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Violent or destructive left wing protest is framed as delegitimising the protesters' stated cause. Violent or destructive right wing protest is framed as emphasing the need for urgent action on the protesters' stated cause. As always, right wing men are treated as elemental forces without agency.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social

This is a bit of a atretch/hope: there were 5 protests, with the largest two being up to 300 people, a total of around a thousand or so people.

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I think you’re asking a lot to expect The Telegraph to be neutral in framing anything. IMHO - all violent and destructive protests harm the protesters stated cause. It sometimes feels as if the protesters primary objective is press coverage, good or bad.

Also depending on how Nazi adjacent vs rabble rousing, some social media policies are an internal company matter. Oh so sorry, I read that wrong. All social media policies are an internal company matter. "Unless it's those bloody, stop the genocide posts!" - Keir Starmer

Yep. And if the protesters are not White it's different again. bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires@adsquires.bsky.social

Except that if an equivalent number of people had equally strong / racist views and an equal chance of turning violent, but they were Muslim, the discussion would certainly not be "civil war / can't dismiss their views", it would be of an extremist terror threat and how we deal with it.

When the left riots* the question is "what's wrong with the left?" When the right riots* the question is "what's wrong with the country?" *What constitutes a "riot" can also be wildly different. We're moral panicking over sings at left wing protests as right wing thugs fight cops.

I think that this is partly because obedience to authority, respect for tradition and in-group loyalty are all conservative right-wing virtues, so if the right revolts then the assumption is "Well, things must really be bad!" Whereas the desire for change is the default state of the Left.

Yeah, Countryside Alliance marches always get way more publicity than they warrant, even when it's a couple of dozen people. It's not an accident that Farage adopts their uniform (tweeds, barbour, open-collar shirt) as his off-duty look.

In a broader sense, it's also why non right wing UK grassroots need to stop being so defensive and take on the value of strategy & persistence. Sorry, guys, you aren't getting gushing headlines and a medal for a twee weekend protest every 6 months. The mainstream media is stacked against us.