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Posts tagged ‘Politics’

Defying authoritarianism with humor

By Janjira Sombatpoonsiri
The experiences of Serbia and Thailand show how humor can be deployed differently, and towards different ends. In Serbia, Otpor had used humorous protest actions in a systematic way, with a well-crafted strategy of nonviolent defiance and nationwide franchises attracting broad-based support. As a result, the number of actions quantified, and effects of humor maximized. In contrast, Thailand’s Red Sunday was an ad hoc group working on a smaller scale.