1) The point of Disruptive Protest is to bring more people to their side.
WRONG! The intent of Disruptive Protest is to make those that do not support, or would rather ignore, the issues that drive protesters into the streets uncomfortable. The main targets of Disruptive Protest are the indifferent, not the opposition. The fact that people feel moved to march means that they have exhausted all the non-disruptive methods of communicating their point and their efforts at discussion, rational argumentation, and other main stream mechanisms have failed and/or have been blocked. This is why Disruptive Protest is so often used by those with the fewest resources and of the most disadvantaged status. We rarely see bankers or CEOs take to the streets because they have the cash, access, and social status to take their cause directly to those in power, or hire lobbyists to do it for them. Disruptive Protesters relish your anger, resentment, and whining comments on social media because these mean that they have successfully disrupted your comfort zone.
Disruptive Protest is something like a social Rorschach test. How a person responds to the disruption says a lot about how that person sees their relationship to the powers that be and/or the amount of privilege they enjoy in their society. Anger is a natural response when a person is blocked by powers beyond their control from pursuing the life they wish to live. If you are angry because a protest has blocked the road, shut down the light rail, or disrupted your flight plans, you have experienced a small taste of what is like to be blocked from a good education, a well-paying job, or equal access to justice by systemic and overt biases in our society. Imagine how upset you would be if the traffic were blocked for decades and you risked arrest, incarceration, or summary execution if you dared to try and find a way around the blockade.
2) Disruptive Protest is inherently violent.
WRONG! While a small fraction of Disruptive Protesters choose to pursue property damage, very few initiate physical violence. The vast majority of Disruptive Protest is based on non-violent principles and the organizers of the marches train their members to act as Marshals to intervene before individuals participating in the protest can move to property damage or violence during interaction with counter -protesters or bystanders. Most people engaging in Disruptive Protest understand that even the slightest violation of the non-violent principles or acts of property damage will become the focus of media reports and be used to paint the protest with the broadest possible brush in an effort to divert attention from the issues they hope to propel into the public consciousness.
3) Disruptive Protest is ineffective.
WRONG! Any serious study of history will reveal that almost every aspect of social, political, and economic change has been initiated by some kind of Disruptive Protest. The US was conceived in Disruptive Protest and it has been a powerful tool shaping our nation ever since. Woman’s suffrage, worker’s rights, civil rights – none of these improvements to our democratic system would have been possible without Disruptive Protest. The effectiveness of Disruptive Protest extends well beyond the borders of the US. The fact that totalitarian and authoritarian rulers work so hard and mercilessly to clamp down on Disruptive Protest is evidence of its effectiveness. The current era in the US is a prime example. The response of conservative politicians to the movement for Black Liberation and Black Live Matter is to increase the penalties for participating in Disruptive Protest, rather than to address the issues raised by the marchers. Clearly, the dominant white privileged culture feels challenged by the effectiveness of the new civil rights movement, otherwise they would not seek to stop it in its tracks.
The Black Lives Matter is the most effective social movement in many decades. These powerful people have pushed the issue of systemic and overt racism and the prevalence of white supremacy into the public square. But that is just the tip of their effectiveness iceberg. In St. Paul, MN the threat of conducting Disruptive Protests at the 2015 State Fair and Twin Cities Marathon lead to negotiation with city and state political leaders and compromise that prevented disruption while giving BLM access to the Fair and space to make their point at the Marathon. Perhaps the most effective aspect of the social activist groups using Disruptive Protest is still unfolding, as a large swathe of street protesters are campaigning for elected office. The movement from the streets to the seats offers a very real opportunity to solidify the effective redirection of the political culture to the benefit of our neighborhoods, cities, towns, states and nation toward a more equitable and just system of democratic self rule in modern American history.
4) Disruptive Protest is sufficient to elicit the changes championed by the protesters.
WRONG! The vast majority of those participating in Disruptive Protests understand that marches and rallies are not enough to change our society in the ways we desire. Almost every protest march includes a speaker or two that explicitly address this issue and reminds participants that Disruptive Protest is merely the beginning of the hard work required to make change. The only people that do not understand this important point are those who believe that they know everything about Disruptive Protest by watching it on TV or reading about it in the media. If you have never joined a march, you know next to nothing about it. If you use any or all of the inaccurate characterizations of Disruptive Protest to demean the protesters, you are merely revealing your ignorance. These untruths are interwoven to ensure that you remain unaware of the power that Disruptive Protest offers in regard to strengthening our democratic system and uplifting our society. Disruptive Protest is only seen as ineffective by those that believe lie #1 and lie #4 is only believed by those that accept lies #1 and #3. I hope I have convinced you that only a very small fraction of those engaging in Disruptive Protest accept any of these lies.
5) Disruptive Protest is a knee-jerk reaction by people too lazy to work through the political system.
WRONG! Organizing rallies, marches, and other Disruptive Protests is hard work that is often undertaken without any possibility of financial reward. Every large and effective protest is the result of extensive planning, tireless training of marshals, education of participants, filing of copious piles of paperwork to get permits, long negotiation with police and public safety institutions, and endless fund-raising to buy the most basic needs – water, independent medics, vests for marshals, signs, and leaflets. Disruptive Protest is the hard work of democracy. It is no place for the lazy or reactionary zealots. As I pointed out while dispelling lie #1, Disruptive Protest is the last resort for people that have been routinely blocked from using the political system to enact the change they desire. The most encouraging aspect of Disruptive Protest in the 21st century was highlighted while tearing down lie #3 and the migration of so many activists into campaigns for elected office. Organizing and funding an insurgent political campaign from outside the established political parties is not a task for the lazy.