Outside Agitators

[rurallib]

One of the things that has pissed me off about Ferguson is the media and the various policing divisions that continue to blame some faceless nameless "outside agitators" for much of the current situation in Ferguson.

I bothers the hell out of me for 2 reasons:
1) In my lifetime and I am sure long before, "outside agitators" have always been a scapegoat for any localized demonstrations or civil disturbances. This seems to be one of the para-military leaders first go-to to justify their over-reaction:
- "There's outside agitators so we need to hit them people hard. We don't care if a few locals get killed. They should be smarter and get off the street so we can deal the right way with them outside agitators."

2) This is a way to claim the disturbances are not due to any grievance locals have. The locals are portrayed as tame and obedient, while the "outside agitators" stir things up and fan the flames. If there are some outsiders, they may fan the flames, but the flames were there to be fanned. When local policing units turn to this tactic (also a tactic to divide any united front) it is usually an admission they have no fucking idea what to do or have no desire to honestly face the problems.

When I was young, the "outside agitators" ranged from 'commonists" to "labor thugs" to things like "black panthers." Oddly all the outside agitators were never from the right, such as the Birchers etc.

OK I am ready to take my lumps.

[truedelphi]

1. I guess I used to be an outside agitator,

at least as far as how people like me were portrayed by the press.

Oh and I got several hundred if not several thousand dollars a month from the Communist Party, for my work as such.

[panader0]

2. Agree

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025413243

[rurallib]

6. Thanks for posting that

Guess I didn't check first.
I was pissed after having to turn off Michaelangelo Signorelli as he let some guy go on and on about outside agitators.

I was involved in many demonstrations during the 60s. Every goddamned one, some asshole in power would say afterwards that there were "outside agitators." It was at a state university with a lot of out of state students.

[Lex]

3. The cops themselves have been known to go undercover and agitate

so they can say later that people in the crowd were violent and the crowd became unruly.

[Lindsay]

5. Indeed,

there is a fine, long tradition of just that.

[bluestateguy]

4. That was George Wallace lingo

And who is and is not a outside agitator? Do you have to be from Ferguson, Missouri and from the neighborhood where it all happened to be an acceptable activist?

Or maybe it's ok if you are from the StL area? Or maybe it's ok if you are from Missouri or the Illinois part of the St.L area? Then you have permission to do something.

Or maybe, you are an American, this is our country and what happens in Ferguson is every bit my business as if it happened in my state and my neighborhood.

[rurallib]

7. Yep - in Ferguson, these are issues that are felt across the country.

[MisterP]

8. the one way to cheaply and effectively divide a protest than agents provocateurs is accusations

of agents provocateurs ...

[951-Riverside]

9. Well said.

Its quite simple:

Arrest the looters, arrest the people throwing rocks, shooting and setting fires but leave everyone else alone. Its still an open and free country and it shouldn't matter where someone is from, if they want to fly in to support something then so be it.

For far too long I've seen the term "outside agitator" or "outsider" used as an excuse to suppress outside support and isolate the suppressed from outside help.

We saw that term used a lot by police supporters during the Kelly Thomas protests in Fullerton.

[Live and Learn]

10. No lumps here, feel the same. nt

[JEB]

11. Police are the agitators.

Not much more agitating than gunning down an unarmed teen.

[OilemFirchen]

12. Enjoy:

Who Are the "Revolutionary Communists" Allegedly Agitating in Ferguson?

The group with which Johnson is affiliated, the Revolutionary Communist Party, is nowadays largely regarded as crank-ish even by many self-identified Communists. It is routinely referred to as a "cult of personality" for its leader Bob Avakian. Avakian, who lives in self-imposed exile... somewhere, still believes that Communist revolution is possible and writes long tracts to that end, identifying the end of racial oppression as key to the eventual overthrow of capitalism.

...

They do have a habit of showing up at moments of racial unrest; the Missouri Torch, for example, points out that Johnson was also spotted at protests over the Trayvon Martin killing.

Anyone who's spent any time in radical circles knows that the presence of interfering, troublemaking interlopers is an expected side-effect of a large-scale protest. But if the rumors are right and these guys trying to drum up even more tension than is already present in Ferguson, they're despicable.

"We have to live here!"

[New Deal Liberal]

13. Outside agitators is a code word for communists

Nothing like red-hunting in 2014

[tblue37]

14. MLK and the early Civil Rights protesters were called "outside agitators." nt

[Corruption Inc]

15. It's the corporate media doing that, they sell evil others to get emotional responses

It's the basis of propaganda, to get an emotional rather than rational response. They're exploiting tension and fueling it to get viewers, they don't want to have any rational thinking involved.