Erica Chenoweth

In particular, the type of method that Sergio was just describing is called a dilemma action.

And a dilemma action is something that Oatpour really perfected.

The dilemma is, what do you do, right?

So do you just leave it and ignore it?

Then you have all of these people smashing Milosevic's face.

Or do you arrest somebody, anybody who's there, create a scene?

It would look illegitimate.

Or do you put the barrel in the police car and then, you know, it's sort of this humiliating and absurd political theater.

But it's a technique that is now used in a much more widespread way, I would think, because the logic of it is clearer to people.

And the other thing, of course, is the humor.

And humor is really important as a way to really poke at the invincibility kind of myth or narrative that exists among many different autocrats or autocratic movements.

And so if there's one thing that we know that autocrats don't like, it's people laughing at them.

One of my favorite vignettes comes from Morocco, where there is an independence movement in Western Sahara, and it's illegal to fly the colors of the flag of the independence movement.

And there was a group of protesters who wanted to mobilize a flag, an illegal flag flying protest, and they announced in advance that this would be taking place so that the authorities would show up.

But instead of themselves showing up to fly the flag, they basically rounded up a bunch of stray cats and tied the flags onto their tails and then released them into a crowded area where then the riot police were like chasing them up and down narrow alleys and stuff.

And this is a real dilemma action because it creates this like ludicrous scene of absurd political theater.

But, you know, they also couldn't arrest anybody.

Exactly.

Literally herding cats, but not able to really figure out who the real protest organizers were.

Well, I think that the movement likely did a very good job of appealing to a wider and wider base of supporters.