Which is why it makes me so mad no kings is so infrequent. It needs to be once a month if not once a week
Character_Log2770 on
It needs to move the needle. To make the news…not small but big numbers…shutdown roadways peaceful but forceful
2Ledge_It on
Makes sense, protests being effective is history.
marzgamingmaster on
Yes. But usually with a simmering threat of violence in the background. But we just ignore that extremely important step 2.
TheBodyPolitic1 on
Oh drat, that takes away the excuses many redditors have for doing nothing.
MoogProg on
We might need better signage, too.
homebrew_1 on
Voting is more important. You don’t earn purity points by staying home.
MirthandMystery on
Protesting occasionally is very effective as it also represents those who can’t participate. Much like contacting a business about something- sending either a compliment or fair criticism. They know for each person who does it represents something like 100-1,000 more.
Real people protesting (or contacting a business) is authentic too given the trouble they go through putting in personal time, effort, and any expense, (aside from a very very small number who aren’t genuine).
I think about this often. It’s important to speak up for things you care about. Takes effort to protest in person but it’s easy to voice your opinion online in support of a cause too.
FantasticJacket7 on
Protesting without the threat of violence is useless.
throwaway20220717 on
If it weren’t effective, they wouldn’t be trying to use the _military and police_ to stop it. That said, I do feel that going beyond the 3.5% and having some kind of widespread strike would be even _more_ effective and cut the plutocrat enablers where it hurts
saiyanscaris on
it use to be. then people became afraid of taking more time off due to cost of living being too high. not to mention trump has a found a way to make people fear him or do as he says no matter the cost. not to mention propaganda also isnt helping. protests were effected in the past. now not so much. otherwise the no kings protests would have help the world realize trump is bad and gotten him out of office by now
JamUpGuy1989 on
But I am told countless times we can’t do 24/7 protests or even try to protest in D.C. as a collective unit. All the time on this website which I am sure is not bad faither commentators/bots.
Anyways, we’ll wait for our bi-quarterly protest on a Saturday and that’ll shake this government in their boots!
(Seriously, we need to start PEACEFULLY mass protesting at politicians houses. It should not be this hard to do and yet we NEVER do this.)
iliya193 on
So like, they may say that, but I’ve lost a lot of hope. When the Parkland shooting happened and the kids held mass protests, I thought for sure some sort of gun regulation would get passed. It didn’t.
When George Floyd was murdered and there were protests across the whole country for Floyd and Taylor and Rice and all the others who had died at the hands of police, I thought for sure some sort of reform would happened. And again, it didn’t.
Trump’s been protested against for two straight terms, and it looks as though the only thing that might stop him is the Epstein files, but even that might not result in removal from office.
AmelaPandersen on
The “3.5% rule” drops to like 10% success rate if you look at the last 20 years. Even the study author mentions it.
Protest is a complement to other action, not a substitute.
kummer5peck on
Protest’s reflect change that is already in motion. They are not the drivers of change.
systematk on
Protesting is marginally effective in a democracy. Unfortunately, we are not in a democracy.
ENORMOUS_HORSECOCK on
Yeah, people need to understand that voting is the bare minimum of participation. If you can’t protest or organize, writing your elected representatives is **incredibly** effective.
To quote Noam Chomsky, it’s common to see an official change stances on a significant issue after receiving just 5 letters.
Absotootely on
Then do it? Where are you all. Sitting on your asses while your country is dismantled and the rest of the world is bullied by your belligerent ogre of a leader. The world is growing TIRED. Not just of him: but all of you passive men and women waiting for someone to save your democracy. This is YOUR country. DO something.
Fattielicious on
I feel like our population boom has reduced the impact of protesting in modern times. Like, no matter how many people or how widespread it is. Politicians can just ignore it, or in the case of the George Floyd protests, do the opposite.
psyberdel on
Protests need to be disruptive and uncomfortably for the status quo. A parade of ingenious signs and customes on a Sunday morning doesn’t cut it. Blocking highways and government buildings for days is how it’s done. Ask the French.
Adrewmc on
Yeah, I find this argument extremely weak.
Historically violence and the threat of violence solved a lot of conflicts and protest comparatively less. See every war ever.
