Speaking of that other BLM, remember how the Left treated the protesters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge? No vandalism, just occupation of public property during the off season. They were just "a bunch of stupid rednecks who needed to be wiped off the map."
But Occupy Wall Street? That was fine.
People protesting the COVID-19 lockdown were "idiots who wanted to murder gramma just so they could get a haircut. Damn them to hell." Same for the gun owners protesting the various new state gun control measures. Never mind how peaceful they were, they were terrorists because people felt intimidated.
But rioting in the streets and mass arson is OK.
Why is the legitimacy of a protest based not on the cause or the tactics used, but the partisan attitudes toward the ideology behind it?
There is an interesting paradox when it comes to the left: the socialist movement was created by intellectuals who intended to benefit the humble workers. The problem is that left-leaning intellectuals disdain the proletariat that they claim to champion, hence the largely bourgeois makeup of communist groups in capitalist countries. In the event that you meet a communist who is poor, expect them to use the "no true Scotsman" fallacy as soon as you point this out.
(I'm not a fan of stonetoss, but this particular comic is spot on)
I haven't even touched on the methods ("By Any Means Necessary," which is another activist organisation to stay as far away from as possible), but we've already established that we're dealing with a bunch of hypocrites. Right now, the mainstream media is controlled by the left, which is why criticism is directed entirely at right-leaning protesters. Should the right ever control the mainstream media, we'd see the exact opposite, such as a repeat of the Satanic Panic. While I'd like to think that the MSM's approval is at an all-time low, it is still the only source of information for the vast majority of the population, and people really don't like it when you tell them that their favourite news source is little more than a propaganda rag. If only getting people to diversify their news sources wasn't like pulling teeth, I don't think we'd have a lot of the problems that we do.
"We care about the workers... so pay should be based on seniority alone, competence and productivity be damned!"