The estimates for the Belgrade protest go as far as 800k participants.
Serbia has a population of 6.6 million.
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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It seems like every time that I read Serbia's population number, it's less than the last time. 30 years of population decline must suck for a society.
Yes, it will hurt in the medium term because of the ratio of economically active ones, but overpopulation is bad in the long term.
Czech Republic has been compensating low birth rates with immigration. Maybe the factors that cause few people to migrate to Serbia are larger contributors to the "suck" you've been talking about.
It is not just the dependency ratio. When your population declines enough, you end up having trouble maintaining all sorts of infrastructure. That is especially bad in rural regions. If your population density falls, that means fewer people have to pay to maintain basically the same length of roads, electricity grid, water system and so forth. Fewer customers leads to shops and restaurants closing. With fewer young people, schools will close making even more young people leave, as it makes raising children that much more difficult. So larger villages and small towns tend to do somewhat fine, but villages end up with pretty much no young people and just die. Even worse with an overall population decline the biggest problems of cities, namely the high cost of housing becomes less of a problem.
It really is not just the dependency ratio, which is a problem. In fact that one is often stable, as old people die.
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I am proud of my European brothers and sisters. πͺ
Adding this in case itβs helpful:
Defending against LRAD:
https://youtu.be/CXKTBQBugIA
Defending against microwave: https://youtu.be/Lg_aUOSLuRo
Where's the picture of the protests in America?
...Oh yea...
One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I'm not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren't big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can't imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.
It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can't just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.
I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars "meet up" in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won't even have any recourse, there aren't enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.
Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.
This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.
From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.
Serbia has like a quarter population of NYC.
I don't know why there aren't any mass protests in the US, but that ain't it.
One thing to keep in mind is that this never seemed to have been an issue during the WoT or 1% protests.
You've got to be kidding me. I'm sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can't be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven't noticed they're full on into it for decades already.
I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can't afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can't make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don't care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he's doing and the result is much smaller protests.
Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I'm 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who's own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because...oh my god...they have to go to work.
This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don't have money for that but here I am...doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn't have to ever learn and they're doing it while missing out on lots of things they're accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won't or can't.
Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.
I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I'm not making excuses, I'm just explaining why it's hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.
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That's bullshit though. You don't have to protest at Washington DC. You don't think the people in Serbia didn't drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?
I hate to break it to you, but Americans are cowardly crabs in a bucket. More content with stepping on each other in a sad attempt to get ahead of the rest.
There are people protesting, you're just not seeing it because the media is suppressing coverage of it
Here's a protest yesterday in DC
Here's another for Ukraine aid the other day in DC
I also think you underestimate how big the US is. 2-3 hours would be if you're close by DC. People on the other side of the country in California, Washington State, Oregon, etc. are 5 hour plane rides away or 40+ hours of driving
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You donβt have to protest at Washington DC.
Since you're drawing parallels to Serbia - yes, you do want to protest as close to the centre of power as possible, and that's what Serbs did.
You donβt think the people in Serbia didnβt drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?
I don't. The driving distance between Belgrade and Novi Sad, the second largest Serbian city, is ~1 h. And Belgrade by itself already has more than enough population for massive protests, because it has four times the population of Novi Sad and around 1/4 of the population of the entire country. This degree of centralisation and physical proximity is completely incomparable to US. US geography significantly diffuses the power of protests.
Also the Serbian protests have been initiated and are led by students who in general do not drive around much, it's safe to assume most don't have their own cars, etc. IIRC, some of those who participated in the yesterday protest were brought by buses to Belgrade, which was organised ahead of time by the protesters.
I canβt just assume everyone is just giving up
But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.
I think a lot of people are unhappy but don't know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn't seem like enough. And there's no obvious leader to the opposition.
This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That's not a very motivating message, but that's where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:
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You mean the USA?
Better to simply call them "the states", because unity evaporated a while ago.
Being censored.
They gonna post hundreds of posts about their political problems before they protest.
Search the other replies on this thread and you'll see plenty of protests.
Stop believing everything you see (or don't see) on the news. You're making the same mistake brainwashed conservatives are making here in the US, and they are the core of the Trump problem.
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There are huge protests in NYC practically daily. Most protests around the nation are at major cities or state capitals, so the numbers are far smaller.
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The link for the protest in Romania is about a small but violent protest that happened earlier this week. This article is about the protest today which was a pro-European one.
The link for the protest in Romania is about a small but violent protest that happened earlier this week
Correct. I updated it. tnx
" A Fish with its Mouth Closed Never Gets Caught" lol
Very interesting.
The Hungarian and Serbian protests are pretty clear cut. Former was a rally on a national holiday by the opposition lead, while the Serbs finally have a clear and open reason to demand blood. The Italian one feels like it's almost a direct answer to the Trump-Zelensky mis-hap (or maybe I just saw the call to protest pop up around then).
What's happening in Romania though? What I got from the article is that there was no proven link to the Russians. That seems like a tough nut to crack. The nationalists are in the streets protesting for democracy? Are there many?
Such exciting times! Thanks for the post.
What's happening in Romania though?
Yeah, good point, it is confusing. The link I posted earlier, was a prior protest. Today, was another protest though, which was Pro-European and anti- extremism
+I'll edit OP link to the more recent one. tnx
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Was at the one in Bucharest. Was a little disappointing tbh. Was just a photo op with extra steps. Organizers maneuvered the crowd into the formation they wanted for the photo, took the photo, then wished everyone a good night and wandered off.
This is hope