Learning From the Mistakes of Others
I know what I know, because I used to be the person I now speak out against.
If you’re politically active, then chances are you’ve been to a rally of some kind. Maybe you went to hear your favorite candidate speak, or you attended an event meant to raise awareness for a cause that’s near and dear to you. Maybe you went all out and helped organize them. Whatever your level of involvement, it’s time to stop thinking of rallies and marches as the default for political activism. Here’s why the mindset on public rallies needs to change.
The Media Will Lie About It
It doesn’t matter if your rally is packed with people, the media will ensure that fact doesn’t come out. They will find the most extreme attendees and make sure they get air time—even if they have to create the story themselves. They will do everything possible to make you look like the bad guy.
This isn’t one of those situations where “well WE know what we did and that’s enough.” Rallies, theoretically, are done for reasons like the following:
Raise awareness about an issue
Show the public some numbers
Show legislators and/or opponents how serious you are
Network with the like-minded
Be seen doing something for the cause
In today’s climate, it also accomplishes a few other things you may not have thought about, and that’s what this article is all about.
The Public Won’t Buy In
Rallies, contrary to popular opinion, don’t make the general public like you or your cause more. Peer pressure is powerful, but you also have to understand that it works in reverse as well. If you have media looking to demonize you, then you’re already not in control of your own message.
If you’re rallying because you want to drive home a point, such as “I have the right to have guns,” then taking them to a public space and making sure you get in as many photos as possible holding them is not going to make the public more amenable to making sure your right is protected. In fact, they’re going to use your rally as proof that you are scary and should be stopped.
How do I know this? Because I did it. In the past, I helped organize rallies from Washington State to Washington, DC. About seven years ago, a group of activists entered the WA state legislature building with long guns while attending a gun rights rally at the capitol building. I was among them. Not only were we all unloaded, but we also didn’t even have magazines in our rifles. It was purely a retaliatory act against the Speaker at that time, who had arrogantly said—in violation of the law at that time—that if someone came into the viewing gallery while the legislature was in session, he would shut down the session, even if the person was open carrying in accordance with the law.
He threw down the gauntlet, and we said okay, look what we can do.
We were legal. We were safe. We were peaceful. We didn’t yell, didn’t trash the place, didn’t do anything remotely threatening. We didn’t even speak. That didn’t stop most of the anti-gun members of the legislature from jumping out of their seats and running for cover as if we were a bunch of active shooters about to get our murder on.
We got national, even international coverage. We were ‘famous’ for the moment. Photos of us posed with our empty rifles were all over the place—and are still around. We were so proud of ourselves. We showed those anti-gun legislators what’s what. We reveled in our ‘victory for liberty.’
We were idiots, and I say that in all seriousness.
The Fallout
Not only did we accomplish absolutely nothing, we actually set the whole cause back. The Speaker made new rules barring guns from the building, even if legally carried, the public was aghast that it was even allowed to begin with, and the media coverage painted us as a bunch of moronic rednecks who were two seconds from going on a rampage with our scary black guns.
What’s more, we found out while in the viewing gallery that contrary to the very specific and firm ‘rule’ for being part of the group going in that ALL long guns needed to be unloaded and without a magazine (thereby making it clear in any photo), one guy who slipped in with us not only came in loaded but with a round in the chamber. As a special cherry on top, he couldn’t figure out how to UNload it; someone else had to do it for him. Was he a fed? An agent provocateur? No, just an angry moron.
I and many others ripped him up one side and down the other after the fact, but it didn’t matter. The damage was done, and he was ridiculously unrepentant anyway.
What’s the moral of this story? There are several.
Your event, group, and/or action are only worth as much as the weakest, stupidest, or most amoral members. That’s true whether you are a group of three, or a rally of several thousand.
Every single person you act with needs to be on point with the message, which needs to be extremely focused. Can you guarantee that with a big ol’ rally? No. You can’t, because you cannot control everyone who attends.
The media will look for the most extreme, the most obnoxious, the thing that went wrong, and they will ensure that your entire cause and the people in it are painted that same color.
Your actions in support of a cause must always move the needle toward your goal. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter how good you feel doing it. It’s shallow, worthless, and basically fluff.
If the net result is that your cause is set back, then what exactly did you accomplish?
So What Do We Do Instead?
This subject is hard for people to discuss because they LIKE going to rallies. They like having this event every year; it’s a chance to network and feel good about their cause. And when someone comes along and says that what they’re doing is ineffective and even pointless—or worse, that it hands the advantage to the other side—people get testy. When your identity is caught up in your cause, someone telling you that your actions are wrong is like them telling you that YOU are wrong.
Here’s the thing. There are a lot of truly patriotic people out there who understand the difference between country and government, liberty and cult worship. They want to do something about that, and they want to stand up and be heard. They go to rallies, dinners, and whatnot because they think that is How It’s Done(tm).
They’re missing this: There are a thousand ways to move the needle while controlling the message and how the game is played. You don’t have to do what’s always been done, which isn’t working one bit. You can put your creativity to use, think out of the paradigm, and do something that actually gets you closer to your goal.
Stop playing by the same old tired rules, because you’re losing. Redefine the game and its rules, and make them play by yours. Here’s a list to get you started.
Kit Perez is a counterintelligence and deception analyst, and the author of The Mindset of Resistance, as well as the co-author of Basics of Resistance: The Practical Freedomista.
I think what got me after the fact is Matt Shea appeared to endorse the capital thing.