I’d like to thank everyone for my most upvoted post on lemmy ever. Not only have you upvoted it to the top for like 2 days you commented the shit out of it. I’d like to take this opportunity to say fuck the mods of this instance. This was my second post coming off a 30 day ban and I want to say these fucking mods have been nothing but bitches. I’ve never been more attacked on any other instance, subreddit, forum, etc. then I have been in this fucking instance. Not only have I been attacked I’ve been told my memes arent memey enough again and again.
I’ll be honest, I do not know how to make a meme but I keep posting just to piss in these mods cheerios.
Thanks lemmy.world/politicalmemes for being the worst community I’ve ever been a part of.
protests are not “nothing”, protests are the reason Americans and citizens of other countries enjoy the civil rights they have.
protests are a primary mover of political policy.
Unfortunately, data does say otherwise. For the last half-century in the US, political decisions have almost exclusively been the will of the ultra-wealthy, with following the desires of the populace being generally coincidental, statistically speaking.
what a wealth of data you haven’t provided to support this claim.
It has been studied and published numerous times over the last decades. A good reference that I’ve been aware of, nearly since it was published is this one from Martin Gilens, a professor from Princeton University’s Politics Department. The study was published in 2004 and utilized data from between 1981 and 2002.
https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/idr.pdf
To be clear, I am not advocating violence, nor trying to convince anyone of futility. I think it’s all the more reason to call accelerationists out on their bullshit magical thinking that helped put us in this place and push for more engagement on political structures, supposing elections continue. If more than a tiny segment of the Left participated in primaries, instead of performative behavior and offering up vulnerable populations as blood sacrifices, we’d have universal healthcare several decades ago and actual consequences for genocide.
it would be difficult for you to be more wrong here.
“I think it’s all the more reason to call accelerationists out on their bullshit magical thinking…”
too bad you are doing the opposite of that.
those puppet-master elites you are complaining about have convinced you that asking protesters to calm down and stop fighting back Is the way to make change. it is the exact opposite.
" Don’t protest, nobody cares!"
obviously incorrect as mentioned in the uncountable examples above that have resulted in your civil rights.
" Don’t file a lawsuit, it won’t have any effect."
women’s healthcare is still accessible because of these lawsuits, the government is literally still running because of these lawsuits, Trump is now a felon and half a billion dollars poorer, Bannon and others in the Fake electric scheme went to jail.
“Americans are too litigious”
corporate safety overall Is primarily a result of civil lawsuits against harmful corporate practices.
“college kids are too sensitive”
college students are basically the front line against police brutality and the genocide in Palestine.
you are turned around, capitulating to the wrong paradigm, you are thinking how those controlling you want you to think despite the historical and factual contrary evidence that fighting back does make a change.
protests and protesters change policy.
you can support them or you can detract from their efforts, yowling at your shutteed window that change isn’t possible.
you think you are being “practical”, but you’re parroting the absorbed, objectively false strictures of your ruling class and screaming mindlessly at the people fighting for and preserving your rights.
I wrote a while big thing but my ADHD meds wore off part of the way through, leading to a less-than-cohesive stream of thought. My apologies for that.
My point overall is that protests change people, not policy in a government subjugated by oligarchy, which the US has, by the data, been for half of a century. This is why those in the current “bloodless” coup are so anxious to achieve the smallest government that they can, purged of anyone who is not a loyalist. If they succeed, there’s noone on the “inside” to impact any positive change with the existing levers of power. Protest and resist but do it from a place of knowledge. And, unfortunately, do it with awareness that you are likely putting your life and those of your loved ones on the line (please, no cellphones at protests, they are readily traceable).
Things are bad now and are likely, based upon recorded human history, to get worse for at least several generations. If your thesis is that uprisings by a populace subjected to domestic repression is likely, I’m going to need you to share your notes with the class because millennia of data imply otherwise.
It may seem defeatist to you, but, the reality is that the time to save the nation and prevent suffering of its vulnerable as well as genocide abroad and at home is done. The regulatory state is being rapidly dismantled by a billionaire, while none in power offer much more than performative resistance. November was the last “escape hatch”. Right now, it looks like accelerationists have handed the government over to people intent on speed-running a certain austrian’s rise to total power. Better to accept this now and get through the disillusionment so that you can effectively resist into the future.
Now, I absolutely hope that I’m wrong but, the camps being built and talks of international human slavery don’t make that hope very great. Resist as you can and help others as you’re able.
“…millennia of data imply otherwise”
If you don’t believe in the civil Rights movement or literally the founding of the US having occurred, there’s not much that’s going to convince you.
You believe the stories that the puppet masters you’re so afraid of have told you.
rebellions, protests, change history constantly.
you can literally read any history book and find this out, especially in modern democratic societies.
in fact, I defy you to find a single history book that says rebellions don’t change history.
“…may seem defeatist to you…”
there’s no 'may seem" about it, you’re advocating for hiding and not doing anything because you, contrary to fact, don’t believe that the rights you have today are the result oh organized rebellion.
because the people you perceive as above you told you that resistance is futile, you are squawking out that same message.
You are parroting the empty words of those you fear, exhorting protesters to do what your masters tell them to.
you are definitively defeatist, full stop.
“Better to accept this now and get through the disillusionment so that you can effectively resist into the future.”
absurd.
this is not the same as Hitler’s rise to power, because Hitler already did it and civilians, lawyers and judges in the US are fighting against it.
You are parroting those ignorant parties you perceive as more authoritative than you.
If this authoritarian coup works, part of their victory will directly be your fault for expressing these false sentiments and encouraging others to stop protesting.
