be careful whom you take to Wal-Mart

[falcongrrl]

postrodent's post about AnnA is bothering me this morning. The accused all seem like kids barely out of their teens to me (albeit with pretty extremist views) who didn't have the motivation or ability to carry much of anything out (particularly while stoned all the time). It sounds like they were goaded into a lot of what they did do by this AnnA person. And Eric, the 'ringleader' and 'old man' of 26, sounds like he was trying to talk big and impress this girl he liked. *sigh*

The one thing that I thought was pretty funny about the whole thing came from a comment in this thread:

"Sounds like further validation of Judy Bari's first rule of activism: 'The person who offers to buy the dynamite is always the FBI agent.'"

Yep, sounds about right.

Comments

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Bruce Sterling's story "a href="http://www.wattpad.com/75756-Kiosk-by-Bruce-Sterling">Kiosk contains this memorable passage:

"Out of any ten [revolutionaries], seven were idiots. These seven were dreamers, rebels by nature, unfit to run so much as a lemonade stand. One out of the ten would be capable and serious. Another would be genuinely dangerous: a true, amoral fanatic. The last would be the traitor to the group: the police agent, the coward, the informant."

I think that's a pretty good breakdown, though you have to adjust for the ratio of police to policed in your society. I can't find a comparative ranking in two minutes of googling, but I guesstimate the United States is in the top 20% or so. It's also an interesting special case of the old rule that if you walk into a poker game and don't see any suckers at the table, you should leave immediately.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

How would you break it down in this case? It seems to me that the capable one was the informant. :-)

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

That's yet another bothersome angle to this story. The "capable and serious", the "amoral fanatic" and the traitor were all the same woman. The left needs more amoral fanatics! :>

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

*holds up hand* My schedule's open....

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

*laugh* But you absolutely cannot get arrested. We'd miss you too much. ♥

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

There's a part of me that wants to say, "If I'm living in fear of arrest, then that possibility should be the first oppression to fight." Truth is, though, I don't think I would best serve the Resistance by getting my miserable ass thrown in jail, and I stick out in a crowd way too much to blend in when the shit gets rolling, so you know I'd be an attractive target for arrest.

I will gladly help produce all manner of propaganda, however. In some ways, it's what I already do....