Civic activity in America was through the roof always. As a result of the ideology of freedom and inculcated since childhood sense of responsibility for what happens in your life, it manifests itself here practically in everything. This can be the variety of human rights and political organizations, social activity, charity, creativity and a real exotic, when in the city centre, for example, may be organized pillow fights. Art festivals right in the city alleys, Christmas performances in the parks of small towns, party with decorations in the style of «Harry Potter», exhibition of flowers, plushies, socks, and anything your heart desires, charity fundraisers, days of flowering everything is at least theoretically able to bloom, closed women’s clubs, where as half a century ago, play bridge is to list them all is just impossible. America is bustling with activity, and everyone can find something for everyone here.
However after a victory on presidential elections of the USA of Donald trump’s the nature of activism, and, first and foremost, political activism has changed. A sharp rejection of his policies from the majority of the most active part of the society has led to various forms of protest activities and new trends, some of which I will try to list.
Human rights defenders
The growth of various human rights organizations specializing in helping those population groups that have become the main targets of angry rhetoric trump: immigrants, primarily those from Latin America, women, children, illegal immigrants, Muslims, etc. the Main stimulus for activation of these groups were not even specific actions of trump, and in the first place, his words that most human rights activists reacted very emotionally. In addition to the rights perspective, this group of people actively involved in political activities by participating in various «women’s March» and attempts to influence legislative activity through the interaction with congressmen, lawsuits, etc.
Representatives of such groups were more likely to conduct social and cultural activities in support of disadvantaged categories, as well as educational classes, for example the conference on the theme of interaction between different cultures and civilizations or features of the integration of Muslims into Western society. They actively engage with the press, but in General remain apolitical in part of U.S. foreign policy or security issues. Seems to behave the group, defending the science of climate change, environmental and other similar organizations.
The radical left
The growth of left radicalism, primarily triggered by the growth of radical tendencies «right» and shift the political spectrum towards right-wing extremism. Of course, left-wing extremism has existed in American society before the elections, but he has never had and, in fact, still does not have support in the political spectrum of America. It should not be confused with the growth of socialist tendencies in the Democratic party. If we are talking about radicals, their peculiarity is that they do not seek to lobby their interests through the power channels. On the contrary, the representatives of the different currents of anarchist views and hostile to the state itself. (Remember the protests and riots in Ferguson in the days of Barack Obama.)
The American extreme left are often characterized by a rejection of patriotism as such. They are still under the previous administration defiantly burned American flags and organized riots. Many of them have no sympathy for Russia and are fans of RT. Most people of such views have a negative attitude to any state authorities, primarily to law enforcement, seeing them as a mechanism of repression and coercion. The paradox is that, even if some American politicians are trying to «flirt» with this group, leftist anarchists are unable or unwilling effectively to take advantage of this situation, and retain a strong distrust against any government officials. The American government, these people has always been perceived as the embodiment of evil, and now, on trump, they want confirmation of their views or, more precisely, the feeling of such confirmation, which, of course, strengthened their movement.
Patriotic dissidents
The growth of «Patriotic dissent» manifested, primarily, in Internet activity. Due to the ongoing investigation of the collusion of the team trump (and presumably him) with the Kremlin and the actions of the US President, very often, wittingly or unwittingly, the interests of Moscow, emerged a large number of protest groups and movements Patriotic. The policy of the current presidential administration is seen primarily as a betrayal of national interests of the United States. On this basis, the object of their criticism become, first and foremost, the actions of Donald trump, coinciding with the interests of the Kremlin, and respect him personally and his entourage with Russia.
This includes coverage of the various stages of the investigation of spectracolor Robert Mueller, as well as their own Internet investigation of the financial interests trump of Russia, his contact with representatives of organized crime and the Russian business elite in different years, etc. At the same time such activities are engaged in as a professional investigative journalists (usually working alone) and the group of lovers, United often only virtual, without creating a strict organizational structure.
A gust of ordinary people in the context of a real information war to verify the information, conduct their own investigations and to separate the facts from the lies more than commendable.
The most ambitious of these Patriotic groups to create their sites and movements of various kinds. So, some directly emphasize your opposition and however nonpartisan in nature, calling the main aim at the protection of democracy. Others emphasize its relationship with the Democratic party of the United States and are focusing on electoral issues. American conservatives, a breakaway from the Republican party and not supporting trump, also created his movement emphasized Patriotic. Some of these groups have devoted their activities to identify the work of Russian propaganda in the US and Europe. Similar projects exist in several European countries and in Ukraine, but in USA they put on such a professional basis, and is done mostly by volunteers, which inevitably affects the quality of work.
