Social activism plays an important role in the processing of social injustices.  Activists identify deviations from the "common good," define them, bring them to the attention of the public domain, and facilitate their resolution.  The manner in which the process is executed is of paramount importance if the desired outcome is to be achieved.

Martin Luther King had the right concept.  Following the murder of Medgar Evers, a black civil rights leader who was assassinated by a Klansman, he and others organized the March on Washington, a peaceful demonstration by 250,000, culminating in his "I have a dream" speech.  That, and similar protests, led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  King sought the integration of marginalized and persecuted Blacks into the mainstream culture.

Fast-forward to the present.  Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, BLM and Antifa spent the summer of 2020 rioting, looting, burning, and destroying private property in protest.  Woke activists now debase those right of center as deplorables, racists, fascists, xenophobes, and homophobes.  They pursue cancel culture to stifle opinion they deem "disinformation."  Progressive politicians practice identity politics, pitting oppressors against oppressed.  N.Y. governor Kathy Hochul tells Republicans to "just jump on a bus and go to Florida where you belong."  Joe Biden, campaigning as the unifier, casts MAGA-supporters as semi-fascists.  Their activism has evolved from a quest for integration to censorship and elimination of those who defy their agenda. 

The right has become the source of all social injustices.  That is not the sort of activism that wins friends and influences people.  Such a stance of intolerance precludes any move toward integration, inviting only confrontation and counterattack. 

Why has leftist activism become so intense and at times irrational?  Segregation has been outlawed.  Racism is dwindling.  We elected a Black president.  Women outperform men academically and in the workplace.  Same-sex "marriage" is legal.  One would think that as true social injustices progressively wane, that the intensity of left-wing activism should ebb in parallel.  It has not, because left-wing activism follows the law of supply and demand.  The innate demand for protest by the left has remained constant over the years.  To give vent to their discontent, any lingering injustices become the target of increasingly vigorous and aggressive assault.  And if the supply of true injustices is inadequate to meet the demand for venting of their dissidence, new injustices need to be fabricated.  The most extraneous events are attributed to "racism!"  America was built on slavery.  America is a racist nation.  White supremacy is our greatest problem.  Democracy is under attack!  Modern leftist activism is best described in the paraphrasing of Queen Gertrude in Hamlet: "Methinks thou dost protest too much."

So what is the goal of the new left?  It is well expressed in the words of Buckminster Fuller, architect and innovator: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.  To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."  No longer satisfied with their past attempts at attaining their concept of social equality, they have now turned their efforts to fundamentally changing society.  Change America.  Chuck Schumer: "Now we take Georgia, then we change America!"  Eliminate history.  Eliminate conservatism.  Establish a leftist autocracy.  And rightfully so!  Leftists are morally superior, virtuous, and motivated only by facts and science.  You have no reason or right to oppose them — just shut up and go to your room.

Unless the radical left is opposed, even its sycophant liberal followers will soon wake up one day in a country they do not recognize.  Then they will have a whole new set of real injustices to rant against.  Back to square one.

Image: Montecruz foto.