Americans are notoriously terrible at protesting. I was in high school in the '00s and our textbook had a sidebar about the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. The bit that stuck with me: a French dignitary interviewed on the scene was unconcerned about the protesters. He pointed to an untouched BMW. “In Paris,” he said, “That car would be burning.”
Comment on Why aren't there mass protests in the USA?
Yazer@lemmy.ca 4 weeks agoI guess I’m just shocked that they only waved signs. In France, the guillotine would have been out. Here in Canada we entirely shut down our capital for months, and both for way less. When will the real protests start?
ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
jordanlund@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
In the US, protests are largely performative. People want to make a show of it do they can say “Look, I did something!” even if they’re doing nothing. They’ll break their own arms patting themselves on the back.
I live in Portland which is protest central. We had 100 days of Black Lives Matter protests which meant and did nothing as the city largely agreed with the sentiment.
You want a protest that matters? You take it where the action is happening. In the case of Trump, you can set EVERY Tesla dealer on fire, it means nothing.
Take that shit to D.C. and shut that city down for 100 days? Assuming the Feds don’t kill everyone, that’s a protest that would matter.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
That’s a big “assuming.” It wouldn’t be treated like Jan 6, those were his friends.
Num10ck@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Trump would order them to be squashed and that could easily trigger a civil war.
match@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
Take that shit to D.C. and shut that city down for 100 days? Assuming the Feds don’t kill everyone, that’s a protest that would matter.
for an example of this, see the Million Man March during the civil rights movement of the 1960s
jordanlund@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Yup!
Tm12@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Are we really comparing the French Revolution and the annoying-ass, snowflake trucker protest?
Iampossiblyatwork@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
You gotta remember. The majority of voters wanted this. Trump won the popular vote. He still has almost a 50% approval. Half of Americans are good with what’s happening. Let that sink in.
bootsandcats@feddit.nl 4 weeks ago
Reminder that voter turnout was still only 63.7%. Half of voters didn’t vote for Trump, half of that 63.7% did. Still way too fucking many, but it’s not half of the US.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 4 weeks ago
And that 63.7% is of eligible voters. The disenfranchised, teenagers, and noncitizens aren’t counted.
Iampossiblyatwork@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Great point, there are at least 77,284,118 people who are OK with the current state of affairs.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
The half that didn’t vote are OK with other people deciding for them.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 4 weeks ago
If you don’t bother to vote, you’re not a voter.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
This is the part that made me give up. No amount of anything will make up for the fact that roughly 53% of voters wanted this, which is probably like 40% of the country. A country which has like 3.5 billionish people, and 40% want racism. They want to support the wealth gap because they’re too dumb to understand they’ll never be on the other side of the gap, and this is just renforcing it. They’re more than happy to hurt themselves if it means the OTHER people get dragged down with them. Which just makes them a tool for the rich to use the poor to destroy the poor.
We’re alienating our allys, we’re destroying our country. We’re destroying the global economy, and this is just the start. The next 4 years this asshole gets to sit on his throne, and KNOW he’ll face no consequences. He’ll face no reprecussions for his actions for him and his little asshole buddies.
I’m hurt. I’m tired. I’m in pain. I have no idea if I even HAVE medicaide anymore. They say it’s not cut off, but it was supposed to get cut off Feb 28th because of lack of state funding. I think the state itself doesn’t know. But worst of all, I have no hope. I have no logical plan for what comes next to work towards making a better tomorrow. Yesterday sucked. Today sucks. Tomorrow will suck by all indications. The GOP at this point are actively trying to destroy this country. I’m not proud to be american. I’m ashamed. I’m tired of appologizing to others for existing. And right now, if Canada decided to just atomic bomb us, I’d understand. Go ahead Canada. Take us out. We deserve it.
karashta@piefed.social 4 weeks ago
I don't disagree with what you said but there's not 3.5 billion people in the US. There's like 340 million.
Today@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Half of Americans who cared/knew enough to vote.
Tyfud@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
We met have the level of social safety nets that France does to allow people the freedom to pretest without starving or becoming homeless. It is by design. They keep everyone just on the verge of poverty so nobody can afford to be disruptive.
match@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
if you haven’t seeb the news, some protestors and professors have been taken captive by ICE in the US and that’s had a chilling effect. however, that also builds some tension - as soon as some major property destruction breaks out and it becomes obvious that ICE can’t disappear them all, people will be bringing police precincts and declaring autonomous zones again like they did in the BLM protests (did your news sources report those?)
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I’m not a historian, but my guess is that we have lived too many generations without major political incident; the kind you’re supposed to make heads roll over.
We’ve been indoctrinated since birth to blindly love our country, to mind what we say; we have seen other countries and their political unrest, and we ignorantly convinced ourselves that it will never be like that here.
And despite the cop out response of “we vOtEd fOr it”, otherwise good, hardworking Americans were lied to by their friends, family, church, and beloved government for so long that they can’t know any better.
Make no mistake, we fucked up and let our hubris get the better of us. I hope we can see the error of our ways and fight back before it really is too late.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 4 weeks ago
Really though? Just off the top of my head:
Eisenhower to Nixon
JFK
Nixon
Reagan
Clinton
Bush II
Obama
Trump
Biden
SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I’m surprised Nixon gets: “being Richard Nixon” but Reagan doesn’t get: “being the sack of shit that took the massive clear steps to destroy your country through corruption”
How the fuck did they let Reaganomics slide?
mjhelto@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
There’s that old thought experiment on who someone would take out of time travel existed. I used to think that Hitler would be a good target. However, seeing how many of the current issues started because of something Reagan gutted, reduced, or schemed to disrupt or remove makes him my new target. So much of our current shituation can be directly tied back to Reagan.
Ilandar@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Many of your examples are just the US fucking up the lives of citizens in other countries. The average American at home does not give a fuck about the people being murdered by his government, he isn’t going to skip a day of work to protest against that. I think maybe you are forgetting how much Americans loved the idea of invading Iraq, for instance. It took a long time for support to decrease, and even then it was only to like 50/50 levels. Americans weren’t the ones protesting against that war, it was the rest of the world who saw it for what it was. When it comes to foreign affairs the American citizen has consistently been blinded by a mixture of patriotism, ignorance and the myth of American exceptionalism.