>>I don't know who Nathan's friends are who are turned off by left-wing
>>rhetoric at antiwar demonstrations.
>
>Pretty normal people who are pretty leftwing. If you don't have any
friends
>who are alienated or bored by left rallies, you need an expanded circle
>of friends.
>Is the problem that they're too 'left' as in radical, or red? Or is it
just
>that they're not really saying anything very interesting? I suspect it's
>nearly impossible to say anything cogent or gripping about the world
>situation in under 3 minutes.
So don't line up an endless monotonous parade of short boring speeches. Pick interesting, cogent speakers who can outline issues in an involved, humorous manner for a while.
But the undemocratic coalition style of organization means that speakers are parcelled out as prizes for short boring stints; the interests of the organizers for the spoils of media attention win out over the interests of the audience (or making the rallies attractive).
>Nathan, did your friends actually disagree with the speakers being too
>left-wing? Or was it their haranguing style? Or is it that the rallies are
>boring tactically?
Some feel the style as much as the statements are alien-- just so obviously disconnected from how their friends talk about politics. At a lot of left rallies, it's like a parallel universe where people speak this radical slang, instead of just saying the same thing in the way ordinary people would. It does reflect the sectarian world of a lot of the organizers where they DO speak like that to each other so often that they just no longer recognize how weird it sounds.
-- Nathan Newman