- Large protests are expected across the U.S. on Saturday to express voice discontent with President Trump’s administration.
- Organizers aim to make the protests accessible by holding events in many places, including small towns.
- The protests reflect growing momentum and dissatisfaction with Trump’s policies on immigration, transgender rights, and the firing of federal workers.
don’t get on a list for nothing, folks. if you take action, make sure it accomplishes something. these protests won’t.
Gee, you sure seem to be posting a lot of replies trying to discourage us from protesting. 🤔 Hmm, I wonder why that could be?
because i have concerns.
i’ve been watching the left lose ground since bush, and i’m tired of watching naive children become bitter and give up. i’d rather you realize what it takes to win so you don’t waste your energy (of which you have a finite amount). i want to see a win in my lifetime.
EDIT: a real win, not a social media victory. something that changes the course of our trajectory on a long term scale. something that reduces human suffering for the next century.
And how does not protesting help us “naive children” “gain ground”? You’re concern trolling to try and discourage us from standing up for ourselves. Go away if you have nothing to contribute to defending democracy.
This is from a couple weeks ago, on why protesting ASAP is important: https://youtu.be/TxD18THltQQ
watched the video. this is a lady that donates to NPR (which is great!), not someone who knows how to fight a war. she actually makes some great points that, if extrapolated far enough, underscore the very same thing i’m trying to impress upon you.
OK honey, go out and start your war or whatever, I’ll check to see if you make the 10 o’clock news.
But stop trying to discourage the people who are actually trying to find practical ways of dealing with our current reality, actually taking steps commensurate with that and building a resistance movement, which includes protesting.
that’s my entire reasoning for being so insistent. it takes all of us. don’t waste that energy.
one of us will get to come back here and say “i told you so”. i don’t care how it gets done, but from my years of observation, it’s not going to be protests. not unless they become riots, which is a different beast than carrying signs.
but the problem is, once it becomes riots, then we’re sitting ducks, unorganized and mostly still ineffective. i’m just trying to save us from that pain. if you’re willing to riot, then you’re willing to take a calculated approach.
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2019/05/the-3-5-rule-how-a-small-minority-can-change-the-world/
i’m not going to try to discredit the work of scholars, these are good points. i’m just ready for this to not ever be a problem again. i want a path for humanity to move forward without pushbacks every 50 to 100 years.
it’s a war. treat it like one. stop being the lambs. be the lion instead. i have something VERY IMPORTANT TO CONTRIBUTE. are you not listening?
Ignore those sheeps. I CAN HEAR YOU ROAR!
this isn’t about me. it’s about us.
A real win is increasingly seeming to require flames.
i honestly don’t see how people don’t get it. they can’t explain it either. they just make personal attacks.
Yeah I’m not proud to say it but it’s just getting to that point. What other options are there? Just let them destroy the country and when it’s finally down to not having food or water, maybe then we fight? Pathetic. The French would already have Paris on fire.
exactly.
(notice they’re downvoting me even though you and i are saying the same thing)
Let me guess, guns? This is your moment to be the man you always knew you could be, to put on your Walmart tacticool gear and engage in gorilla warfare on the streets, to rise up the ranks of the resistance where you’ll meet your 18-21 year old boyfriend-free girl and when it’s all over, you’ll be elected the mayor of America, and you’ll add ANOTHER amendment saying we all have the right to bear arms (as a backup in case the other one gets repealed), and you’ll even show leniency to those people who downvoted your internet comments because you’re such a good person, and America is all that matters now.
I salute you, friend.
you’re not interested in honest discussion. you’d rather make personal attacks. over the ineternet, of course. not in person.
Duh. I would never get between a lion and his meal.
Whatever crazy thing it is you’re planning to do, just remember the shooting in Pennsylvania. That gave the Trump campaign so much credibility that it might have even won him the election. Even my neighbor replaced the American flag on his lawn with one showing Trump’s face with a bloody ear. The GOP message is that there’s a conspiracy/evil cabal trying to undermine America, and they’re the good guys.
