Tweeten as exorcist: A response to ?Sector as Personality?

Abstract

In “Sector as Personality: The Case of Farm Protest Movements,” Luther Tweeten argues that farm activism is motivated by irrational and dysfunctional traits of the “dark side” of a sector-specific farm personality. In response, this article questions the assumption that movement activism can be explained by reference to a few discrete personality traits, challenges the usefulness of the concept of a sector-specific personality, and disputes the accuracy of Tweeten's attributions of negative traits to all farm movement activists. Evidence is presented to indicate that farm activists are much more diverse in their beliefs and behavior than Tweeten's article portrays them, and it is argued that farm activism is not generally motivated by deluded conceptions of farmers' circumstances and interests.