The other evening my partner and I were walking home from a dinner party through the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona when we suddenly chanced upon gangs of hooded youth breaking windows, looting stores, and lighting barricades on fire. We had no idea what was going on and were completely taken by surprise.
But upon close observation there was something very unusual about these looters. For one thing, they were very young: many looked like they were no older than 15 or 16 and still living at home. Furthermore, unlike the typical Barcelonese anarquistes or independentistes on a rampage after a political demonstration, no political slogans whatsoever were visible or audible this time. Quite the contrary: the looters we saw were wearing hoodies and sneakers with designer labels, and most tellingly, they spoke Spanish, not Catalan. They did not appear to come from the housing scarcity protest camp at nearby Plaça de Catalunya, whose crowd is noticeably scruffier. So who the hell were these kids? Where did they come from, and why were they rioting in the city center?
The next day, news reports cited that well over a hundred arrests had been made by police, and that most of the detainees were underage. Apparently, they had been convened by various Tik Tok channels and Telegram and WhatsApp groups to meet in the city center and “protest against the system” in solidarity with French youth. But the social media accounts these calls originated from did not belong to any known political groups, according to news sources, which confirmed that these accounts were moreover deleted by their owners before the night was over. Very unusual.
Who, then, was behind these social media posts? Was it Putin in his drive to destabilize and divide Europe? Was it Netanyahu and Trump out of revenge against a non-conformist Spanish Prime Minister who happens to be campaigning for reelection right now? Hmm. Very Curious.
What is certain is that the manipulation of young people through the “smart” phones and “social” media many are addicted to is sinking to new lows. This latest event follows one earlier this summer in which tens of thousands of poor Africans were encouraged to storm the border between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta after similar calls from anonymous social media accounts were emitted.
Disturbances such as these are of course used by the extreme right to create panic among the population; panic that generates “law and order” votes in their favor and against environmentalism, immigration, feminism, and gay rights.
Curious how Trump instantly blamed “immigrants” for the Barcelona looting. He is dead-wrong: my partner and I heard absolutely no Arabic, Berber, Urdu, Tagalog or any language other than Spanish being spoken. In fact, upon finally returning that evening to the immigrant neighborhood in which we live, we saw our square full of young people who could be heard speaking foreign languages. They weren’t with the looters at all but in the neighborhood where they live and hang out.
This incident is proof enough for me that social media is being used unscrupulously by fascists to manipulate hordes of young people. It’s downright scary, frankly. This is exactly why critical thinking is needed more than ever today. Criticality that is discerning, that questions political motives, and that is not afraid to think for itself.
