Thread by @jonathansmucker

Insurgent strategy must always be grounded in a sober assessment of the present balance of forces.

But it must also be grounded in a visionary imagining of how forces can favorably shift when insurgents capture the momentum.

The real trick is to hold both things at once.

Don't let people who aren't accountable to an organized base set the strategy.

Don’t demonize your opponents to the point that you neglect to study them.

Learn to claim & celebrate partial victories. Real political wins are nearly always partial, accompanied by some disappointment. But if we don’t claim our wins, then we’re not explaining to people the utility of organized collective action—providing them little reason to join us.

The Political Identity Paradox:

Social movement organizations require strong internal identity in order to foster the commitment needed for protracted struggle. But this same cohesion tends over time to isolate the group from the larger society—including needed potential allies.

There's no such thing as a "leaderless movement." Leadership may be informal rather than formal. Leaders may seek to operate invisibly behind the scenes. There may be many leaders instead of a single figurehead. But wherever there is movement, there are leaders. And we need them.

Political marginality can be highly addictive.