Sometimes a Milkshake Is Just a Milkshake

Here in the United Kingdom, milkshakes have replaced eggs as the protest projectile of choice. Activists have poured milkshakes on right-wing candidates for the European Parliament, resulting in some heated rhetoric. The Brexit Party leader and milkshaking victim Nigel Farage, for example, characterized the fad as a sign that “civilized democracy” no longer works. Police asked a McDonald’s in Edinburgh to stop selling milkshakes; angry pundits online accused Burger King of endorsing violence because it refused to stop selling them.

This is not a new. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was . The list of political figures egged, pied, caked, or tomatoed is not short. Most have taken it with good humor. Of course, one should never throw anything at anyone; that could easily amount to assault. But the idea that these acts are “mock assassinations” that could, perhaps, lead to actual assassinations, as the commentator Sam Harris , is just a bit far-fetched.