Acting Up

On this last day before the one that will live in infamy, Erik Loomis looks at lessons from past activism. Loomis points to a piece by Michele Goldberg, on "ACT-UP as an important model for us to learn about in resisting Trump and that the veterans of that movement, born out of complete desperation in the face of massive death and institutional indifference, will play a very important role in the next 4 years."

Commenter LWA adds—

I've used the ACT-UP/ SSM activists as a model for a while now.
It isn't that they are a perfect analog for what is happening now, nothing ever is.

The salient lesson for me is that public opinion and the "conventional wisdom" that gets spouted endlessly by media is actually a highly malleable thing, subject to persuasion and influence.

In 1985 it was conventional wisdom that homosexuality was a strange lifestyle choice, and some people were liberal enough to tolerate it, within sensible restraints.

The astonishing turnabout in public opinion didn't just happen, it was the result of constant pressure and argumentation and activism.
It was activists willing to be assholes and ruin dinner parties, willing to be "counterproductive" with protests at churches, to be annoying and exasperating.

There is always a strain in activist thought that we should change things, but there should never be unpleasantness or anger or discomfort.
But it never works that way- social change is always painful and awkward and involves suffering.

And I say this as someone with Trump voters in my immediate and extended family, with all the strain and icy conversations that result.