How the protest’s "advisors" awakened the silent majority

Yesterday, the Albanian public faced an arrogant and completely unnecessary ultimatum from the delusional group that has taken over the protests. They gambled that they could use their movement as a weapon to sabotage Kanye West’s concert in Tirana, convinced that ordinary citizens would obey them and choose their cause over the show.

It was a classic example of going too far by a circle of self-appointed protest advisors—the kind who get high on their own AI-generated echo chambers and genuinely believe they can order Albanians around: telling them what to do, what to eat, what music to listen to, which leaders to love, which businesses to bankrupt, and which journalists to put before a firing squad. Born of pure frustration from serial failures, they forced the public into a ridiculous choice: choose Kanye West, or choose Gjergj Erebara and Andi Bushati.

The verdict was brutal: the self-styled revolutionaries drew 1,000 people to the boulevard; the concert drew 60,000. The silent majority—pushed to the limit by a mob that has tried, step by step, to dictate which wildlife they should care about, which politicians they must worship, which businesses they must boycott, which journalists they should read, which influencers to follow, and which television networks to watch—finally drew the line when ordered which singers they were allowed to hear.

Even under Albania’s brutal communist dictatorship, there was never such a shameless, public attempt to control people's behavior and censor every little thing—and those rulers actually held unlimited power. Communist Albania operated on an informal system of self-censorship where you simply had to guess who the Party hated. Yet these modern-day Enverists want to explicitly tell you what to eat, how to dress, what to read, and what music you are allowed to enjoy.

This was easily the most demonized concert in Albanian history, relentlessly blasted by the country's loudest moralizers, including many who are far more antisemitic than the artist they were denouncing. Yet the silent majority walked out of their homes and packed the stadium, while the noisy 1,000-strong minority—who had actively threatened to shut the event down—was left standing alone on the boulevard.

This spectacular humiliation would never have occurred had the protest focused on genuine civic grievances rather than declaring war on a global pop star. The strategists who attempted to test their muscle against Kanye West simply buried their own movement. By constantly lecturing and anathematizing the public, these parasites pushed thousands of people to attend a show they might otherwise have ignored.

The second phenomenon has been the coordinated assault on Albania’s tourism sector, executed straight from the Erebara Playbook. Once the facts came to light—exposing how protest leaders orchestrated negative review-bombing campaigns through their own digital networks and triggering criminal complaints—the online backlash was unprecedented. In the end, the only people still defending this economic sabotage were the main organizers and their closest supporters.The public rejection was so overwhelming that they looked like culprits caught red-handed at a crime scene.

Once again, the silent majority has revolted against the protest’s manipulators. After destroying the movement, these figures turned it into an intimidation squad, relying on Arlind Qorri's political hitmen, a handful of mediocre NGO clowns, and, of course, the protest's most comical figure, Agron Shehaj.

Now that the excitement has died down, all that is left is the core organizing group: a few mediocre journalists who, unable to make a name through their writing, are trying to get famous by threatening people; a traditional mountain guide wearing a white felt cap, who routinely gets tourists lost in the mountains yet acts like he should be guiding the whole country from downtown Tirana; and a few small political parties that managed to shrink a massive protest down to the tiny size of their own voter base.

The only good thing to come out of this mess is that their attempts to bully society—telling people the limits of their political, economic, and cultural freedom—have successfully woken up the silent majority. Their lynch-mob attacks against anyone who disagrees with them have brought back strong memories of the dictatorship we overthrew in 1990. So, by all means, do not stop them on this path.

History has proven again and again that any opposition that listens to these tactical "advisors"—whether it was relinquishing parliamentary mandates in early 2019, boycotting the June 2019 elections, or launching endless violent protests and personal attacks—is doomed to destroy itself. The only winners are the organized extremists who get paid to give this disastrous advice. The Democratic Party later admitted that using these tactics was the biggest mistake in its history, but by then it was too late; Prime Minister Edi Rama had already locked in all the institutional control he needed, thanks to the parliamentary supermajority they handed him on a silver platter.

Now, these exact same advisors are leading this protest down the exact same path to destruction. Do not stop them!

Originally published in Albanian as: Shumica e heshtur që u zgjua nga "këshilltarët" e protestës