While I appreciate the man, it is interesting to think of what would have happened had the Yippies not co-opted the groundswell of leftist action. Would we have a legitimate socialist party today? Would we have seen something more akin to a real attempt at revolution instead of an attempt to levitate the pentagon? Did he and the yippies help turn the social movement from a serious shift left to a trend? Or would capitalism have done that either way to intentionally sell out the soul of the movement?
We will never know, but there’s no denying that the antics of the yippies redirected the entire leftist movement and arguably still affects and splits the left today.