I went to a no kings protest in my very red, very rural area and there were hundreds of people. I expected like a dozen of us. Protestors filled the area on the side of the street we started on and people had to start filling in the other. We got nothing but honks of support and cheers from passing cars. It was such an amazing turnout and it was such a great experience.
I think this is an important part of protesting that goes overlooked by the “protests don’t immediately solve the problem” people. I’m in a very conservative area as well but when I protest I get more support than opposition. It helps other people realize that hey, maybe I’m not actually surrounded by people who are okay with this. Maybe there are actually a lot more of my neighbors who aren’t okay with things, and there’s actually hope that if I start acting up more, I’ll have support. Hope and morale are pretty important for resistance movements.
Same. I woke up and saw there was another protest scheduled for today projected to be bigger than the last one. I thought “maybe this time there will be one in my town” and lo and behold. I swung by at the tail end of it to see what was up and it was active to the very end. I talked to the event organizers who said 300 people showed up and most care were honking and giving thumbs up. I ended up following the group to a post-protest location to eat and hangout and all in all I talked for five straight hours. I only expected to swing by for a couple minutes to see if there were more than a dozen people.
Didn’t even know this was happening… I would have gone if I knew. How does one even get information on protests? They seem to be heavily suppressed.
It’s not too late to join - No Kings has more events coming up.
In the meantime, your wallet is your strongest voice in the eyes of this administration. Think carefully about where you spend your hard earned money. A single day of avoiding Walmart and Amazon is not meaningful if you give them your money tomorrow.
Find local businesses that deserve your money and spend your money with them instead. Buy less and buy better quality items that last longer. Reduce consumerism and give homemade gifts or experiences instead of more junk nobody needs. Use lending libraries, swap groups, and other methods to reduce your contribution to the economy, which is frankly the only thing your government cares about.
You need to change your media diet. Here are a few recommendations:
- If you’re into news sites, then add a few that have a little more “independent” coverage: E.g., The Guardian.
- If you’re into social media, then you need to go out of your way to subscribe to local resistance groups and/or individuals that cover local protests.
- If you’re interested, get involved with your local resistance groups! Do a search for “Indivisible” + [name of your city] as a place to start. This could mean going to meetings or it could be as easy as keeping up with a Signal thread.
- Find sites that cover local protests. Example: Mobilize. This is also a good way to find local resistance groups; look for protests and then look for the groups that are organizing them.
The bottom line is that you’re going to have to do a tiny bit of work to get plugged in to the resistance. Once you do, the protests and actions you care about will show up on your radar.
Nokings.org is the site I went to. I just keep an eye on their site and check it like once a week to see if anything is happening in my area
I got a warning from uBlock when visiting your link. Perhaps you meant nokings.org ?
I did. I’ll fix the comment now
We seriously need a countrywide and also even individual online real-time communities for states and cities focused on getting things done together.
Especially to inform each other on when these events are
I know many people who would have gone including myself.
Keep getting more people active, and most importantly connected with each other in-person and online. We all got this!! First we need to better connect!
Edit: Stoat, and Matrix are ideal for the platforms to build up these online 3rd spaces
Nokings.org ? You do have to look for it. Not going to show up on your Instagram feed…
Last year many articles were saying that if the protests hit 3% of the population Trump was done. Welp it’s happened, so what does his exit look like?
Otherwise this is performative bullshit while we need hard action.
Welp it’s happened, so what does his exit look like?
Give it until November since no one can really do anything until then.
And if November doesn’t change it because his administration creates it impossible to vote, wait until a bullet changes things.
The side that wants to advocate for guns better get ready when the other side starts using them. I’d say to ask Charlie Kirk but he’s a little quiet recently.
Everyone forgot that there is a hidden big good function for protests more than just a good way to show unity
The hidden function is to enable people to be together so they can socialize, get to know each other, and brainstorm on what they can do together to make things better in some way. Brainstorming, doing, and collaborating united
Everybody in a protest getting things done is more effective than a protest where everyone is only just walking with signs
That’s the problem with protests since Trump was elected. It turns out you can just ignore protests, and this never occurred to politicians up until this point. Up until then, politicians acknowledged protests as a good-faith effort to represent their constituents.
It needs a trifecta. Protests, Politics, and “Persuasion”.
The protests give weight to the political group. They also give cover and a place to organise for harder actions.
The political elements act to focus the will of the protestors, and provide guidance to the agitators.
