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(Copied from queeranarchism on tunglbr)
A public arrest is a bad place to start your activism.
If you are young or inexperienced and want to start doing activism, it’s a very good idea not to start with any movement focussed on big public arrests and non-violent civil disobedience without anonymity, such as Extinction Rebellion.
These public ‘non-violent’ actions may seem safer than anarchist groups dressed in black balaclavas, but the opposite is true.
A movement that relies on the spectacle of mass arrest as a public opinion influencer and expects it’s participants to show their face, give their name and willingly be arrested, is a movement that is asking complete self-sacrifice.
The legal consequences of an arrest can ruin your life for a long time and losing your anonimity can seriously limit all activism that you can do in the future. Creating change is important, but it’s work you’ll do for a long time.
It’s not about one dramatic action. You are not disposable.
If you want to take direct action, it is far better to take your first steps within an activist group that masks up, hides identities and intents to break the law and get away with it. Do that, and you will find comrades that care about your life and safety, and organize for it.
The underlying mobilization theory of XR seems quite questionable. Prioritizing arrests usually means that once half your agitators (the little vanguard peak in their diagram) are in jail then your movement shuts down completely. But we're also in a time where past formulas no longer apply and so trying something which breaks from the orthodoxy may be worth it.