“I absolutely hope that I’m wrong…”
you are unequivocally, factually and historically wrong.
The very fact that you’re able to express your cowardly sentiments and I am able to express my practical encouragement are proof that protests work.
The US was literally successfully founded on protests.
“…don’t make that hope very great.”
what is happening in the world has zero effect on hope, your attitude and actions determine your hope.
you are nervously crawling down the path of least resistance, which is apparently tearing down the principles and people who gave you your rights and liberty today.
Lol. No they are not.
The primary movers of political policy are money or violence.
Public opinion is a part of it. Showing up supports others. It might not be what you want but it’s something visible
“No they are not.”
are you sure? it sounds like you’re going to agree with me in your next sentence.
“The primary movers of political policy are money or violence.”
organized protests like labor strikes (those influence “money”) change policies.
Glad you agree, I figured you’d get the eventually.
2 people and a horse chanting in front of some government building doesn’t change shit. That’s what the 50501 protests are.
Boycotts and strikes would be effective, those are not happening on a large enough scale.
“2 people and a horse chanting in front of some government building doesn’t change shit.”
phew, good thing that isn’t what’s happening.
it sounds like you’re completely ignorant of the protests?
“That’s what the 50501 protests are.”
ah, you are completely ignorant with these protests.
4,000 people gathered in front of Denver’s capital alone.
you are embarrassingly uninformed.
“Boycotts and strikes would be effective, those are not happening on a large enough scale.”
again, you are embarrassingly uninformed.
Why are you even making things up that are so obviously wrong?
like, just type any of those words into a search engine and you can see how wrong you are.
I promise that learning is not as scary as you think it is.
You make it seem like that’s a low or average number of protesters in each state, but it seems there are 100 to 200 protestors in most states and not many people even calling for boycotts to Google, Apple, or other companies which showed their full support to Trump’s dumb ideas, gave him launch money, and sucked him off.
Tesla and X have been getting a little more hate than usual, but not enough hate for it to actually matter for a president.
“You make it seem like that’s a low or average number of protesters in each state”
incorrect, but I understand your trouble:
me saying there were 4,000 The protesters in Denver means that in the city of Denver, there were 4,000 protesters.
that is a number. your inference is your own.
as for your 100 to 200 claim, it’s simply inaccurate and not supported by the website you provided.
those are the absolute lowest numbers in a couple of states, but not at all the mean or average.
go read the page you googled.
according to your source, 5051 has already organized close to 30,000 people Nationwide for a single protest on a single day, after barely a month of a shitty administration.
and you’re ignoring all of the other protests simultaneously happening.
but thanks for proving me right!
I know that everything is scary and your country sucks right now, but people are trying to help you by organizing political action in the most effective historical democratic way, and you should be appreciative and supportive, or at least informed of what is going and how political change happens in your own country.
Population of Denver: 715,522 (2020 census).
4,000 is 0.56% of 715,522.
in that one location, on that one day, of that single protest, you’re very close to getting one of these numbers correct.
congrats!!
Nope, it’s threat of violence behind every liberally acceptable method that motivates governments.
That’s naive but completely supports my argument anyway, so thanks.
Except it doesn’t.
You can enact change with no protest and use of force.
You cannot enact change with protest and no force.
Remove protest and refocus elsewhere.
Martin Luther King Jr disagrees with you, and has proved you wrong.
Gandhi disagrees with you, and has proved you wrong.
women as a gender, disagree and has proved you wrong.
they’ve all proved you wrong in the past, and they’re all going to prove you wrong again.
you are nervous, and that’s your right, but you are also wrong.
Wait, you think MLK Jr talked America into making change and not the Black Panthers, Malcom X, or “Ghetto Riots”.
And you think it was Gandhi and not nearly a century of armed resistance?
These people represent the most palatable for the status quo. It’s propaganda to teach your citizens that waiting nicely and asking is the solution to not having basic human rights.
“Wait, you think MLK Jr talked America into making change and not the Black Panthers, Malcom X…”
no but go ahead and try to prove that theory.
should be funny.
“And you think it was Gandhi and not nearly a century of armed resistance?”
this is a way sillier take, but you should try and prove it also, one way or the other.
“It’s propaganda to teach your citizens that waiting nicely and asking is the solution to not having basic human rights.”
You’re mistaking propaganda for your own anxiety.
protesting in the streets against your government is a brave political action.
your contention that sticking your head in the sand is the only thing to do is cowardly brainwashing that you don’t realize you are a victim of.
My contention is the only thing to do is to openly engage in violence. Sticking in one’s head in the sand is what protestors are doing.
you are factually and historically incorrect.
protests have always worked in Democratic societies, and they’re going to continue to work.
you are sticking your head in the sand.
The protesters, and those before them, are fighting for the rights you don’t deserve and are enjoying nonetheless.
Real, mass protests can and do move national policy as you said. However, 50501 isn’t that. Look up the civil rights movement or the late 19th early 20th century labor movement for what you need to do to make politicians listen to you. You want millions of people (ideally 3.5%+ of the population) protesting for extended periods of time (the 1 part of 50501 is on its own a deal breaker) if you want any hope of getting anything done. Compare this to 50501 and tell me the latter isn’t simply not enough.
because I brought up one example out of many going on at the same time, the frightened among you insist that you have to have a particular percentage point or protests just won’t work.
but that simply isn’t true according to all of the protests that have worked in the past.
protests have worked, they are working, and they will continue to work.
Give me an example.
we’re literally already talking about an example.
be more specific if you need help.