Comments on: The #BlackLivesMatter Disruptive Activism

By: Donal

Donal — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:11:18 +0000

“Last month I called Bernie Sanders’ Democratic party primary run “sheepdogging” my term for a move the national Democratic party seems to execute every presidential primary season when there’s no incumbent White House Democrat. The job of the sheepdog candidate is to herd leftish voters and activists back into the Democratic party one more time by giving perhaps sincere but limited and ineffectual voice to some of their issues.”
http://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-in-hillarys-pocket

By: Timberwoof

Timberwoof — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 19:35:12 +0000

It seems to me that the first thing they ought to have tried was to call Sanders up on the phone or send him an email and request a conference to talk about important matters. If a reasonable request doesn’t work, then follow it up with impolite activism. Don’t dial it up to 11 right away; do some reasonable calibration first.
Other #BLM representatives have not exactly distanced themselves from this event, and have promised to disrupt speeches of all the other candidates (Rachel Maddow show the other night). We’ll see…

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 11:14:13 +0000

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/08/blm-activist-who-shut-down-sanders-is-radical-christian-sarah-palin-supporter/

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 01:11:56 +0000

I’m going to forget about this particular act of activism. I don’t really care what happened. It was a single event (or two) involving one or two possibly misguided individuals. I don’t see Black Lives Matter continuing to attack only one candidate and ignoring everyone else. If they do so I’ll ignore them too, but that is highly unlikely. They’ll quietly backpedal away from this particular event, now that we know the main person involved seeks the destruction of the Democratic Party hates liberals, whatever whatever.

But the main points the post above stand. 1) we have a major national problem that we have to address vigorously. 2) at some point rushing the stage will get you shot, don’t do that.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 01:09:10 +0000

http://reverbpress.com/politics/black-lives-matter-seattle-protestor-is-a-former-tea-party-palin-fan/

By: tgrayvt2

tgrayvt2 — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 22:56:46 +0000

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/08/blm-activist-who-shut-down-sanders-is-radical-christian-sarah-palin-supporter/ (Disclaimer: I don’t necessarily agree w/ views expressed in this blog post, just providing the info.)

By: Douglas C Alder

Douglas C Alder — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 20:24:14 +0000

That’s interesting Jane. If proven it is really going to hurt the movement.. If Marissa Johnson is then the whole movement is in trouble. It wouldn’t surprise me though – the TP movement was an astroturfing success so why not BLM.

By: jane

jane — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 16:32:43 +0000

I hear from someone this morning – though I have not seen the evidence myself – that the “BLM activists” who took over Sanders’ rally are provably teabaggers. For example, one is – again, allegedly – on record praising Sarah Palin. It’s nice to know that Ben Carson isn’t the only black right-wing fanatic – you feel like the poor man must be lonely.

By: Douglas C Alder

Douglas C Alder — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 16:17:23 +0000

Greg – these people are crazy . They are attacking the one candidate that has been on the side of racial justice before many of them were even born. They shut down one of Bernie’s speeches in Seattle yesterday and interrupted a second.

From http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/a-tale-of-two-bernie-sanders-speeches

Black Lives Matter co-founder Marissa Johnson said, going on to say how important addressing police violence was. “If you care about Black Lives Matter, as you say you do, you will hold Bernie Sanders specifically accountable for his actions.”

Their stupidity in attacking the one person who is most on their side could easily be taken as them being GOP operatives, or more likely Clinton operatives (after all Soros is a big funder of both Hilary and BLM) as Bernie must have her ;looking over her shoulder in fear by now, and dirty pool is de rigueur for the Clintons.

If they are sincere they are going about this in absolutely the wrong way – they should approach Bernie’s campaign to request sharing the stage with him at various events support him, and get their message across to his supporters, most of whom I’m sure already support BLM

It’s difficult to think of a more damaging way to get their message out than what they are now doing. It absolutely won’t help them with his supporters and for everyone else it will just reinforce the “black thug” racist stereotype

By: Robert Grumbine

Robert Grumbine — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 13:46:52 +0000

Saw that note shortly after commenting Greg. Looks like Seattle might have been closer to my attempt at cynicism. Also been a Facebook note from Seattle BLM saying they had nothing to do with it.

Drawback of disruption a tool is that it’s very easy to hijack.

Maybe time for BLM to try hosting a dialogue with some candidates?