Leftist activists declare their own movement a failure

The American left is failing — and some of its most prominent voices are saying so out loud.

At a May 21 panel discussion in Berkeley, California, left-wing activists delivered a blunt verdict on their own movement: Big protests aren’t producing political victories, and social media is a big reason why.

“Are protests producing more influencers than political victories? I don’t think they’re actually producing either very well,” said Annie Leonard, former executive director of Greenpeace US.

Moderator Jason Myles, host of the “This Is Revolution” podcast, drew a sharp contrast between the 2020 uprising over George Floyd’s death — which sparked nationwide protests and reshaped mainstream political debate — and the far quieter response this year to the deaths of anti-ICE protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal law enforcement.

“When we see George Floyd killed, the country burns. We saw Pretti and Good killed in real time, and it was more ’tsk tsk,’” Mr. Myles said.

Mr. Myles warned that when activism becomes content, it gets “monetized, branded, algorithm-driven” — and loses its force. “Don’t let your babies grow up to be podcasters,” he said.

Environmental activist Scott Parkin noted that journalists and influencers regularly outnumber actual protesters at Minneapolis ICE demonstrations.

The soul-searching in Berkeley unfolded the same night protesters in Newark, New Jersey, set fires, hurled projectiles and clashed with police outside ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility.

Read more:

• Leftists bemoan protests going viral online but failing to achieve real-world political wins