zlacker

>>aspenm+(OP)
Blaming the boogy man of White Nationalists, Russia, or outside outside agitators is a way to shift blame by politicians and an easy scapegoat. Amusingly the governor of Minnesota, and a big city MN mayor blamed vandalism & lootingrioters as being the work of people who were all from out of state, thereby parroting Trump's same line (or he theirs).

They (not Trump of course) had to walk it back when it turned out not to be true.

Is there some outside groups posing as others, possibly, but to blame a majority of problems on them is just BS.

>>bruceb+K5
Unfortunately, you seem to be right. The Governor of Minnesota admitted precisely that, stating simply that he didn’t want to believe that his own people could act that way.

Scapegoating allows politicians to avoid angering their own constituents, and it also makes it rhetorically easier for politicians to avoid taking the demands seriously.

And a significant fraction (1/6 to 1/3) of arrests have been from out of state. So, the original claims had an element of truth.

But I disagree with you that it’s just “BS”, which would imply a level of cynicism which may exists, but for which you provided no evidence.

>>blake1+5x
I wonder what's the mechanism of coordination among various parties for them to converge at the right time and place for a protest?

>>threat+uA
Riots are a classic coordination problem [1]. Peaceful protests, of course, can use official means of communication. The hard part is how to coordinate violence and looting, which would otherwise preempted by law enforcement. The linked essay is a fascinating read on the topic.

[1] https://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2020/05/on-days-of-disor...