On the one hand, the rush of ordinary people in a real information war to verify the information, conduct their own investigations and to separate the facts from the lies more than commendable. Desire to get to the truth and to defend democratic values in itself is quite noble. An important difference between the new American Patriotic movements from the Russian youth organization is truly volunteer in nature: groups of activists are not financed by the government or non-profit funds and are not created «from above». They are less visible on street rallies, but actively cooperate with the media, and many journalists are willing to use the information gathered by anonymous activists. While some of these groups claim to investigate criminal offences, I have not seen examples that their information was used in real indictments.
What is the danger
However, the involvement of ordinary people in the fight, even repeatedly justified by external circumstances, inevitably entails a number of negative consequences and trends:
- The logic of war inevitably creates black-and-white vision of the world and a sharp division into «us» and «them.» In a situation when virtual wrestling cohesive group of like-minded people, such a world leads to the fact that the desire to rebuff the opinions of others often drowns out the initial impulse to deeply analyze the facts. «Enemies» and «propagandists» in the end begin to show up all those who for various reasons do not agree with the group or claims to its various members. In this case, since the confrontation of something always involves being in a state of conflict, many of these groups and activists-individuals and conflict between them that does not contribute to the unification of the already divided American society.
- Increased focus on the external enemy dramatically reduces the level of self-criticism, and the victim status of the Russian hybrid attack is the ideal tool to justify their mistakes. Of course, unlike the Kremlin, also blaming all their troubles «external threat», Americans are dealing with a real, not a fictitious enemy. However, this does not negate the need to see and correct their own shortcomings that led to the success of the Russian intervention.
- In contrast to the isolationism of trump, these activists stress the need for active intervention of America in world Affairs. On the one hand, such intervention is really necessary when it comes to countering the dictators, deterring aggression, or the prevention of crimes against humanity. On the other hand, when this desire is combined with the aforementioned lack of self-criticism and black-and-white vision of the world, there are reasonable concerns about the quality of such «foreign policy». Of course, this policy will ultimately be determined by the professionals, not Twitter activists, however, the opinion of the active part of the population in a democratic country is very important for politicians, because all extremes are perceived disturbing.
- The development of civil activism in areas which in the normal state of society engaged in law enforcement or at least experienced journalists from the major media, inevitably leads to the substitution of professionalism an amateurism. For example, compiling a file on certain figures based on Internet materials may not always. Using Internet sources is quite easily possible to identify the official status of a person, his public activity, the range of contacts, events, which he attended, etc. In the «simple» cases where people do not hide their views, this is enough.
The survival of the country in a hybrid war directly depends on the awareness of citizens about the methods of this war and their readiness to defend the truth.
However, in more complex cases, often it is not obvious that connects people with specific contacts, what exactly did he communicate with them, what motivated, what decisions adopted at the meetings etc. Many times require a more thorough investigation than a set of links, and in the case where such investigation is held, a collection of disparate facts communicates the arbitrary interpretation or a simple reproduction of press reports. If we recall the above mentioned logic of the struggle and lack of self-criticism, this kind of «dossier» often become unsuitable for practical use. Devoid developed by the investigating authorities and the editorial boards of these media requirements for the verification of the facts and the canons of professional ethics, some of these investigators-Amateurs run the risk of falling into the real slander that has nothing to do with professional journalistic investigation.
Of course, all of the above does not mean that people should not show activity and to try to deal with threats. On the contrary, often the survival of the country in a hybrid war directly depends on the awareness of citizens about the methods of this war and their readiness to defend the truth. However, the involvement of ordinary people into the logic of the struggle which has been ongoing over the years, cannot but have its consequences. War is not the normal condition of man, especially for a person who did not choose it as their profession and therefore has no proper training, no support system, no times the basic abilities to certain activities. Yes, in any war there are cases of transformation of talented Amateurs to professionals, however this is not every. The rest of the society, mired in the logic of protracted conflict, sooner or later will need rehabilitation and exit from the «military» paradigm. Otherwise, the rapid overcoming of the schism that occurred in American society, can not count.
