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1. Let's talk for a second about the political theory behind rioting. As a political tactic, rioting works by imposing a cost on a specific set of state actions. What does that actually mean in practice? Take, for example, the classic bread riot.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed https://twitter.com/janiobi/status/1294651339935342592
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed https://twitter.com/janiobi/status/1294651339935342592
2. Bread riots in their original form are the product of food price increases (though the term now encompasses riots over a broad array of price increases of staple goods), usually imposed by states as a cost cutting measure by reducing subsidies.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
3. The mechanics of the riot is fairly simple. The rioters will cause property damage and fight the police until either price increases are reversed or the government collapses and is replaced by one that will bow to the rioters' demands.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
4. Often, the rioters are simply defeated militarily by the police or the army. But even in their defeat, the threat of more riots imposes a structural cost to price increases on the state. Any time the state raises bread prices, they now have to
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
5. worry about a riot breaking out. The property damage is a direct cost imposed on both the state, which has to expend considerable resources suppressing the riots, and on the state's allies among the economic elite, who are on the hook for
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
6. often billions of dollars of damage. These riots also pose a threat to the legitimacy and power of the state itself. There's always the chance that a given riot will turn into a full blown revolution will kick off, which elites seek to avoid.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
7. Riots, from a theoretical political science perspective, fulfill the same role as voting does: they make the preferences of the people known and they impose structural costs on elites who act against those preferences.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
8. Now a lot of liberal political scientists get pissed off when you point this out. They'll talk about how rioting in the 60's changed elections and voting patterns in presidential elections, thus getting Republicans elected over Democrats.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
9. They are, as always, missing the point. The structural costs rioting imposes function no matter what set of elites is holding power. The overwhelming passage of the Civil Rights act after the Holy Week Uprising is one example of how this works.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
10. But it also functions in political systems that liberals would consider totalitarian dictatorships. Take, for example, Socialist period China. The CCP was forced, from the early 1950's to Tienanmen, to deal with an unruly urban working class.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
11. This militancy resulted in a near constant series of strikes and riots which reached their peak when insurrectionary workers took Shanghai in 1967. But even before riots turned to revolution the CCP was forced to essentially buy off the urban
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
12. working class. This was one of the major reasons for the Great Leap Forward, and why reform period marketization didn't reach the old iron rice bowl (itself a welfare system designed to keep urban workers from rioting) until the 90's.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
13. Now if rioting, properly focused, can impose massive structural costs on a state like the PRC, we can see that it functions in systems that aren't liberal democracies. And as the American liberal democratic experiment comes to a close with the
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
14. open rigging of elections, let us remember that voting is not the only way to impose costs. Rioting is just democracy by other means.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Post script: I swear to god one day I'm going to finish my full analysis of how rioting is democracy by other means but for now I'm leaving twitter again for a few more days.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Post script 2: There's a pretty good body of academic political science that supports this conclusion, I have basically a course curriculum on it somewhere I'm trying to find but here are a few articles.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed https://twitter.com/yungneocon/status/1071905843019313152?s=20
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed https://twitter.com/yungneocon/status/1071905843019313152?s=20