We can just go with the example the women’s March. Raise you hand it you can’t think of a single policy change that caused…yeah you can’t. Even they really can’t their supposive win was “a lot more women ran for office” that’s not exactly what I would call ‘very effective’ (not saying it a bad thing just find it lacking any real substantial change.)
And the same can be said for almost ever large protest in my lifetime.
The reasons protests were sometimes effective was because the world was differnt. When a mob of people are outside of your house you tend to pay a attention, when they are protesting at your office while you are not in country it is much less so. It’s practically ignored.
No Kings protest didn’t get anything done. It didn’t even have a realistic goal. No one actually thought Trump was going to be impeached by the end what other goal was there? And I don’t think the hundred years between freeing slaves and ending segregation is a good example of effectiveness either. (and remember MLk was shot.)
And it basically ignores that violence absolute was happening during most of these things.
Protesting doesn’t work if the protesters end plan is just to protest more. If who they are protesting know the next step was being drag out to the street and hanged…they tended to listen.
Reverend_Mikey on
Every person that protests adds more time and resources the administration has to use to respond, and less resources being used for oppression.
More protestors and more protests – keep them focused on us, and unfocused from their agenda.
-Yazilliclick- on
Real protesting maybe which requires repetition. One sizeable protest in a year, not so much.
everything_is_bad on
Stand up to people in your daily life. Exercise the power you have in your sphere of influence. You don’t have to tolerate intolerance. They rail against cancel culture cause it effectively hurts them. You might not be able to reach Trump but you can hold his supporters accountable. You might not be able to reach musk but you can stand up to Tesla drivers. They bought their cars a a smug status symbol. Make sure it they know that it symbolizes that they are selfish, don’t let them play victims, they’ve chosen to support a Nazi. That has a huge effect.
Society went wrong when we decided we cannot must accept people who would do evil. Kick them out
Forgefiend_George on
We saw it earlier this year!!
Blackbyrn on
As a political scientist and activist I think what people really need to understand is that protests are the tip of the ice berg in a cycle of organizing. As the article points out people who come to protests are more likely to be engaged in the slow boring less visible parts of movement building. A lot of people don’t understand that getting 500,000 is itself very hard but the long term work that transitions to a MeToo movement, and then to NY state opening the statue of limitations that allowed the prosecution of Diddy and other old cases take much more work.
mafa7 on
I hope this is true. But we’re protesting against billionaires who own and control everything. This isn’t the same as crippling the Montgomery public transit system.
27 Comments
Which is why it makes me so mad no kings is so infrequent. It needs to be once a month if not once a week
It needs to move the needle. To make the news…not small but big numbers…shutdown roadways peaceful but forceful
Makes sense, protests being effective is history.
Yes. But usually with a simmering threat of violence in the background. But we just ignore that extremely important step 2.
Oh drat, that takes away the excuses many redditors have for doing nothing.
We might need better signage, too.
Voting is more important. You don’t earn purity points by staying home.
Protesting occasionally is very effective as it also represents those who can’t participate. Much like contacting a business about something- sending either a compliment or fair criticism. They know for each person who does it represents something like 100-1,000 more.
Real people protesting (or contacting a business) is authentic too given the trouble they go through putting in personal time, effort, and any expense, (aside from a very very small number who aren’t genuine).
I think about this often. It’s important to speak up for things you care about. Takes effort to protest in person but it’s easy to voice your opinion online in support of a cause too.
Protesting without the threat of violence is useless.
If it weren’t effective, they wouldn’t be trying to use the _military and police_ to stop it. That said, I do feel that going beyond the 3.5% and having some kind of widespread strike would be even _more_ effective and cut the plutocrat enablers where it hurts
it use to be. then people became afraid of taking more time off due to cost of living being too high. not to mention trump has a found a way to make people fear him or do as he says no matter the cost. not to mention propaganda also isnt helping. protests were effected in the past. now not so much. otherwise the no kings protests would have help the world realize trump is bad and gotten him out of office by now
But I am told countless times we can’t do 24/7 protests or even try to protest in D.C. as a collective unit. All the time on this website which I am sure is not bad faither commentators/bots.
Anyways, we’ll wait for our bi-quarterly protest on a Saturday and that’ll shake this government in their boots!
