My first protest in Portland taught me more about crowd psychology than any article ever could

I was driving through Portland last summer during the height of the protests and got stuck in traffic near the federal courthouse. Watched for about 45 minutes from my cab how a small group of people chanting could pull in like 200 bystanders just by being loud and consistent. It really hit me that the news clips never show the long boring stretches where nothing happens, just the 30 seconds of chaos. Has anyone else seen a real event play out and felt like the media version was completely different from what you actually witnessed?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason_reed478d agoTop Commenter

Same thing happens at every crowded Costco sample cart I've seen.

marybutler8d ago

yeah @mason_reed47 you're not wrong. it's a total free-for-all, people just dive in like it's a feeding frenzy.

nina_taylor8d ago

It’s like people forget the whole “wait your turn” thing everywhere now.