rlwclarke.net/theory/SourcesPrimary/CesaireDiscourseonColonialism.pdf">Discourse on Colonialism</a> – freedom isn’t seen as a practice which requires constant, vigilant exercise on all our parts. It becomes, for example, something that must be transmitted through teaching from an already free West to the un-free zones of the world. Here’s US president, Barack Obama, addressing the British parliament about the “Arab Spring”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What we are seeing in Tehran, in Tunis, in Tahrir Square, is a longing for the same freedoms that we take for granted here at home … That means investing in the future of those nations that transition to democracy, starting with Tunisia and Egypt – by deepening ties of trade and commerce; by helping them demonstrate that freedom brings prosperity.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fp85zRg2cwg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Freedom friendship: Obama addresses the UK parliament.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once again then, freedom carefully channelled through the checkout lane.</p>
<h2>Gregarious tolerance</h2>
<p>It’s often assumed that science and rationalism are “free” while religion and faith are not. Yet some of the most uncritical acquiescence to the regimes of our day comes from science and many scientists in their <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/14/oxford-university-takes-shell-funding">collaboration with the privatisation of knowledge by big corporations</a> who determine what questions get asked and what gets funded.</p>
<p>More often than not, what must be opposed is not just the openly repressive or oppressive (that of course, must be done – and is done by people who show astounding courage in their daily lives under harsh conditions: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-flogging-of-jailed-saudi-blogger-to-resume-soon-a6710881.html">Saudi bloggers</a>, <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/Report_attacks_on_girls_Feb2015.pdf">women seeking education in Afghanistan</a>, <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/who-was-irom-sharmila-a-look-at-the-life-she-has-lost-and-memories-that-sustain-her/">Irom Sharmila</a> on hunger strike for a decade against army atrocities in India). What we must all guard against is rather more subtle and creeping.</p>
<p>We may have to recognise that the greatest danger to our exercise of freedom is lapsing into habits of thought where we acquiesce – where it becomes easier to think of the way things are as the way things ought to be, or will always be.</p>
<p>Speaking of intellectuals who shy away from the task of speaking difficult truths, the late <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/edward-said-loss-irreplaceable-mentor/4805">Edward Said deprecated</a> what he called “a gregarious tolerance” for the way things are. This gregarious tolerance is rife in our society and more tragically, more inexcusably, in our universities and among our intellectuals where one of the biggest assaults on independent thinking – increasing tuition fees, bloated managerial salaries, greater corporate presence in research funding – is failing to provoke a collective resistance.</p>
<p>We need to guard against turning “freedom” into a weapon of smugness, cultural certainties to be wielded against apparently lesser cultures rather than a tool constantly sharpened through speaking truth about and against power. When freedom is seen as a “thing” – a value to be worshipped rather than as a practice – it atrophies into something that shores up power and the status quo ordained by it and as such becomes its opposite, an ossified, rather toothless idea.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99958/original/image-20151028-21115-1y1mni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Striking a blow for freedom: Frederick Douglass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">George K. Warren/National Archives and Records Administration</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Freedom as an idea and practice, of course, also has a very different history or histories when we think of struggles against power from below. That sense of freedom was perhaps best articulated by remarkable former slave and anti-slavery campaigner, Frederick Douglass, in his <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress">famous speech commemorating the West Indian emancipation</a>. After noting that those “who would be free, themselves must strike the blow”, Douglass famously declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Maintain the rage</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21703018">There Is No Alternative</a> – Margaret Thatcher’s beloved TINA – is now being carried forward through Cameron and Osborne’s austerity regimes. An unfree, repressive, autocratic and despotic idea if there was ever one, but using “freedom” as its logo, the claim there is no “alternative” immediately narrows down “freedom” to consumer choice and business transactions at the expense of all other rights.</p>
<p>Cameron, you’ll note, saw no irony in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/here-are-the-chinese-human-rights-xi-jinping-abuses-david-cameron-won-t-be-bringing-up-a6699726.html">feting Xi Jinping</a>, an unelected ruler from an autocratic regime, and spouting platitudes about human rights. China in many ways represents a capitalist wet dream: a constrained population offering up wage labour without meaningful rights but “free” to consume what they can afford.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99832/original/image-20151027-4980-1gn5k40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maintain the rage. Stephane Hessel.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile as we’ve seen with the hysteria over the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, his once rather widely accepted ideas about social and economic justice are shrilly denounced as dangerous extremism which must be rooted out immediately – no free flourishing of alternatives there. Protest and anger? Bring out the demonising smears, the batons, the legislation, the water cannons.</p>
<p>How then to be free? Face them down. “Indignez vous”, as the French campaigner, Stephane Hessel, put it. Stay indignant. Protest, undermine, challenge and change. Douglass again, famously: “This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited version of a talk delivered by the author at the <a href="http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events">Cambridge Festival of Ideas</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priyamvada Gopal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We are in danger of losing sight of what freedom is.Priyamvada Gopal, Lecturer, Faculty of English, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.