TIL No Kings Protests were the 3rd Largest in US History
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Ok. I'm too chicken shit to actually show up in person to one of these protests.
What's the next best thing I can do to meaningfully help?
Grow a pair.
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You first.
HEY EVERYBODY!..."you first" is absolutely NOT the flex you think it is.
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5 million people are doing something, your comment is shitting on their effort.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]It's incredible that millions of people showed up and pretty much none of them feel for Donald Trump's trap that would have, to the MAGA Republicans, justified martial law and the suspension of liberties.
I'm pretty solidly convinced the protest was a good thing and that we won this battle.
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I would never. So please clarify for me- what was accomplished by this billionaire sponsored event? What change was enacted or demanded?
Do you have any receipts for that "billionaire sponsored" claim?
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Come over and lead the revolution then, if you think you've got what it takes. Otherwise, you're also doing nothing of note.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I'm not American. If I went there to lead the revolution I would end up in El Salvador.
I did, however, got involved in politics in two countries I live in and did a lot of campaigning for them, so I've actually done the deed as far as I could rather than merely talk about it, and did so further than just demonstrations.
Demonstrations are nice as a way for people to know that they're far from alone in their concerns, but they're worthless if not leveraged into helping make or grow grassroots organization to change the actual underlying problems that results in somebody like Trump getting elected again and again (and I'm pretty sure that if that doesn't change, when Trump is out somebody else like him or worse will eventually get elected).
The Georgy Floyd demonstrations are a great example of what happens if demonstrations aren't leveraged to grow civic-society movements for change: you get some vague promises from politicians and then nothing actually changes.
I just feel that people here are treating these demonstrations as some kind on getting near the finish line when they're at best (and hopefully) a beginning, and not even a beginning of the end but and beginning of the beginning, and they should be treated as opportunities to get the ball rolling on things that can actually snowball into real change.
If all you do after a demonstration is pat yourself on the back for having "done something" whilst you don't even have some contacts for groups of people you're thinking of joining for further actions, you've just done exactly what the actual powers that control the country wanted you to do: defused your anger whilst not starting the ball rolling on real change.
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That’s what I wanted to confirm. If that’s the bar we’re setting for accomplishments, my group’s blowing them out of the water.
Funny attempt though. I’m not sure how you expected the argument to go your way, when your own standards for accomplishment set a bar so low that almost every single person minimally involved in any activism is doing loads more than this bare minimum measure.
Considering the “no kings” folks were sponsored by the Walton family and purposely enforced a stance of silence on the Gaza genocide, this doesn’t even meet the threshold for bare minimum on human decency.
Your conspiracism is silly but otherwise you're correct
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That is exactly why the midterms will be so important, not to mention the next presidential election. We need to keep the momentum going for a blue wave, and this protest may have helped with that.
When that fails, when Democrats lose voting rights, when Trump pardons the Minnesota assassin to effectively legalize political violence against MAGA's enemies, when all peaceful options for democracy have been exhausted, then let's talk about the violent revolution. Until then, there's no reason to be a buzzkill about this protest.
The fact that No Kings was nonviolent was perfect, for now, because trying to riot or a coup would have just enabled MAGA to justify state-sanctioned violence of their own.
Well, good thing that the Minnesota assassin is currently being held on state-level murder charges because Trump can't pardon non-federal charges.
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Your conspiracism is silly but otherwise you're correct
What conspiracy?
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there's also immense value is reminding people that they're not as singular in their viewpoint as they feel.
This destroys the narrative of the protested party. They cannot convincingly talk about 'a few misguided people disagreeing' when you see so many others who feel like you. Even if nothing would be achieved by the protest, this is an immensely powerful confirmation of an individuals beliefs. 100% agree.
Would be MUCH more effective if all the protesters were armed.
The lesson from A Handmaid's Tale is don't protest without the arms to back it up.
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5 million people are doing something, your comment is shitting on their effort.
They are saying the effort was toothless, no need to take it so personal.
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Do you have any receipts for that "billionaire sponsored" claim?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Hardly a “claim.” They didn’t hide it. Their backers were listed right on many of their ads.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/walmart-ad-no-kings-boycott/
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What conspiracy?
"funded by the Waltons"
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Look, it can totally seen how the protests give hope to others by showing them that "they're far from alone in their concerns" and doing so in a way which is independent of mainstream political parties (which is good, since in my experience when political parties capture protests, they use such movements for their own personal good, in the process weakening the original movement).
In fact I totally approve of the protests and (even though I'm not American) I'm happy with just how big they were because maybe American has enough good people to make it a better country in the World stage (plus, frankly, I have some American acquaintances from minorities and don't want to see them suffer).
What I fear is that people here in Lemmy are crazily over-celebrating the protest as some kind of ending in itself when it's at best a beginning, and not even the beginning of the end but the beginning of the beginning.
