The appropriate, historically accurate comparison is to student protests against South African apartheid and he knows it. Reportedly, those very protests grew into the strong boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that ended apartheid in South Africa. This is what he fears and what corporate media is actively trying to prevent.
Only people with no information on either the actual history or current situation are going to fall for this baseless slander. Sadly there are probably still a number of those around.
That's highly subjective, but the fascinating book The Dawn of Everything argues otherwise. There are even parts about the anthropological evidence some peoples just up and changed systems every so often (yes, non-violently). Our problem as people in the modern era is many can't imagine anything else, not that no one ever did.