Is Street Activism a Waste of Time?
    “Some years back, Matt Parrott was a prominent feature on this blog, and he tried the street demo type activism. He eventually concluded it was a waste of time. Why do you think it will be any more profitable for you/us now?”

I can’t speak for Matt Parrott, but he has been doing a lot of street activism lately with Trad Youth, so I assume he has changed his mind.

In my experience, street activism is valuable for the following reasons:

1.) First, it is simply unhealthy to spend too much of your time interacting with anonymous people on the internet. It’s a poisonous environment that typically brings out the worst in people and it will wear you down and sour your attitude toward the movement over time.

Whenever we get together in the real world for a demonstration, it always lifts our spirits. I’ve seen lots of people feed off the positive energy of other people and come away from our events with a new outlook. It’s exactly the opposite on the internet where long term exposure to all the negative energy on here tends to make people, especially women, more alienated or cynical over time.

2.) Second, we can’t control who is representing us in public, or what buffoon or cartoon character the media will choose to be our spokesperson, so unless we get out there ourselves, we will remain marginalized by the prevailing stereotypes.

By holding these street demonstrations, we are creating a social media trail that gives us some degree of power to define our own image – photos, videos, articles, etc. – which allow people who sympathize with our message, but who are currently inactive, to see who we are and what we are about.

3.) Third, I have already said that the anonymous relationships which are formed on the internet tend to be extremely fragile. The internet is a troll’s paradise, a place where misunderstandings thrive, and one of the major consequences of this is that there isn’t much social capital in internet based movements.

By holding street demonstrations, we are giving our people a chance to do something constructive together on a regular basis. This allows people to get to know each other a lot better. It creates trust and solidarity and strengthens our group which makes it more attractive to people who are interested in joining it.

4.) Fourth, there are strong taboos in our society against being explicitly pro-White and pro-Southern in public. It is necessary to challenge those taboos.

By challenging those taboos on a regular basis, we are showing people that the consequences of doing so have been wildly exaggerated by internet groupthink. There are lots of people who are inclined to joining a pro-White and pro-Southern organization, but they fear that exposure by, say, the SPLC or ADL, will cause them to lose their friends, family, and jobs.

In reality, the response to our message in public is generally positive. The average Southerner shares many of our concerns about immigration and the federal government. And besides, with the US economy is going downhill, young people don’t have much of an economic future in America anyway.

Challenging the taboos weakens them and makes it easier for people who less bold than we are to step forward and join us. It also allows the people who are challenging the taboos to get over their own fears.

5.) Fifth, the opposition doesn’t care what you are saying on the internet, so long as you keep it bottled up on the internet and it absorbs all of your time. When you take it off the internet though, that’s when the knives come out.

If all you are doing is reading books and essays, listening to podcasts, posting on internet forums, “sharing ideas” and maybe attending an annual conference, you aren’t doing anything more than threatening to the system than you would be if you spent all your time playing video games on PlayStation 3.

“Education” is invaluable, but it has to be translated into action. Specifically, it has to be translated into the components of power – money, influence, and organization – which can then be used to offset and challenge the power of other groups.

You don’t need a PhD in Greek philosophy to stand up for yourself. If you are standing up for yourself though, it becomes real and it sends a signal to others which is perceived as a greater threat than 1 million posts on a vBulletin forum.

6.) Finally, it is discouraging when you have a demonstration and 6 people show up, but you have to remember that bad habits are difficult to break.

Since the late 1990s, the internet has absorbed the movement. From an organizational standpoint, it has weakened it across the board. We have successfully spread our ideas to more people than we could have dreamed of twenty years ago, but we have grown much weaker on the ground, and less powerful as a consequence, than we were before the rise of the internet.

In the the South, we are going to continue to press on with our demonstrations because we are accomplishing what we set out to do. As we move from state to state, we are drawing new people into the fold. We are using the internet now as a communication tool to expand our real world network rather than as an end in itself.

The average age of League of the South members is plummeting. We are growing marginally stronger by the day. As more people change their habits and start acting on their beliefs, that will make a big difference over time. The challenge for us will be to have the patience and perseverance to see it through.