The Own Goal Principle

James Medlock @jdcmedlock

People may differ on optimal protest tactics, but I think a good rule of thumb is you should behave in a manner that is clearly distinguishable from the way that paid plants from your adversaries would act in an effort to discredit you

Apr 29, 2024

Hot Takes In Your Area @seaweedanxiety

I’m not the first person to express this sentiment but your actions in support of your movement should be distinguishable from the actions someone seeking to discredit your movement would engage in.

Jul 25, 2024

The Own Goal Principle is:

Your actions in support of your movement should be distinguishable from the actions someone seeking to discredit your movement would engage in.

This is a useful heuristic to determine what actions will advance a movement more than they will harm it. People frequently perform radical acts of no value to a movement in an effort to supposedly "raise awareness". These acts are frequently accompanied with justification that no change in society occurred by pleasing the people currently in power. The final result of these actions is usually that the movement fails because it does not transition from activist to mainstream.

Counterpoint

Every single successful movement has had actions as part of the larger umbrella that an agent provocateur would have liked to have done, e.g. The Stonewall riots were the precursor to the modern gay pride movement.

Origin

This particular formulation of the statement is something Twitter user seaweedanxiety disclaims having come up with but that is where I saw it first. I eventually ran up against a James Medlock post from before that is likely the original source.