• KiloGex@lemmy.world
    15·
    2 days ago

    I honestly don’t know what the “don’t buy anything” protest is supposed to do. Everyone is going to buy extra stuff on the 27th and then just do all of their catch-up spending on the 29th. This isn’t going to affect companies at all.

    • stopdropandprole@lemmy.world
      14·
      2 days ago

      you have to crawl before you can walk.

      the point isn’t to impact companies… no one’s expecting a single day boycott to end capitalism. that’s ridiculous.

      small events leading up to bigger ones is part of growing a movement, of testing how far you can count on people to support your cause. these types of actions are test runs to see if people have any capacity whatsoever for organizing and acting together in unison.

      some leftists (other commenters in this thread who were gatekeeping) are too smart for their own good, and think that we can get millions to go on a general strike overnight or enact some dramatic v for vendetta moment. turns out, deeply individualist Americans conditioned by a lifetime of isolation and atomized existence need a little gradual coaxing sometimes.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
      4·
      2 days ago

      It’s a show of support and organization. It’s a warning that “We are able to organize enough people to make this much of an impact for 1 day, if nothing changes then next time it will be longer.”

    • Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      It was something in Denver. There were tons of people, even in the snow. Many, many blocks were shut down. My 15 minute drive turned into an hour and some change just trying to get South of the Capitol. I saw a lot of news crews, too.

    • Majorllama@lemmy.world
      10·
      3 days ago

      I asked my little sister (19) who is pretty far left if she knew about any of these. She did not know about a single one.

      Part of the problem with an echo chamber is that no outside voices get in, BUT (and more relevant to this conversation) your voices also never leave because you guys only interact with other people who already share all your same opinions 24/7.

      None of these events will ever do anything if you can’t get other people involved.

      • ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        That’s part of the problem with the media circle we’re in here in the U.S. - 4 of the richest American own and run 7/10 the most popular websites on the entire internet. The people who need to be reached won’t leave their platform because it’s all they know.

        The only way to actually reach people, to actually make change, is IRL. Write letters, attend protests, invite people to protests, encourage discussion outside an online space.

        • bier@feddit.nl
          1·
          2 days ago

          Hey that’s not true I also interact with people that have the same opinion on other social media 😉

        • Majorllama@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 days ago

          That’s certainly part of the problem. But my comment was more directed at these protests being planned almost exclusively in spaces that are already deeply saturated in left leaning opinions and people.

          This is like screaming about the dangers of Satanism while inside a mega church surrounded by people who already agree with you. Not gonna do much.

          But if you do that same screaming about satanism somewhere where you aren’t surrounded by people who already agree you have a much better chance of reaching a new audience.

          • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            3·
            2 days ago

            My main problem with them is that they were on a federal goddamned holiday.

            Everyone met at empty state capitols to protest, in a way that would inconvenience and send a message to literally none of the people who should be receiving it.

  • chaitae3@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 days ago

    I wouldn’t know how to distinguish all of these calls for protest lately from astroturfing campaigns.

    Are there really no institutions left in the US you can rally behind and who are big and experienced enough to call for organised protests? What are the biggest non-governmental progressive or liberal institutions in the US anyway?

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 days ago

      The fact that we can’t advocate for the only obvious solution shows that systematized mass censorship has worked, they just know where the line they really care about is.

      Maybe you could get away with it in some Lemmy instances, but any sort of mass organization around the issue would be done on platforms that would squelch the opposition before it even formed.

        • Donkter@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 days ago

          That’s my point. That program is even more esoteric than Lemmy and Lemmy already would not be a large enough platform to do anything with. Even if people might agree if you laid out a long list of arguments for the movement, you couldn’t get it in front of enough eyes because you’re not allowed to post it to Facebook or Twitter or YouTube.