The “Persuasion” group add teeth to the political demands. They also act to defend the protestors, when the government gets aggressive.
The 3 need to work together to achieve major changes. “The Troubles”, in northern island are a good example. The IRA didn’t achieve much/anything practical. What they did was force the UK government to sit down and negotiate in (vaguely) good faith. The protests and marches acted to show large scale support for the changes.
Against an intelligent, aware government, the need for violence is implicit, rather than explicit. It’s a lot better to engage early and diffuse political hot potatoes. Unfortunately, the US government doesn’t seem like they will take the hints.
The marches should be used to crystallise the other 2 requirements. A political agency, to act as a voice. As well as those willing to go further, to act as the muscle.
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For starters, let’s disrupt during normal business hours. Hell, general strike for a week. A couple of weekend hours every quarter won’t do shit.
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From the looks of the comment history, they plan on writing “pedo” next to his signature on the cash and bugging out of the country. So, performative bullshit followed by running away when it gets too tough.
Nope, I’d be game for things that do ACTUAL harm to them rather than just standing around. As I just mentioned above, how about these things occur during normal business hours? How about a general strike for a week or more?
You can’t even be troubled to get off your keyboard and meet like minded people in real life, so I question your commitment to organize a general strike much less take any direct action against your enemies. How do you think the masses survive a general strike? It would take weeks and weeks to put a dent in the pockets of the oligarchs. We survive the hit to ourselves, which is far more devastating, by the support of our neighbors and the people in our community, the people we met at protests and rallies, the people you think are beneath you. You’re the leftist equivalent of a Facebook MAGA, loudly blasting your opinion and invoking the names/histories of those who did something in their time like you’re the second coming but hoping others will get the ball rolling. But you sit at home while others actually “do” and are contemplating bugging out. We could use your help, but if you’re just here to get famous, get your own, or duck out when it gets too serious, go fuck yourself.
Hey now, we should all be writing rapist next to his signature! If course we can all do more too.
Agreed. I’m down for vandalism as a pastime as long as we recognize it’s pretty much the least one can do and changes nothing, compared to other efforts. It’s basically irl memeing, good for a laugh, good for pissing off the MAGAs, but at then end of the day the dude putting his name on the money still has more than us and will just print more if all we do is deface it.
Don’t underestimate culture. Though I do agree with you to an extent
The mythical 3.5% rule is to keep protests peaceful, which only helps the oppresser
Oh, so you’ve read Chenoweth and disagree with her analysis? Which parts?
3% of 320 million is like 9.6 million. I guess they needed another 1.6 million people before the world changes for them.
I’ve been using 3.5% of 335,000,000 million, which is 11,725,000. Figure 12,000,000.
This No Kings was about 8 million, which was bigger than last time. There are also millions of people at home that are committed to the end of MAGA, but won’t go to a protest.
We hit that 3.5% of committed resistance long ago.
I could be wrong but I think the 3.5% protest observations assumes but doesn’t count non-participatory support. So the 3.5% is meant as the number in the streets with some much higher percentage of ‘quiet’ support.
Valid. I’m sure they want that 3.5% in the streets so they can unequivocally claim a Tipping Point (although a Tipping Point is NEVER guaranteed, just possible). No Kings participants want to play down the non-patricipants as not being committed enough, but for many, it simply isn’t possible, due to age, physical limitations, distance, anxiety, etc.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t just as outraged, and just as committed, and those silent voices of outrage fuel the fire BETWEEN No Kings Rallies. And when the No Kings Rallies are happening, it’s important to acknowledge that the number is much, much higher, meaning those in the streets have an enormous block of silent power behind them. We need to make MAGA understand that as big as those growing crowds are, they are dwarfed by the angry Citizens at home. We need to make them very, very frightened of us.
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Check out this dork. No use trying to explain anything to a virtuosically ignorant MAGA troll. Anyone who is still on board is just a corrupt, treasonous, racist, ignorant, incompetent, pedophile, completely locked into the concept of “Don’t bother me with facts, my mind is made up.”
Not to take anything away from your primary point, but I’d like a moment to appreciate the phrase
virtuosically ignorant MAGA troll
This is descriptive perfection.
“B-but it takes so much time and effort!! Don’t worry we’ll be able to do something after 5 more years of doing this once every 6-12 months on the weekends when businesses are closed. We can let him keep murdering people like every other president does in the meantime.”
If you think No Kings is the only resistance work happening right now in the U.S., you’re really not paying attention.
Are their demands concrete?
