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<div class="at-above-post-homepage addthis_tool" data-url="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/hamburg-issue-riot-porn/"></div>By <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/natasha-lennard/">Natasha Lennard</a>
We call it riot porn — it’s a pretty self-evident term to describe videos of riots and protests, viewed and shared for enjoyment. They contain a few standard aesthetic elements: fire, smoke, black bloc participants, and confrontation, preferably in which the protesters appear to have the upper hand. They give little room for context, relying instead on the idea that we know an insurrectionary spectacle when we see one. Between online denizens of the far left, eager to share in what revolution looks like, riot porn gains swift social media traction and memefication. <a href="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/hamburg-issue-riot-porn/#more-4686" class="more-link">Read more</a>
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Hamburg, and My Issue with Riot Porn

White Sight: Visual Politics and Practices of Whiteness

Natasha Lennard is a British-born, Brooklyn-based writer of news and political analysis, focusing on how power functions and how it is challenged. She writes regularly for The Intercept, Al Jazeera America, and Fusion. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NatashaLennard">@NatashaLennard</a>.

Natasha Lennard

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"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history." — George Bernard Shaw

History

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"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." — Lorraine Hansberry

Philosophy &amp; Religion

Natasha Lennard is a British-born, Brooklyn-based writer of news and political analysis, focusing on how power functions and how it is challenged. She writes regularly for The Intercept, Al Jazeera America, and Fusion. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NatashaLennard">@NatashaLennard</a>.