I'm Andy Mills, and welcome back to Reflector.

As protests across the country continue to intensify,

so too do the debates about paid protesters.

We're following these paid protesters and seeing where they're bringing all these signs to.

You do know they're paid agitators, right? They're paid.

The so-called protesters were actors being paid $75 each.

This is not paid protesting. This is real.

Shame! Shame!

Do you have a job?

I'm getting paid right now. Shame, shame, Shame, shame. Do you have a job? I'm getting paid right now.

Shame, shame, shame.

Now, I think it's important to point out that these accusations and debates about paid protesting are not new.

In fact, they are about as old as the American tradition of protest itself.

Back during the fight to end slavery,

it wasn't uncommon for plantation owners in the South to blame abolitionists in the North

who were using their money and their wealth to publish these pamphlets and stir up rebellions

in the South. During the labor strikes of the 19th century that we talked about in the last

episode, a lot of the industrialists would blame the foreign anarchists and the communists who were supplying money

and propaganda to the organizers. During the civil rights era, this happened again, Southern

segregationists would rail against the practice of northern organizations busing and transporting

all these protesters down to their streets.

And over the past few decades, it has become increasingly common to hear these kinds of

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