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Originally Posted by floatingslowly
if you dress like a crusty, NOBODY (beyond other crusties) will take you seriously, so what's the point of even trying?
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To a degree this is true. But they might also appeal to young, potential voters that are big enough in number to make any Party have to take them at least slightly seriously - if only in trying to secure their votes. Throughout much of the 90s, the idea of capitalism was of concern only to bankers and marxists. Now the topic has been placed at the centre of popular culture (just as green issues were in the 80s). The political rhetoric surrounding it may be confused and at times naive, but at least it's now being discussed beyond the usual confines of bank boardrooms and Socialist Worker Party meetings. Protesters won't change things, but as naive as they or books like No Logo, or the films of Michael Moore undoubtedly are, they do seem to have captured the imagination of a significant amount of people who are now just becoming eligible to vote. No government is scared of protest, but if some of the issues raised by these protesters start to resonate (albeit in a much watered-down version) with voters (which i think in the case of significant sections within the young they are) then mainstream politics can't simply ignore them.