The law applies to everyone. Wall Street protesters should be held accountable if they engage in illegal activity — and so should Wall Street banks. There is no excuse for protesters to violate public safety laws — and no excuse for powerful financial institutions to defraud their customers or investors.

This is how Elizabeth Warren chose to open a 2011 editorial calling for more Wall Street regulation. The equivalence here is daring and perhaps meant to be a bit ironic. Still, the underlying logic is pervasive throughout liberal critiques of activist movements.

There are two kinds of wild interest-seeking that need to be corralled: the angry mob and the corrupt elite. If everyone just worked hard and played by the rules, deep rifts in society could be mended through cooperation and consensus.