This is an important thread. It is nonetheless worrying how people in 2018 take at face value the claim that the movement spread spontaneously and organically and social media. It should now be clear how easy it is to use money and bots to orchestrate anger on social networks 1/
Nor is it correct to say the movement is leaderless. It lacks spokespeople and formal aims, but it has quartermasters: people ordering the yellow vests, telling several thousand people to bring weapons and masks to the protests. 2/
A Brazilian friend said to me yesterday "this is just like Brazil" a deliberate attempt to stoke disorder and create space for an extremist "solution" . 3/
I will not be surprised if as time goes on, evidence is uncovered of an organised attempt to stir up opposition to the institutions of the Republic. 4/4
