Thing about that Pompeo-guided tweet is that it implicitly defines “legitimate” protest to be whatever Pompeo and his ilk say it is, and subsequently whatever is set on the side of “illegitimate” is free game.

This has two functions.

One, it’s wifebeater semantics—I would never hit a lady, but you’re acting like a bitch so you’re fair game. It’s how you abuse power while offloading the responsibility on the abused party: there is always a Faustian exception to the hard rule that permits the thing you shouldn’t do but want to do.

Two, it’s empty virtue signaling because these people still believe that they can superficially perform virtue by sounding strong…and unfortunately they have not one but two gullible audiences: the press that’s decided it’s art critics, and the base that’s already primed to be excited by superficiality and bombast.