The point isn’t persuasion. It’s intimidation — to wrest submission through displays of brute force. The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Once you understand the protests in this light, that the ugliness is the point, they make much more sense. And if you believe it, left-wingers aren’t the only ones who see disruption as the key to victory.
That’s the thing, though. It’s not about persuasion. It’s about force. The family trapped on a bridge in New York City isn’t the intended target of these protests. Just a necessary victim. City, state, and federal leaders are the intended audience. Create enough chaos, sow enough discord, cause enough fear and anxiety, and upset basic commerce, and the people who are supposed to keep things running smoothly will cave.
But if that’s the way we’re going to play it, with each side believing that the loudest and most disruptive voice wins, well, there are only a few ways that this plays out — and a few, if any, of the scenarios end well.
