Post-Protest Analysis: Trends and Outcomes
- Many Minnesotans may be losing faith that protests will bring real change.This hesitancy likely mirrors a national trend, as Americans participate in large-scale marches - like recent "No...
- The reality is that America's two-party system, relative economic stability, and overall comfort limit our political imagination.
- The past fifteen years have seen several near-revolutions that ultimately fizzled: the Arab Spring, the summer of George Floyd protests, and Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement.
Many Minnesotans may be losing faith that protests will bring real change.This hesitancy likely mirrors a national trend, as Americans participate in large-scale marches – like recent “No Kings” day events – primarily for a sense of community and release, rather than expecting concrete results.
The reality is that America’s two-party system, relative economic stability, and overall comfort limit our political imagination. Nostalgia plays a part; we frequently enough recreate protests from history books. But the internet and social media also dilute dissent, creating an illusion of strength through sheer volume while diminishing its impact. We tweet, protest, and vote - and those options often feel like the extent of our influence.
The past fifteen years have seen several near-revolutions that ultimately fizzled: the Arab Spring, the summer of George Floyd protests, and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. Currently, Iran is experiencing another wave of unrest. Vincent Bevins, in his 2023 book If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution, chronicles this pattern of online activism leading to powerful street protests, followed by…what? Bevins argues these protests frequently enough fail to achieve lasting political or material gains and are met with intense repression.
I was considering Bevins’s analysis before the killing of Amir Locke in Minneapolis,as tensions rose following the attempted capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.