Following protests against the police shooting of John Blake, today @DLeonhardt summarizes a debate that arose over my research: “should progressives worry about political strategy or almost always side with victims of injustice, regardless of tactics.” 🧵 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/briefing/kenosha-melania-trump-hurricane-laura-your-wednesday-briefing.html
A recent paper, ”If a fight starts, watch the crowd,” helps explain two of the dynamics at play: On allegiance, how do allies respond when protesters initiate violence? On strategy, how does a broader public respond? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343318820575
Researchers were conducting a “face-to-face survey in Barcelona in May 2016” when “an unexpected riot outbreak occurred…led by a squat group linked to the anti-austerity movement known as the 15-M.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343318820575
“By comparing respondents interviewed before and after the riots, the study finds that the street violence episode reduced support for the 15-M movement by 12 percentage points on average.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343318820575
”Core supporters, expected to share the frame of the movement in justifying violent actions, are the least affected by the violent outbreak. On the other extreme, weak supporters, opposers, and non-aligned citizens reduce their support to a larger extent.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022343318820575
In sum, in Barcelona, protester-initiated violence worked like a wedge, cleaving core supporters from more weakly aligned. The study helps illuminate @DLeonhardt’s question: the core & non-core respond differently, complicating the ability to understand each other’s perspectives.
Finally, these results are broadly consistent with my own findings. For a summary, see: https://twitter.com/owasow/status/1265709670892580869
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