Shortly before the American streamer was detained by U.S. border officials and questioned about his political beliefs, he spoke with Madeline Sherratt about his frustrations with the Trump administration — and the weak attempts by Democrats to hold the president accountable.
You need two things to get a political movement going. First you need to reach a critical mass by creating public sympathy for your movement. This can almost only be done with peaceful protests like MLK. Violent resistance is too easy to demonize and shut down when people do not sympathize with your cause.
Then the critical mass needs to be turned into action, which is what Malcolm X did.
If you start off the movement too radically, it will never be able to reach critical mass.
I’m of the opinion that MLK Jr. was largely successful because folks saw the alternative was Malcolm X… and they still fought MLK Jr. tooth and nail.
You need two things to get a political movement going. First you need to reach a critical mass by creating public sympathy for your movement. This can almost only be done with peaceful protests like MLK. Violent resistance is too easy to demonize and shut down when people do not sympathize with your cause.
Then the critical mass needs to be turned into action, which is what Malcolm X did.
If you start off the movement too radically, it will never be able to reach critical mass.