Alinsky’s Rule 10: “’If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.’ Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.”
Or, make the other guy look like a thug.* Especially when you’re protesting the other guy’s thuggery.
Counterexample: Doing it wrong…
Don’t make your enemy’s point for him.**
—
ETA: *Or maybe more artistically, “When the other guy is making your point for you, give him every opportunity.”
**The photographer in the first picture was clearly working for the protesters. What do you want to bet the photographer who arranged the second one was trying to make the sign-wavers look as bad as possible? He didn’t need to work very hard, of course, but for all we know those were the only violent signs out of hundreds promising a kumbaya paradise of islamic tolerance. Doesn’t matter: The violent ones are the ones that got seen, they’re the ones we remember, and how many really dedicated fighters against Islam do you think have been created by that one picture?
Alinsky sounds a lot like Sun Tzu
…to achieve a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence; to subjugate the enemy’s army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.
— Sun Tzu