(Seriously, we need to start PEACEFULLY mass protesting at politicians houses. It should not be this hard to do and yet we NEVER do this.)
So like, they may say that, but I’ve lost a lot of hope. When the Parkland shooting happened and the kids held mass protests, I thought for sure some sort of gun regulation would get passed. It didn’t.
When George Floyd was murdered and there were protests across the whole country for Floyd and Taylor and Rice and all the others who had died at the hands of police, I thought for sure some sort of reform would happened. And again, it didn’t.
Trump’s been protested against for two straight terms, and it looks as though the only thing that might stop him is the Epstein files, but even that might not result in removal from office.
The “3.5% rule” drops to like 10% success rate if you look at the last 20 years. Even the study author mentions it.
Protest is a complement to other action, not a substitute.
Protest’s reflect change that is already in motion. They are not the drivers of change.
Protesting is marginally effective in a democracy. Unfortunately, we are not in a democracy.
Yeah, people need to understand that voting is the bare minimum of participation. If you can’t protest or organize, writing your elected representatives is **incredibly** effective.
To quote Noam Chomsky, it’s common to see an official change stances on a significant issue after receiving just 5 letters.
Then do it? Where are you all. Sitting on your asses while your country is dismantled and the rest of the world is bullied by your belligerent ogre of a leader. The world is growing TIRED. Not just of him: but all of you passive men and women waiting for someone to save your democracy. This is YOUR country. DO something.
I feel like our population boom has reduced the impact of protesting in modern times. Like, no matter how many people or how widespread it is. Politicians can just ignore it, or in the case of the George Floyd protests, do the opposite.
Protests need to be disruptive and uncomfortably for the status quo. A parade of ingenious signs and customes on a Sunday morning doesn’t cut it. Blocking highways and government buildings for days is how it’s done. Ask the French.
Yeah, I find this argument extremely weak.
Historically violence and the threat of violence solved a lot of conflicts and protest comparatively less. See every war ever.
We can just go with the example the women’s March. Raise you hand it you can’t think of a single policy change that caused…yeah you can’t. Even they really can’t their supposive win was “a lot more women ran for office” that’s not exactly what I would call ‘very effective’ (not saying it a bad thing just find it lacking any real substantial change.)
And the same can be said for almost ever large protest in my lifetime.
The reasons protests were sometimes effective was because the world was differnt. When a mob of people are outside of your house you tend to pay a attention, when they are protesting at your office while you are not in country it is much less so. It’s practically ignored.
No Kings protest didn’t get anything done. It didn’t even have a realistic goal. No one actually thought Trump was going to be impeached by the end what other goal was there? And I don’t think the hundred years between freeing slaves and ending segregation is a good example of effectiveness either. (and remember MLk was shot.)
And it basically ignores that violence absolute was happening during most of these things.
Protesting doesn’t work if the protesters end plan is just to protest more. If who they are protesting know the next step was being drag out to the street and hanged…they tended to listen.
Every person that protests adds more time and resources the administration has to use to respond, and less resources being used for oppression.
More protestors and more protests – keep them focused on us, and unfocused from their agenda.
Real protesting maybe which requires repetition. One sizeable protest in a year, not so much.
Stand up to people in your daily life. Exercise the power you have in your sphere of influence. You don’t have to tolerate intolerance. They rail against cancel culture cause it effectively hurts them. You might not be able to reach Trump but you can hold his supporters accountable. You might not be able to reach musk but you can stand up to Tesla drivers. They bought their cars a a smug status symbol. Make sure it they know that it symbolizes that they are selfish, don’t let them play victims, they’ve chosen to support a Nazi. That has a huge effect.
Society went wrong when we decided we cannot must accept people who would do evil. Kick them out
We saw it earlier this year!!
As a political scientist and activist I think what people really need to understand is that protests are the tip of the ice berg in a cycle of organizing. As the article points out people who come to protests are more likely to be engaged in the slow boring less visible parts of movement building. A lot of people don’t understand that getting 500,000 is itself very hard but the long term work that transitions to a MeToo movement, and then to NY state opening the statue of limitations that allowed the prosecution of Diddy and other old cases take much more work.
I hope this is true. But we’re protesting against billionaires who own and control everything. This isn’t the same as crippling the Montgomery public transit system.