Is Heckling Effective? What’s the best way to get political attention in an age of toxic politics?

~ Laura

Photo by Miguel Henriques on Unsplash

Last week, I went to a local political event for a candidate running for Senate. It’s a hot race in our state, and I was curious to learn more about this guy. He was a few minutes into his speech, telling us about his reasons for running and track record, when a woman standing in the back suddenly yelled: “HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE! CEASEFIRE NOW! CEASEFIRE NOW!”

The candidate waited for fifteen seconds and when she didn’t shut up, he walked to the back of the room to talk to her. “DEAD CHILDREN! GENOCIDE!” 

While I was curious about the candidate’s positions on Gaza and other issues, I had zero interest in this rude random woman with her face obscured about a mask. I hadn’t left my autistic kid at home on a Thursday night to listen to her. So I started to heckle her, “OH COME ON! BOO! BE QUIET!” Steve hushed me, because he wanted to see how the candidate handled it. 

Hecklers has become an expected presence at all political events these days. They stand up as a group and turn their backs to the speaker to block the views of other audience members. They shouts slogans to drown out and derail speakers. Some will walk to the front of the room to grab the microphone from the speaker. Heckling is effective, social media savvy, and, at the same time, totally toxic — a zit on the face of democracy.

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Published by Laura

13 thoughts on “Is Heckling Effective? What’s the best way to get political attention in an age of toxic politics?”

  1. I’m not sure if Israeli leaders don’t understand what is happening with public in America or if they do understand and have decided democracy in America doesn’t have a future.

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      1. I think Israel has lost enormous amounts of the support it had going in, but that at this point further brutal suppression of Gaza / Hamas costs them very little more, and gets them towards their goal that Hamas will be crippled for years to come. So, probably a rational calculation. Stalin, he said: One man’s death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic – and we are in the statistics phase.
        The other thing is, maybe think of Netanyahu as Israel’s Trump (but quite a lot smarter) and he is looking at his own interests rather than the interests of his nation.

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      2. I hope Hamas is decimated. What they did to those poor kids at the music festival and what they continue to do their own people is unforgivable. But I think that the IDF’s methods are too extreme. I also think that they have given too many scared teenagers guns and uniforms, and they are making bad decisions. I would be happier if a group like NATO went in there to blow up the tunnels and strategically destroy Hamas. It’s a war, I know. And wars are messy. But this is too messy.

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  2. Well, Laura, ‘decimated’ is one in ten. Current estimates one third or so of Hamas fighters killed or seriously wounded, so ‘tercerated’ already accomplished. And that about two thirds of the casualties are civilians. For comparison, last number on IDF members killed was just under 600. It’s all pretty grim.

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  3. FWIW – I think heckling is almost never an effective *political* strategy.
    It doesn’t convince anyone to change their views (or even think about an issue) – it just hardens any political divides amongst the audience.

    However, that’s not why the hecklers do it. 
    It’s performative art (‘art’, in the widest sense here). It’s about gaining affirmation from the in-group as an ‘activist’. Which is why they are just as happy if they get removed, or even attacked – since they can stream the footage, and gain kudos as ‘real’ protesters.

    They have no interest in actually converting anyone in the audience – since they don’t care about your opinion, only about the opinions of those in their little echo chamber of activist validation.

    None of them are interested, at all, in whether their protest is an effective strategy.

    It’s much the same psychology as the activists who attack public art.

    In the ‘old’ days of the political stump meeting – heckling was often clever comments from the floor, designed to puncture the pomposity of the speaker. The best were highly specific and relevant (and often very funny). And, equally often, were turned around by a quick-witted speaker, with a quip back at the heckler, and a laugh from the audience.

    It wasn’t mindless chanting of slogans – disrupting the meeting.

    At worst, this type of heckling is a form of cancel culture. Attempting to de-platform those with whom the heckler disagrees. That this is effectively anti-democratic doesn’t worry them in the slightest. Democracy is not something that they value.

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    1. Wishing to constrain or at least stop funding Israel’s destruction of Gaza and occupation of the West Bank isn’t limited to a small set of activists. And most people holding that view don’t have a way to vote that perference. (I do. Re-elect Rep. Summer Lee.)

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      1. The thing is, if Israel wants to destroy Gaza completely, they have the ability to do so. They don’t need our funding to do that. If Israel feels that it is fighting for its survival, losing the 15% of its military budget supplied by the US is a small price to pay. They are currently in the process of moving to more Israeli-made weapons. Israel is not a poor country and we have less and less leverage over them–check out the chart for Israeli GDP per capita.

        Meanwhile, it’s been 154 days and Hamas still holds American hostages. The last I heard, it was believed that Gazan forces held 5 live American citizens and the bodies of 2 dead Americans. Gaza could provide proof of life for those (and other) hostages, but they either can’t or won’t.

        While I’m here, Biden’s idea of having US forces build a port for aid to Gaza is incredibly stupid and is going to get Americans killed. If we’re lucky, it won’t be 241 US dead like in Lebanon in 1983, but we are headed for US casualties if Biden goes through with this.

        AmyP

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      2. The question is, what can Israel do to make sure that it won’t happen again that 1,000+ people are murdered and hundreds kidnapped during a ceasefire, as happened October 7? At the time of the October 7 attacks, Gaza had a pretty good deal with Israel and (as you can see from pre-war photos) life was really not bad.

        If we don’t like what’s happening in Gaza but also can’t offer Israelis security from a repeat of October 7, we have no leverage. The Israelis want to not die more than they want our money or arms.

        AmyP

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    2. I think that’s a good summary. People came to see the speaker, not the heckler, so the heckler is abusing the rights of the people who came to see the speaker.
      AmyP

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