Demonstrations revive late 2000s dance fever, as restless phase undoes mopey low-energy protests of pussy-hat vulnerable phase

The 15-year excitement cycle turns up yet again, this time in a spontaneous and widespread revival of the "Cupid Shuffle" song-and-dance among those demonstrating against police violence. In addition to this clip from Minneapolis, see others from Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Lincoln, NE (just the ones I could immediately find clips for).

The song first came out in 2007, as part of the dance fever that characterizes the restless warm-up phase of the excitement cycle. Like other dance crazes, it has simple steps that are called out in the lyrics, so that anybody can join in and come out of their vulnerable-phase shell already.

Dance club regulars from the late 2000s will certainly remember this one. But like the "YMCA" or the "Macarena," the "Cupid Shuffle" went mainstream and is now a staple at summertime cook-outs. All-American body-moving fun for the whole family.

Why was this kind of dance fever absent during the protests of the past 5 years, most notably the pussy-hat Women's March? Because that was the vulnerable phase of the cycle, when energy levels crash into a refractory phase. Dancing with others in public would have been way too much social-emotional stimulation, and they would've collapsed in pain.

Now that the restless warm-up phase has begun in 2020, lasting through 2024, dance fever can break out at what would have previously been solemn, mopey protests.

(Related post: the topless protesters against Bernie earlier this year showed the end of Me Too and of the vulnerable phase, and the return of exhibitionistic protests that are closer to the previous manic phase of the early 2010s, e.g. Slutwalk, Femen, etc.)

The current dance craze revival also underscores how normie these recent protests are -- both at the surface-level of culture, and therefore at the underlying political level. These are not substantively radical. But then neither was Occupy Wall Street, which was however aesthetically radical. Now, in addition to not being substantively radical, these protests are becoming less aesthetically radical as well.

None of the awkward cerebral lamewads in Antifa or the extended leftoid podcast universe would be caught dead doing the "Cupid Shuffle" in public, let alone during a supposedly radical happening like an anti-police demonstration. They prefer cringey drum-circle stuff like this display from the professional-class transplants in New York City.

The "Cupid Shuffle" would only remind them of the normie black kids who beat them up in high school, or their Trump-voting family members back in the Midwest having fun at a Fourth of July BBQ, while they sulked alone scrolling through stale takes on their phone.

Notice also the presence of cuties who smile while dancing in the "Cupid Shuffle" clips, vs. the off-putting ones in the pure-Antifa clip. Cuties will not join Antifa, but they will join a normie event.

And these dance fever events are not lasting into the late-night rioting / looting stage, which would create more of a nightlife atmosphere. They're during the daytime, when you would be having a cook-out with your family and neighbors. Even more normie-friendly.

So, these demonstrations are just the left half of the status quo who are restless to get out in public space and start mixing it up again with other people, after both the 5-year voluntary quarantine of the vulnerable phase, as well as the imposed quarantine of the past few months during the pandemic. They are not a springboard for a political insurrection, and only the emotionally addled zealots on either side are too blind to see that.