There's a new low to report from the protestors: Demonstrators blocked off a major shipping thruway and destroyed an estimated $1 million of goods, threatening to do it again if the town were to receive any more shipments.

Some protestors obscured their heads and faces with hats or disguises, attempting to portray themselves as—and, some argue, potentially mimic—a different race.

Authorities called it a tightly planned looting. An unnamed community organizer with political aspirations was said to have pushed for the response at rallies and meetings in recent weeks. Sources say the organizer had even warned the governor of the plan.

The cargo did not contain police gear of any kind. The goods were instead headed to local businesses. Critics are arguing that the protest is only harming the community—destroying property of small business owners and inconveniencing taxpayers in the community.

When pressured by the government to reveal themselves, protestors identified their group as The Sons of Liberty.

That's because this didn't happen last night in Ferguson, Missouri. This happened on December 16, 1773.

The cargo was a $1 million shipment of privately-owned Dutch East India Company tea. The community organizer, political aspirant and to-be governor was Samuel Adams. The disguises were makeshift headdresses and clothing worn to resemble Mohawk Native American Indians.

This was the Boston Tea Party. No, not the Tea Party—the conservative political movement born in 2010, which (along with its mouthpiece, Fox News) has become the most vocal opponent of the protests in Ferguson.

This was the most important act of symbolic defiance in American history. This wasn't in Ferguson, Missouri. What's happening in Ferguson, Missouri is, if you ask at least 35 Tea Party conservatives in the past week, just a bunch of unruly black people rummaging for a new TV.

Ferguson was quiet last night, just like it has been in the mornings after the marches. As Adam Serwer pointed out, residents of Ferguson are desperate to keep the town working while they seek justice.

But if much of America has forgotten the circumstances of earlier urban rebellions and the devastating consequences for the communities in which they took place, the people of Ferguson, whether consciously or unconsciously, tried to anticipate them. When police forced protesters to keep moving in the sweltering Missouri heat, residents pooled their resources and handed out free water to marchers. When the police shot tear gas into the crowd, protesters showed up with gallons of milk. When town officials delayed the start of school, teachers held classes in the public library. When late-night protests descended into bedlam, Ferguson residents woke up early the next morning to clean up the damage.

This is, of course, not the narrative coming from the far-right. This cartoon was printed by conservative Buzzfeed clone YoungConservatives, along with the following headline: "Cartoon sums up EXACTLY what rioters and looters are doing Ferguson, MO."

On Monday, Fox News attempted to challenge that the unarmed boy, Mike Brown, was, in fact, unarmed. The argument is that the 18-year-old's body was large enough to potentially be used with force.

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You've got to be kidding me with this shit. https://t.co/v0Txl3A1fE — bring on the dancing horses (@inthefade) August 25, 2014

And here's Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in the middle of a report last Tuesday night:

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"Hold on. I realize something is happening in Ferguson, but we're talking about something important here, so can you at least split screen the video."

What's happening Ferguson is, at worst, more black people rioting in the streets to get more stuff. What's happening in Ferguson is, at best, unimportant. What's happening in Ferguson—according to the right and the appropriated Tea Party—is a conversation for another time.

And they're right: The Tea Party analogy is an inelegant one.

One demonstration destroyed property in order to protest the unfair taxation of imported goods.

The other was to protest an unarmed boy shot at least six times by a man paid protect him, then left to lay dead in the road for hours. When residents went to protest because the boy's killer was set to receive no punishment, police showed up with tanks, snipers and chemicals unfit for war. More were shot by police. One member of law enforcement sent to Ferguson called protestors "rabid dogs that should have been put down." More than a dozen reporters have been arrested. One news crew was teargassed for legally filming police activity. Police removed their name plates and badge numbers in fear of prosecution. Ferguson PD still has not released an official account of what took place at the time of the shooting, despite typically exercising extraordinarily judicious use of paperwork in other circumstances. Charges still have not been filed against the officer.

One demonstration was built to spawn a revolution. The other was built to spawn a conversation.

The first one is heroic, patriotic. The other one is hooliganism. The other one is black unrest. The other one is a grab for a flat screen TV.

Or maybe, the other one—even the worst of it, the stolen TVs part—is a side effect of hyperconsumerization in a place where the demolition of consumer goods is the only way for those in power to listen. Maybe, even if that works, nobody wants that looting to take place.

Maybe the Boston Tea Party, which had critics even among revolutionaries, was no different.

This is an optics thing. It's all that it is.

How are we supposed to protest in America?

First, start by not being a black person.

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