Second round of protests at more than 2,500 sites are set for Saturday, including in cities where Trump has sent troops
Donald Trump has promised to crack down on dissent and sent troops into US cities. His allies are claiming antifa, the decentralized antifascist movement, is behind plans to protest. He’s looking for any pretext to go after his opponents.
Still, this Saturday, even in cities with troops on the ground, millions of people are expected to march against the president as part of a second “No Kings” protest. The last No Kings protest in June drew several million people across more than 2,000 locations. This time, more than 2,500 cities and towns nationwide are hosting protests.
Organizers expect this Saturday’s protests to draw more people than the June events as the American public sees the excesses of the Trump administration more clearly.
I’m genuinely perplexed, because it’s not like it’s too difficult to slightly change the protests to cause actual inconvenience and incite a real reaction at the same time. I don’t think the government gives a shit about this at all – in most cities, it’s literally just a bunch of people standing outside and shouting for 2 hours, and an increase in traffic, but otherwise no real inconvenience. With how disorganized and loud they are, I find it hard to imagine that they did anything to increase “organization” by much, and besides, there is an opportunity for organization online (literally how 90% of people found out about the fucking protest to begin with, LET’S NOT LIE TO OURSELVES) that wasn’t taken advantage of because… I guess we’re fucking stupid? That or this is some CIA shit.
Furthermore, the protests are so decentralized they feel effectively useless when you consider it’s just about standing around outside out of the way of traffic and everything. Small protests in small and medium-sized communities were encouraged, meaning these people were like, sitting around maybe 5-10 miles from their homes instead of putting in the effort and personal sacrifice to transport themselves to protest where there presence would actually matter a bit more and be more significant.
You could easily have moved these protests into highways/major roads/bridges… Still standing around, but in a way that would cause a material difference. In this case the decentralization of the protests would actually be an advantage because it could cause major hiccups all over the country. People wouldn’t get to their jobs or would get to them late, supplies and products wouldn’t get shipped/shipped in time, and people wouldn’t be able to just ignore what’s going on and head to their weekend retreat.
Also, the protests are way too fucking short (2-4 hours is pathetic especially for a weekend holy shit I stand more at my job), don’t happen frequently enough, and the fact that it’s held on the weekend is laughable because you know exactly who set it up then. People who work a normal 9-5/8-4 (or other normal: get to work in the morning, get home by the evening kind of schedule) where they get their weekends off. Or something work-from-home. AKA most likely comfortably middle class. Meanwhile people who work irregular hours are the ones sacrificing their actual wages/risking their jobs to get to these protests unlike the rest who couldn’t be assed to be brave enough for that and needed a weekend protest. (Though, again, holding protests more frequently and on different days could ease that issue.)
I won’t entirely decry them, I think it’s an okay start. But if this is the way it stays, then damn, let the economy collapse because that’s the only thing that’ll set people’s pants on fire.