[coldtea]

>It may seem like a small niche to people who are not members of targeted demographics, though.

I'm not saying it's not important -- but as a request for change it is niche in scope, that is constrained to a small area of life (even if you are one of the targeted demographics).

>What leads you to believe this?*

Well, some internet ranting and rare protesting aside I don't see any alternative lifestyles there (or only very trite ones, the "fair trade coffee" equivalent of politics). It's all business as usual otherwise.

>Anyway, if you want real counter culture that middle aged people will still clutch their pearls over... what about Antifa?

Better in the shocks middle aged people respect, but scores less points on "culture". It's a reaction-based group, not an alternative cultural force.

[yung_endian]

Police culture and worship is incredibly ingrained in mainstream America. How can you say its a "small area of life" when the police have authority in nearly every matter of your life? The police have the power to kill you indiscriminately. They can legally rob you. They are omnipresent in America and the NFL and FOX continually blast pro boys in blue imagery. To even talk ill of cops is seriously shunned - I grew up in a small town and the police were absolutely worshipped and had obscene amounts of power.

To argue, as BLM does, that we should restructure the entire policing system (some say even dismantle it) is to conduct a reimagining of what power and authority means in this country.

In a place where "law and order" (one of Trump's favorite phrases) and the administration of "justice" is upheld as the highest ideal, to decisively argue against normative ideas of them is certainly counter culture.

Also antifa is not reactionary. Many members of antifa orgs run community kitchens, organize reading groups, or build small farms or communes.

[hsod]

> constrained to a small area of life (even if you are one of the targeted demographics).

The specter of police violence is not constrained to a small area of life for members of targeted demographics....