In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and worldwide protests against police violence: internationalism in the Fourth of July, rain-jacketless National Guardsmen, and professionals concerned over the safety of Chick-Fil-A.
Consciousness changes so rapidly these days, in our era of social media, the tweet, the viral Facebook post and YouTube video. In the early 20th century we had something comparable, the telegraph. And now everyone has their own telegraph in their hands, and they send abbreviated texts not just to close relations, but broadcast them to the entire world, with video, multiple videos from different angles of the same event. One doesn’t even have to wait for these things to be published; you can watch state repression live with hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of others, all at the same time.