Trelfar
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Sauce: https://bsky.app/profile/maxberger.bsky.social/post/3lm3r7bebwc2w
There were tens of thousands of us (some even estimate close to 100,000) in Washington DC on April 5 - something you might not realize from media coverage since the strict no-fly zone in the center of DC means no news helicopters and no drones, so no aerial shots of the crowd like in other cities. Even the city's own Washington Post didn't do a great job of conveying the crowd size, though Bezos may have had a hand in that.
Police presence was almost non-existent other than directing traffic due to road closures. I didn't see a single enforcement action in the 3 hours I walked around. People were there with their kids.
It felt safe.
LincLoud
Reminder, the long boycott of Walmart starts tomorrow. Do whatever you can.
BloodyDisappointment
Let me put it in D&D terms.
Imagine if Vox Machina protested the blue dragon instead of killing it. "You cant burn down villages. ITS ILLEGAL! Down with blue dragons! Boooo!"
Its like a group of adventurers holding picket signs outside of the Big Bads castle instead of storming it.
Gogoglovitch
Even if you genuinely think nothing's going to fix things but violence, you're not going to get most people there in a single step. When you tell people it's all or nothing, and 'all' is things they'd find scary or morally difficult, you push them to do nothing instead. Protests and joining resistance organizations is a necessary step along the way for most people - get them resisting, get them to try what can be done easily, and get them ready to step things up if needed.
sailor55360
5 million collectively attended over 1300 protests in the US, Lisbon, London, Berlin and other cities worldwide. They are a blast as well. We had the Dropkick Murphy's finish up with a new protest song they wrote for the occasion.
SMarkt
keep in mind people, you can always go on strike. dont work for reps as long as this dictatorship exists. help each others with food if necessary. and democracy loving millionairs, you can help too.
gotigs
I live in a very red state and went out yesterday expecting to see an ok turnout - to be part of thousands made me feel so much less alone.
testzero
This is what people need to understand. Just because a protest doesn't bring about instant, immediate change, doesn't mean it failed. You want your instant gratification, but that's not how the world works most of the time.
sarzaya
I needed this. I have participated in protests in the past against Bush and war, but they didn’t seem to do anything except make me feel not alone. I now see togetherness as part of the benefit and the progress towards change. I only found out about these protests the day before and so went to a movie I’d been planning to go to. I will not miss the next one.
Richter12x2
Feeling not alone is the whole purpose.
Buffoonery
I've attended 2 so far. In my small red-hat town we had about 2000 people. Commenting back and forth on a SM thread is one thing, often with limited effect. But showing up to one of these, gives one a real sense of community, support, and awareness. You get to see that there are ALL types of people in attendance. Different social backgrounds, ages and religions, etc. I saw a big good-ol-boy yesterday with a big US flag and a sign that simply read, "Long Time Patriot. First Time Protester".
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Axiomatic13
S'up you miserable fuck? How are you doing today? Here, eat this, you're hangry.
Freak0zoid
New account. Purely negative points. Downvote, don't engage, ignore. This is a troll. Mute/block and move on
StSob
Both can be true though. The police doesnt have infinite resources - they have a limited amount of personnel, equipment, detention facilities, etc. So if 1K protesters show up, the police can just arrest everyone. If its 10K+ they'll have to use tear gas and stuff like that and the more ppl show up the less dangerous it is for any single protester. Obviously the government will ALWAYS win if it can avoid internal conflicts and keep control over the police and army, but thats not the point here.
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chansuke
If you're referring to the thing about arresting 1k people, you are probably correct for most of the country but the biggest cities would have the capabilities of arresting hundreds of people and some of them may actually be able to handle more than 1k if they really wanted to squish everyone in, such as New York or Chicago. Honestly space probably isn't the biggest issue. The bigger issue would likely be the time it takes to process everyone that would choke smaller departments.
StSob
what?
hahway
Sad, alone, done for.
imakeeper
Why do you feel you can't simply disagree with a person's point without personal insults and tearing the other person down?
SnailsAgainstTungstenSpheres
Don't engage trolls. Just block them
SolarSocialite
Why do you feel like I should be responsive to you after you do the "insult" of downvoting me?
imakeeper
Disagreement is not an insult. You wrote "you are a fool" in your comment. You can just express your point without personal attacks
SolarSocialite
Because it's foolish to think that "peaceful protests" have ever gotten anything done. It's always required more but y'all learned a version of history that doesn't include that fact. It is foolish to believe a bunch of liberals sitting around holding pithy signs are enough to fix what's happening. Facts aren't insults if that's how you want to frame things.
johnspeck2
Did you read the post at all? You are a fucking moron.
imakeeper
I respect your opinion. I think it would help you get your point across if you express it without name-calling and insults. Have a good day!
TheDefective
Divisive. Alienating. A lack of revolutionary optimism. Gatekeeping legitimate protest.