chat

I think if you view the protests as the end goal, then yea they are pointless. Libs are mad and need a way to let out that frustration and the protests are the most effective way to absorb it. It doesnt require them to get too far out of their comfort zone or face the systemic question of how we got to this point in the first place.

As leftists i think we can view these protests as a sort of "career fair" for trying to organize people. We need to go to where the people are at and i feel like a liberal at a protest is on the path to being radicalized and forming a revolutionary consciousness, but there still needs to be some sort of nudge to get there. The nudge will have to be from another human being because social relations do dominate people's conscious.

Theres also a sense of solidarity that builds up when you are among others who are also sharing in the disatisfaction.

I saw a car with a DPRK flag and was happy, then saw that it was covered in other shit and had a fake missile on the top, then the driver got out in a Trump mask and started dancing around and I realized it was actually some incoherent lib mocking Korea, and that soured my mood immediately

I know why, in terms of omnipresent propaganda. But turning a (supposed) day of resistance to your own country's public evil into an occasion to look down on another people who actually resisted it is the most "what the fuck did they ever do to you" shit-for-brains American move ever.

This is just the state of American political awareness

They all went out willingly and independently and believe they achieved something

They think this is what politics is

Yeah, remember all those books we're supposed to be reading that most of us do not?

In some of them they talk about having a permanent professional revolutionary class, right? A small group that basically waits for moments like these and has some plans as to how to try to galvanize, organize and direct the angry masses.

The libs have their permanent professional counter-revolutionaries to nudge things in a direction more favorable to their goals.

We seem to be lacking a counter to that in the USofA.

DTLA yesterday was nut to butt, shoulder to shoulder, LIBS. Libs dressed like founding fathers, libs leaving water bottles and flowers at the feet of the National Guards, libs with chihuahuas in strollers. Libs libs libs everywhere. No material analysis beyond "Trump bad". Thousands and thousands of people and basically none of them will ever be willing to do anything more radical than dress up and hold signs. Depressing

I think it's interesting that the media and Democratic party approved relief valve movement is using "no kings" instead of "no oligarchs." I know we all know that and are also liberals who don't really want to address material conditions, but the "no oligarchs" branding was getting some traction with mainstream liberals. A well designed movement that actually wanted to generate some momentum could have capitalized on that to create unified messaging and cohesion. But the people who are designing this protest movement either are oligarchs or are trying to cozy up to them: that rhetoric is dangerous and needs to be quashed. So "no oligarchs" becomes "no kings," which can be spun as only applying to the Republicans instead of American politics across the board. This has the side benefit of bleeding some momentum off the more left-oriented "oligarch" rhetoric, which is probably just as (if not more) important to them.

If it makes you feel better my city had specifically anti-ICE protests this week organized by PSL that drew more people than the no kings protest

Democrats using Trump as a shield. Elect us and we can get back to brunch. No policy push. No laws drafted. No plan. Just put yourself out there for the Actblue and NGPVan to be a virus to harass and stalk you forever. Register as a Democrat and not as PSL / Green. Rinse repeat rehabilitate the public perception of the aging faciat you all supposed to oppose.

Well, when they get actively repressed for their simple first amendment exercise the cops might just be the radicalizing element for a lot of them. It has historical precident in the lead up to the USSR revolution.

libshit sucks but flyover cities having bigger turnouts than Trump's birthday bash is extremely funny, tbh.

I hear you, but most people aren't well informed.

Most people are just trying to get by and are highly vulnerable to oppositional propaganda.

Will the No Kings protests directly change the system? No.

But the fact that millions of people across the country came together and touched grass as a group with some united mindset still matters.

General strikes, government occupation, and corporate sabotage do not "just happen".

These things require mass cohesion and unified goals. These protests are a critical first step in building that cohesion and getting people motivated to physically gather and DO SOMETHING.

Don't let the doomer brains infect you. Seeing ordinary and under informed people work together is a great sign that we still have a chance.

The one near me had a really huge turnout and was blocking traffic all over the lib’est area during peak brunch hours, so that’s kind of funny. Saw tables for food not bombs, some worker thing associated with Kshama Sawant, and a bunch of people wearing local DSA chapter shirts. Lots of Palestinian flags too. Some people I talked to had earlier in the day been protesting a potential future ICE facility in a nearby town with immigrant rights groups and prison abolitionists. These protests aren’t going to change anything and we have to stop centering nonviolence as the highest virtue. But it seems like a good thing that people are meeting and talking to each other in physical reality… anything that defies the gravitational pull of social media.

But absolutely don’t let libs use this little afternoon field trip as a chance to pat themselves on the back. More people go to sports bars to watch the football game every week.

The best thing to say about lib mass protests is that they can possibly be the wide end of a radicalisation funnel for a few people.

But other than that I don't see them having much effect.

Pacifism and "civility" are two of the greatest tricks ever played on the working class. It's going to take a lot of material condition worsening until people finally realize there's no point being peaceful against people who would throw you in the fire pit if it was the best way to make profits.

My opinion for these types of protests is if they're within walking distance, you should attend because if nothing else, it's good exercise. But if you have to drive 40+ minutes and pay for parking, don't bother. That money is better spend on Palestinian gofundmes.

One of the decent clips we got was some people running those patriot front dinguses off. Some guy bellowed "get in your fucking truck and die!" at them and I laughed at that. So that was nice. Possibly the most American thing to yell at an American that doesn't involve a burger.