Reply #49: I think there was an extremist far-left movement building in the US -- before 9/11.

[intheflow]

I'm thinking specifically of the Battle of Seattle, and similar if smaller incidents. At that time, I think a lot of folks on the left were getting pissed and taking to the streets; I don't think it was only self-identified anarchists who broke store windows in Seattle. I remember the difference between the two Bush inaugurations. I felt a much more angry, militant vibe coming from those of us protesting in January 2001 than I felt in January 2005, even though just as many people (if not more) believed it was another stolen election.

I think after 9-11 the far left sort of collectively realized that it couldn't use Battle of Seattle tactics or else it would be lumped in with the "terrists." Hell, you don't even hear about anarchists damaging corporate property now. Back then they might get some time in the county jail for smashing a McDonald's window, but now they know they'd probably get their asses sent to Gitmo.

So after 9/11 we took our dissent down a whole lot of notches. We saw what violent dissent wrought live on tv, as extremists flew planes into buildings filled with innocent people, essentially protesting the same globalized, corporate interests that brought people to the streets in Seattle. We knew we didn't want to be THOSE kinds of protesters. So more people on the far left embraced peace as the true movement of change. But of course we've done that at the expense of some of our Constitutional rights. Since 9-11 we've have more creative protests, more peaceful protests, as we were crowded into "Free Speech Zones"--and we're still portrayed as dangerous and as loony as the extremist far-left who damaged property in the late '90's. :banghead: (Of course it's the CM that continues to portray us that way.)

I'm certainly not advocating wrecking corporate property. (I never did in the first place, I was majoring in Peace Studies during the Battle of Seattle.) I believe that most people on the left have been peace-loving people right along. I guess I'm saying I agree with you that the country truly does not have much of an extremist far-left at present. But I also think the folks who picture the far-left as the anarchist crowd are basing it on an extremist far-left movement that was growing in the very recent past.