All the other benefits of a non-violent protest aside, there’s also immense value is reminding people that they’re not as singular in their viewpoint as they feel.
For a lot of people, it’s been very easy to feel like everyone else must be in board with this.
I’m not sure what you’re looking for to codify the implicit threat. A couple million people calling you a king at an event called “no kings day” in a country whose founding narrative is “violently rebel against kings” seems pretty implicit to me.
Also, I just realized that there’s a red coat/red hat parallel I haven’t seen leveraged yet that has a lot of potential.
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.
They don’t have “a” narrative that can be refuted. Any narrative that they present is facile and can be changed in mid sentence. Addressing the things they say is a waste of effort, even as counter-propaganda. It costs them orders of magnitude less to spread bullshit than it costs you to spread the antidote. This is just another way that they get you.
I don’t mean to devalue organizing and peaceful protest, but the benefits are what it does to us, not what it does to them.
Getting millions of Americans to go out and essentially shout “F U Donald” is a little bit more than a hang. And is potentially much more effective than a riot or occupy wall street.
America is still a democracy, in that all the roads to power require you to get folk to show up and vote for you.
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.
not to rain on the parade or nothing, but a protest that hasn’t the implicit threat of “…or else” is just a hang
All the other benefits of a non-violent protest aside, there’s also immense value is reminding people that they’re not as singular in their viewpoint as they feel.
For a lot of people, it’s been very easy to feel like everyone else must be in board with this.
I’m not sure what you’re looking for to codify the implicit threat. A couple million people calling you a king at an event called “no kings day” in a country whose founding narrative is “violently rebel against kings” seems pretty implicit to me.
Also, I just realized that there’s a red coat/red hat parallel I haven’t seen leveraged yet that has a lot of potential.
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.
They don’t have “a” narrative that can be refuted. Any narrative that they present is facile and can be changed in mid sentence. Addressing the things they say is a waste of effort, even as counter-propaganda. It costs them orders of magnitude less to spread bullshit than it costs you to spread the antidote. This is just another way that they get you.
I don’t mean to devalue organizing and peaceful protest, but the benefits are what it does to us, not what it does to them.
Getting millions of Americans to go out and essentially shout “F U Donald” is a little bit more than a hang. And is potentially much more effective than a riot or occupy wall street.
America is still a democracy, in that all the roads to power require you to get folk to show up and vote for you.
Not much longer if americans dont fight harder.
I would argue that it already isn’t. we kinda waited a bit too long, that’s why the protests happened.
Truth will be in the form of how they respond to the protests. If we end up with military occupation or martial law, we’re already not a democracy.
that said, tomato, tomaaato, same fix.
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.
I see so many videos with people saying “I support you” and none saying “I’m going to take action.” Everyone is dawdling, nobody is doing anything
5 million people are doing something, your comment is shitting on their effort.