The protest thread for professional protesters incited by the media

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Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

apropos to nothing posted:

I get really sick of hearing people poo poo on protesting. It works, I have seen it work in my community where it has gotten living wage ordinances passed locally, defeated local ordinances that would have criminalized homelessness, helped provide the political will to create homeless shelters and safe spaces, organized workers to unionize and strike. All of this has happened in my community because of organized and sustained protest movements. The reason people like to poo poo on protesting is because they don't want to be bothered to do it and want to feel self righteous about their inaction so they don't have to feel guilty for doing nothing.

I just poo poo on protesting in another thread, actually. I will take what you're saying under advisement though and watch more closely and consider going to a protest. What I see though, is that they don't seem to accomplish much. Maybe that's just nationally though - my perspective is a bit skewed because I have, until this month (!) been living outside the US for my entire post-college adult life.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2016 15:41

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:35

Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

Maybe the reason American protests are so vulnerable to agents provocateur and anarchist assholes co-opting the message is that they're such a shitshow in the first place? It's pretty easy to derail a protest if it's just a bunch of dorks screaming incoherently and banging drums and looking for something to break. Socrates figured this out 2500 years ago: a disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house. If you really want to strike fear into the hearts of the ruling class (and, I suspect, if you want to convince more people to join your cause), show up in a tie or at least business casual, march in an orderly fashion, stick to a few slogans, then go home. Show up again next week and do the same. Do this and connect like-minded people with one another so they know they aren't alone. This approach would be orders of magnitude more effective and attract many more people than what the left has been doing since forever.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2016 02:28

Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

blue squares posted:

Marching politely in a tie never changed a thing. The successes of the Civil Rights Era didn't happen because black people were nice and well-dressed. They happened because boycotts put economic pressure on businesses which then looked to government to give the protestors what they wanted, and they happened because the Black Panthers and Malcolm X scared the poo poo out of white people until they felt it was better to give in than hold out.

Sorry Malcolm X organized poo poo, blue squares. He did not sit in a drum circle with other patchouli-scented hippies and sing songs. He did not try to win for his cause with sick burns on placards. As for the Black Panthers I think that sort of thing is going to see a resurgence and good on them if it does. I actually like BLM in contrast to the rabble we usually see from the activist left.

Koalas March posted:

yeah I'm sure everyone can afford to go out and buy a business suit to protest

that's the most bougie statement I've heard in a long time

These protests are happening because of hate crimes spiking and many people (poc, muslims, women) feel at risk. People are literally scared for their safety, and the safety of their loved ones.

These protests are about civil rights. If you are here and tut-tutting activists now, talking about respectability politics and "Oh my god! the property damage!" You are no better than the racists who told civil rights activists in the 60s to "calm down" and stop being so drat violent and uppity.

If you are more worried about how the protests may inconvenience you than the fact that people are literally being murdered, harassed and threatened because of their race, religion and sex, then you are part the problem.

Do not offer "solutions".

Fine. The business suit thing or whatever was a little tongue in cheek but the point is to present yourself as an ordinary person. White people with dreadlocks are not ordinary people.

I am not worried in the slightest if these protests inconvenience me - I hope they do that means they are doing something. I absolutely want the carnage to end and I think BLM is actually a very effective protest movement compared to what we usually get.

A couple hundred people marching in Cleveland or whatever is nothing. It is a blip. I want more people to join these protests, actually. I want to join one myself but from what I can tell there is nothing worthwhile there aside from possibly meeting like-minded people which may get me to overcome my aversion to going. Other than that though, it seems like a waste.

Sorry if I'm coming into your thread with my bougie "solutions" and pissing you off. I do want to get more people involved. It doesn't seem to me that's going to happen with the way things are going.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2016 02:57

Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

People talk about the MLK / Malcolm X dichotomy a lot but they too often seem to use it as evidence of "we need more / less organization and more / less violence or threat of it". The whole point of doing a protest in the way I'm suggesting is so that you have it as a point in your favor when the hammer comes down as it certainly will. If you were already acting like an rear end in a top hat when it does, no one is going to care.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2016 03:01

Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

Fair enough - both of you. I'm not in the country right now but will go to one of these once I'm back.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2016 04:23

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:35

Kilroy: Oct 1, 2000

A big flaming stink posted:

Ok that's a pretty good reason not to go to a protest. I apologize for my harsh tone.

No problem. The last big protests that happened while I actually lived in the states were probably the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. I was in Seattle at the time but didn't go to them but then again I was a different political animal then anyway. So for me it's been totally outside, looking in, but not for much longer and I'll be getting involved now.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2016 08:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The protest thread for professional protesters incited by the media