Have they escalated their tactics?Yes. And yes. Here’s one example of resistance work in the U.S. resulting in concrete wins: Avelo Airlines used to run deportation flights for ICE. They were on the receiving end of an escalating pressure campaign from resistance groups to end those flights. And guess what? They finally did.
Let’s go for deathcamps next.
Feel free to join a resistance group working on that. There are many to choose from.
Oh really? SimpleX me active ones.
Nah it’ll just be like “The day the world said no to war” which is often held as a massive achievement in nonviolent protesting despite it accomplished fuck all.
I’m actually starting to have hope for the future of the Untied States
Over 3000 protests in the US plus sixteen countries, according to The Guardian. We’re here.
Oh, and in respect of your instance I saw a Canadian maple leaf sign that said “Elbows up!” in a picture of the Portland, Oregon demonstration (tenth down, near the bottom of the frame). I miss the goodwill and friendship of Canada so much. Keep boycotting!
That feeling when protests stimulate the economy.
We did go for beers after so. Not wrong.
It’s going to turn into a music festival soon with capitalism ruining it. Bruce Springsteen already showed up to one.
I honestly think adding a few big headlining music acts would draw in a lot of casual anti-Trump folks who aren’t yet involved with the resistance.
I’m curious now if it would have an impact.
Sad that I didn’t hear about this until after the fact. :(
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I thought the last one had an 8-digit turnout? What am I missing?
No, we haven’t hit 10,000,000 yet. About 12,000,000 is the magic number to reach 3.5% and possibly reach a Tipping Point that becomes a national trend.
I submit that we are already there. No Kings is a literal DEMONSTRATION of our numbers, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. There are MILLIONS of people at home, who are just as committed, but will not participate in a protest for many reasons. That does not mean they are less committed, just that the physical act of protesting isn’t possible for some reason.
And No Kings is too infrequent. If that’s all we had, we’d be screwed. Even more important are people talking to their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, encouraging their resistance, and spreading the word person by person, as well as online. That keeps the resistance growing between Demonstrations, so each No Kings protest grows, and freaks out MAGA each time.
We’ve already blown past that 3.5%, and we’re heading for Midterms.
I agree entirely 🫡
I was just misremembering the number from last time, then. Carry on, good people
Happy to clarify, Good Citizen.
Hopefully they are using the opportunity to register voters and motivate people for November otherwise it won’t accomplish much.
This administration will say those voters were registered fraudulently, and you’ll have no chance to refute them before their voter rolls/roles are purged without an opportunity to re-register before the vote. And those that do go and vote anyway? Voter fraud, they* weren’t registered but tried to vote, straight to the gulag.
Vote for what, the system that led us to where we are right now?
wonder if he’s wathing at home, rubbing his nipples, South Park Comcast style ?
no kings >>> progressive victory circle jerk
Or yah know a representation of the most important right we have in the US.
I understand your level of stupid, I used to be a registered republican.
makes you wonder why french used guillotines when they couldve done just no kings protest
The French Revolution did not have a good ending. It ended with the first Nationalist Emperor in modern history: Napoleon.
I’m begging y’all to actually read some books.
The French Revolution did not have a good ending.
I find this to be rather short sighted thinking. Yes, the immediate effect was the rise of Napoleon. But to this day, France has some of the most robust workers rights laws and policies. Their people are not afraid of protest and striking. Long term, I think the French Revolution was incredibly good as it made the upper class afraid and serves as a reminder that there are far more of us than there are them.
Thank you! The poor/working class were just as repressed after the revolution. It’s a dumb comparison.
LMAO. Books? How would I even share a good quote from a book??? Like just remember it and then tell it to someone like a caveman???
At least Napoléon got the trains to run on time!
Also he reformed the justice and fiscal system in ways that were sorely needed. He did do a bit of wars on the side, but everyone needs a hobby.
It had long lasting effects tho
No kings does nothing, its funny how they organize it on sunday so their work week doesnt get disturbed lmao
It was on a Saturday.
Ok but one instance is not a good sample size.
I do understand that revolution allows authoritarians to swoop in and take control, but my only question is, HOW MUCH TIME WILL REFORMS TAKE? Because if it is more than 1 year, we don’t have the time. Sorry. It’s that simple. Thermodynamics is a real bitch sometimes and WE DONT HAVE TIME to be dicking around for the next 10 years while the people in power claim they are working on changing things.
Edit: please everyone go read some climate science data and tell me we can afford a few more years of this shit.
