Comment on What are the demands of the No Kings protests? What's the plan if they win?

AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• MisshapenDeviate@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  In that metaphor, though, the passengers have agreed to prevent the bus from driving off the cliff. From my experience with the No Kings protests, there isn’t an overarching demand other than “Maybe don’t be so terrible” and a general expression of displeasure.

  source

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    To keep with the analogy: the goal is to step on the brake … aka apply the checks and balances supposedly built into the system and stop letting Trump just do whatever he wants without consequences.

    source
• givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Yeah, but if the bus driver has been calling all the passengers terrorists for a decade, has been saying he’s gonna kill us all, and keeps falling asleep while driving…

  Wearing a funny costume and walking around the bus holding witty signs the driver will literally never see, might not be the best way to even get the bus to stop.

  Like, you get that right?

  It’s not Tinkerbell logic, we can’t all just clap our hands together and say “I don’t believe in kings” and they all fall down.

  And I swear to 6lb 8oz baby Jesus if someone tries to tell me it’s “raising awareness and that’s most important”, I’m going to lose it, because obviously at some point awareness isn’t going to somehow stop the bus.

  And I seriously doubt anyone is more aware today then they were a month ago.

  Like, you all know MAGA is too scared to go into a city themselves, and the only news they listen to will never report what actually happened today.

  For fucks sake, tell me there’s something I’m missing. Because otherwise it’s incredibly stressful that people think this will in anyway help. Because then you all aren’t actually going to help.

  source

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    You’re not wrong—the protests in their current form aren’t going to achieve anything by themselves.

    But adding some specific set of demands will accomplish even less: it will alienate supporters who don’t agree with all the demands, and it will allow Trump to claim to address the issues by cherry-picking and distorting the demands beyond recognition (see the Black Lives Matter protests a few years ago).

    If we reach a critical point where mass protests can achieve some real, concrete good, it will be due to contingent circumstances that neither side was able to predict. But the contribution the current protests can make to that moment is to give everyone the confidence that the numbers are on their side, once a productive channel is found.

    source

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      But adding some specific set of demands will accomplish even less: it will alienate supporters who don’t agree with all the demands

      That’s “means testing”. A classic move from neoliberals to turn a movement against itself and delay action. And why I personally don’t like trying to unite nationwide protests only a central authority or allowing a small unelected group to control a movement. The wealthy are going to try and corrupt it, and their money makes that easy for them.

      it will be due to contingent circumstances that neither side was able to predict.

      It’s very easy to predict…

      The only reason any protest every has worked, or ever will work is the threat of violence…

      We can spend all day dressing it up. But it’s telling our government we won’t stand for what it’s doing. The different flavors of protests, riots, and even coups are all the same threat of violence by citizens against their own government, it’s just how explicit that threat is and how polite the tone we say it in is.

      I’m not saying that’s wrong. I’m not saying it’s something to celebrate either.

      But people need to fucking understand it is what is, because it might be like that soon.

      source
  • Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I ain’t reading past the first deranged paragraph, but happy for you/sorry that happened.

    source

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      No problem.

      If I had filled in all the gaps so the lowest common denominator got it, it would have been 10x as long, and it’s already too long for you to read.

      There’s just no way I can communicate something like this to you in a way that you’d be able to understand. But my comments are often long, and I’ll never see any of your responses again to give you clarification on anything else now.

      So you might want to just block me so you don’t keep getting confused in other threads.

      source
• garbagebagel@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’m not trying to be pessimistic or disparaging, but wasn’t the issue with the 2011 Occupy movement exactly that they couldn’t agree on a destination?

  source
• queermunist@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Yeah, but in this case the passengers are committed to not laying a hand on the driver as he drives them off the cliff.

  source
• Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The passengers came together and joined forces at the back of the bus

  source