Large scale peaceful protests showing that America disagrees with their nonsense is much more powerful than any well-placed bullet. The former can lead to change and possibly even impeachments, the latter to civil war, death, and destruction.
the thing you don’t get is that all those middle america people want a good guy. and they’re gullible. so give them what they want. the american left looks like a bunch of cowards. if we believed in what we say we do, we wouldn’t let this affront to humanity go unchecked. there needs to be consequences. but the fact that we’re such pathetic pacifists looks like weakness and lack of moral fortitude, and it truly is. the entire fate of global civilization hangs in the balance and we post memes.
and even given some kind of miracle that somehow we politics our way out of this mess, those same idiots will still be here and this shit will repeat itself in 20 years. unless they fear us. this is the owner class flexing its sociopathic muscles in front of us. and we are letting them do it like humble peasants. and you’re contributing to that.
Get out there, the minimum you can do is stand with your working class sibling. Being together rather than just sitting at home despairing IS doing something.
No, the absolute minimum you can do is sit it out and watch as people are harmed, which they advocate for. When there is no country, no democracy, no empathy, and no community, remember that people like this told others to do and say nothing.
but what is it doing?
Excuse my patronization, but I’m getting exhausted at having to explain it over and over for defeatist Americans. You have to keep up the fight even if it’s not perfect. It brings people together. It motivates people to action and become stronger as a group rather than divided as individuals. You have a country to save from the destruction and occupation by the billionaire class. There’s so many more normal Americans than there are billionaires, you all need to be in a big group to begin to realize that. If you’ve given up, the 1%ers win by default. A movement is brewing, be part of the solution rather than throwing it away because it’s not completely coherent yet. Start peacefully, take precautions as necessary, let them put all Americans on a list and prosecute you unjustly. Pre-emptive capitulation is how you all got here.
I’m not so sure that person is simply a “deafeatist American”. Their insistence, insults, and number of posts they’re putting up to discourage us from protesting tells me it’s someone with an agenda, not on our side.
you think i don’t know what’s going on? i’m trying to steer the energy towards something effective. i’m not trying to discourage resistance at all. i just want these children to wake up to the reality that massive protests just make us sitting ducks. this admin is more than willing to trample our constitutional rights.
there’s no need to walk into tragedy when we can become the one who knocks. don’t wait for the fight to come to you. assume they are the fascists. they keep telling us exactly who they are. don’t wait for them to strike first. that’s how wars get lost.
I hate to be this brash, but for fucks sake…
Throw a fucking brick.
Exactly.
or better yet, disable things. work discreetly and covertly. don’t be a target. if we’re going to be a mob, let’s act like a mob and drag someone into the streets.
Don’t sit and wait for better opportunities. Fuck the lists. Band together for some of Booker and Lewis’ Good Trouble. Get out on the streets. There are millions of people who are just as upset as you are, and every voice added to the crowd multiplies the reach.
and this accomplishes what?
Let’s ask instead - what does sitting around whining about it accomplish?
It’s not changing minds. They laugh at the cratering stock market and subsequent outrage. They’re gonna need something a little more corporeal than a loud protest chant.
who’s whining? i’m trying to help you.
you have to stop taking criticism personally. i’m not going to sugarcoat the truth for you. there are hard, cold facts that you just need to acknowledge for the benefit of humanity.
Coward
actually, i’m a strategist and tactician. i just don’t see the point in wasting your energy when we could be planning real shit that actually makes a difference.
some republicans are even protesting, the older ones. thats definitely doing something than sititng home and on your keyboard, like yourself.
you’re all a bunch of lemmings
So what are you planning? Which movements do you think are going to accomplish something?
becoming the bully. making them fear us. coordinating attacks that disable their ability to propagandize. creating real life consequences for sociopaths, christian nationalists, and conservatives. making examples out of people.
Yeah, we should all do the nothing you’re recommending, while people are disappeared, family members are harmed, and millions have their retirements decimated by Trump’s ego, I mean tariffs. If you’re scared and won’t do anything but bend over, just admit that…
You think peacefully occupying some sidewalk will prevent this? Perhaps if these crowds appeared outside their mansions instead of buildings that oligarchs never need to set foot in? Why are these large gatherings organized for the most ineffectual areas? Almost as if they’re being purposefully steered away from said oligarchs mansions? They’re people with names and addresses, not some symbolic building of mystical legislative omnipotent powers.
shhh. don’t tell them they’re not accomplishing anything. it hurts their fee fees. they need content to post on their social media for internet points.