Back in 2020, Black Lives Matter had taken over our culture so much that you couldn't go anywhere to escape it. The slogan was appearing on starting screens in video games, being painted at the ends of football fields, and corporations were jumping on the bandwagon to try to sell more product.
But Black Lives Matter, as popular as it was, was never about black lives. Case in point, in the aftermath, many sat around wondering what exactly the movement did for anyone, especially the black community. There weren't a lot of charities that helped black individuals in need or benefited communities. There was a lot of smoldering wreckage where black-owned businesses and shops in black neighborhoods once stood. There were people who were killed by members of the movement who didn't deserve to be.
That's because Black Lives Matter was never there to help the people it said it was trying to help. The movement's entire purpose was to give the left a north star to navigate by during an election season. It worked well. BLM sucked up so much air in the room that leftist dogma dominated every conversation. Many people voted Democrat because the left had framed the current cultural environment through the lens of Black Lives Matter and the divisions it brought about.
But Black Lives Matter was hardly the first movement of its kind. It had taken many different forms before that. "March for Our Lives," the "Women's March," and even the anti-war marches back in the 1960s all had one thing in common: it gave the left a society-defining narrative by which to oppose the right.
Since BLM, the left has tried on multiple occasions to kickstart another movement by which to rally the left and empower the Democrats. Back in March of 2024, I wrote about how the suicide of Nex Benedict was the left's attempt at creating a transgender George Floyd. As I wrote then:
The point is to find someone for the left to rally around. They need a name they can chant in the streets and make murals of so that the left can be seen as the heroes fighting against injustice and hate. They need a name for the media to repeat ad nauseam and for celebrities to speak out about. They need students to protest at colleges and, more importantly, for donations to come pouring into various causes and coffers.
They need a martyr they can use to paint America and those who support her as evil.
Because if they succeed in turning Benedict into a martyr then it will consolidate its voting base, attract young voters, and generate a spite vote, and 2024 looks all the better.
Read: Why the Left Likely Won't Succeed in Creating a 'Trans Floyd'
The Benedict marches never took off despite the left's best efforts. By that time, the transgender movement's influence was already on the decline, and thanks to X, it was pretty clear that Benedict's story wasn't very good fertile ground for a society-wide movement.
This brings us to the "No Kings" marches that occurred last week.
Just like Black Lives Matter before it, the "No Kings" protest didn't actually care about authoritarianism. They definitely didn't seem concerned about it when the Biden administration was attempting to force unproven vaccinations on government workers and arresting people based on their proximity to the Capitol building on January 6.
No, the "No Kings" protests that revolved around the accusations of Donald Trump being a dictator didn't even have anything to do with Donald Trump. Like BLM, it was there purely to make the left aware of itself, and seem more powerful and motivated than it actually was.
All things considered, the "No Kings" protests don't even make any sense. Trump hasn't acted as a dictator in any conceivable way and has only ever enforced the law, which the left has reminded us repeatedly that no one is above.
Read: Trump Mocks 'No Kings' Protests: 'I'm Not a King—I Work My A** Off'
If you look at "No Kings" from a more realistic perspective, you'll see that the entire movement was based on a position of desperation, not strength. The left has very little in the way of momentum and they desperately needed it. The "No Kings" protest is a way to generate that by pushing a narrative that they're the anti-establishment group fighting the good fight against someone who is mad with power. It's a totally false premise, but it doesn't have to be true, it just has to be marketable.
Even the phrase "No Kings" is easy to remember and even a tad catchy. It even has an edge of virtue to it, just like the phrase "black lives matter." It's a great concept for meming, looks great on a protest sign, and can even be sold easily as a TikTok hashtag. It looks great aesthetically and can give anyone who participates a sense of moral currency.
"No Kings" is just Black Lives Matter rebranded and reskinned. It's purpose isn't its professed purpose. It's really just there to rally the left and give it a spark back. It needs to attract donors, amp its ground support, and gain some goodwill with the general public. That's really the only reason it happened.
The question is, did it work? The legacy media seems to want you to think it did, but whether "No Kings" has any staying power remains to be seen. By the time the midterm elections roll around, we'll know for sure.