If these protests aren't leveraged to organize grassroots movements to start doing things like guerrilla (in the marketing sense, rather than violent sense) campaigns to oust the crooked politicians no matter what their party is and weaken the influence of Money in politics, they're worthless, same as the George Floyd protests ended up being worthless because they didn't led to any organized follow through to force politicians to restructure policing in America.
So my point is that people need to keep their eye on the long term solution for America's problems, and that doesn't stop with kicking Trump out, it requires a far deeper cleanup of the American political system and addressing the problems of common Americans so that another guy like Trump (or, more likely, worse) doesn't get eventually get in power after Trump is out.
Trump is not the disease, he's a symptom, so merely Trump out isn't going to cure it.
So my point is that people need to keep their eye on the long term solution for America's problems, and that doesn't stop with kicking Trump out, it requires a far deeper cleanup of the American political system and addressing the problems of common Americans so that another guy like Trump (or, more likely, worse) doesn't get eventually get in power after Trump is out.
Denigrating the effort to date doesn't do anything to further your point. Instead it serves to quell support and push a negative outlook and view of protesting.
Offering support, encouragement and advocating for sustained effort would.
You mentioned the George Floyd protests and said, in relation to that, "merelly coming out and walking for a bit in your own time while holding a board up doesn’t seem to achieve anything" but that's not true.
During and immediately after George Floyd the protest effected a lot of change but then the protests stopped, complacency set in.
Trump is not the disease, he's a symptom, so merely Trump out isn't going to cure it.
No, the cure is sustained effort. The problems in the US have been building and evolving for decades, if not longer, and they'll take at least that long to get a handle on.
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"funded by the Waltons"
“Conspiracy” implies something hidden. The financial backers of this event were listed in plain English on their ads.
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Well, good thing that the Minnesota assassin is currently being held on state-level murder charges because Trump can't pardon non-federal charges.
Oh, thank goodness.
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Hardly a “claim.” They didn’t hide it. Their backers were listed right on many of their ads.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/walmart-ad-no-kings-boycott/
"The advertisements from Christy Walton are in no way connected to or endorsed by Walmart. She does not serve on the board or play any role in decision-making at Walmart," the company said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Walton has also made clear that she paid for the ad herself, and that it represents her own views.
I 100% believe billionaires shouldn't exist, are a millstone on the neck of society and progress. I'd also support any action that would take care of the problem... But I don't think you link shows much more than a single deplorable person experiencing a twitch of morality.
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This post did not contain any content.
"no king's" implies you think of him as a king. So not really an insult
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“Conspiracy” implies something hidden. The financial backers of this event were listed in plain English on their ads.
I have not seen this.
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"The advertisements from Christy Walton are in no way connected to or endorsed by Walmart. She does not serve on the board or play any role in decision-making at Walmart," the company said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Walton has also made clear that she paid for the ad herself, and that it represents her own views.
I 100% believe billionaires shouldn't exist, are a millstone on the neck of society and progress. I'd also support any action that would take care of the problem... But I don't think you link shows much more than a single deplorable person experiencing a twitch of morality.
What is more likely?: this billionaire is funding a nationwide rally against the president’s cut to benefits that directly contribute to her growing wealth, or this billionaire is doing this out of a sense of morality?
What was the call to action of this protest? What was the demand? Stop, and think it through.
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So my point is that people need to keep their eye on the long term solution for America's problems, and that doesn't stop with kicking Trump out, it requires a far deeper cleanup of the American political system and addressing the problems of common Americans so that another guy like Trump (or, more likely, worse) doesn't get eventually get in power after Trump is out.
Denigrating the effort to date doesn't do anything to further your point. Instead it serves to quell support and push a negative outlook and view of protesting.
Offering support, encouragement and advocating for sustained effort would.
You mentioned the George Floyd protests and said, in relation to that, "merelly coming out and walking for a bit in your own time while holding a board up doesn’t seem to achieve anything" but that's not true.
During and immediately after George Floyd the protest effected a lot of change but then the protests stopped, complacency set in.
Trump is not the disease, he's a symptom, so merely Trump out isn't going to cure it.
No, the cure is sustained effort. The problems in the US have been building and evolving for decades, if not longer, and they'll take at least that long to get a handle on.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Notice the merelly starting the very sentence sentence you quote from me about the George Floyd protests.
The pigs are still often holding people down by putting their knee on that person's neck, so how exactly has the largest demonstration in America changed anything?!
Again, my point is that demonstrations have to be more than walking whilst holding a board up - at the very least they have to be opportunities to get contacts from other people with a view of joining grassroots groups for change.
If all that people do is walk and shout with lots of other people and then at the end of it go home with a feeling of achievement and do nothing further, all you get out of it is what you got with the George Floyd ones - empty promises from politicians and no actual change - when what all those millions of American should have gotten was a restructuring of policing in the US.
People here are way over-celebrating something which means very little unless we see that it has led to many following it with getting involved in politics and/or grassroots movements - it's premature and it makes me suspect that for many who participated this one demonstration was it and they aren't following it through with next steps.
