Sunday, June 27, 2010

On message control

Brian Topp, Simple Massing Priest and others are absolutely right in pointing out that violence and vandalism have the disastrous effect of turning what would otherwise be an effective, peaceful protest against corporatist policymaking into the type of destructive scene that's played out in Toronto. And there's no doubt that we should work to ensure that the individuals and groups who carried out those actions are held accountable under the law.

But it's not hard to take the observation a step further, and note that the "forces of reaction" are equally aware of the effect of the few who go too far on their own interests. And with virtually all sides in agreement that the "extremist protesters" message serves the purposes of those seeking to discredit and control the thousands of citizens peacefully exercising their right of free speech and association, one of the most important questions to be asked coming out of this weekend's events is that of what security forces may have done (or failed to do) in order to encourage the development of exactly that narrative.

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