I've seen a lot of discussion about why millennials aren't coming out. Yes, they work and have young children. They are taking care of their elderly parents. All of these things are true and valid.

But also millennials have gone to the Occupy Wall Street protests, which accomplished nothing. The BLM protests, which accomplished nothing. The Women's March, which lol. I protested during all of these things only for our country to slide even further into capitalistic greed and corruption. When Bernie was running, someone we could get excited about, he was undermined by his own party.

Many millennials don't even believe their vote matters anymore in the face of gerrymandering and the electoral college.

I still want to believe protesting can effect change. Or frankly that American citizens have any power at all anymore. I'll be protesting on the 5th, but man is it hard to keep hope alive when our generation has been crushed under the establishment for our entire lives. Combine that with how oppressive the 40+ hour work week is and can you blame people for not protesting? Millennials barely even have the energy to do their laundry.

I'm not sure how to energize people. I'm not even sure how to energize myself. The Democratic party offers no leadership or hope whatsoever.

Please offer your local millennial (and me!) some hope. Please tell me we aren't just screaming into a void.

Originally Posted By u/duckhunt420 At 2025-03-31 11:47:11 AM | Source

(page 2) 44 comments

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[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Protesting only works if it’s violent, or threatening violence. If the powers that be aren’t scared they will not care.

[–] RainbowHedgehog@50501.chat 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Are there no effective peaceful protests in the Netherlands?

[–] imrighthere@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That only works if your government isn't deranged.

[–] RainbowHedgehog@50501.chat 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

~~By this logic, South Africa should have had a violent revolution to end apartheid.~~ It is true that sometimes, violence is the only option. For example, the abolitionist movement in the US tried to end slavery peacefully for decades until things escalated to violence. But saying violence is the only thing that works against an unjust government is unnecessarily dramatic.

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[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Yeah I hear ya on all counts.

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

My thing is I literally don't have the time. I'm primary income for my household, my kids eat up whatever sick time I have, and these protests, as far as I've seen, are never on the weekends. There's the 'economic blackout' ones I participated in, but it's not like those are making an impact to these companies that have hordes of resources to keep them afloat. Idk man. I don't want to be the reason our democracy fails, but I don't want to be one of the idiots just sitting around on their ass either.

[–] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

There are large, organized protests all over this Saturday! It's never too late to start going. I'll be going for the first time ever on the 5th.

https://www.fiftyfifty.one/

[–] bryrei@lemm.ee 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Almost all of the protests occur on Saturdays.

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[–] Fandangalo@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think both parts are right, but maybe more balanced. If millennials could afford to protest AND thought it was effective, they would.

I actually like the “no economic activity” protests, but they are possible for me because of my privilege. Not everyone can just not work or buy things, especially when on paycheck to paycheck.

Money talks right now. It would take collective action and new movement to break folks out of their slowing inertia. They’ve shoved a lot, and like you said, results have been mixed. We got a lot of change, but now the Sisyphean boulder is rolling back down the hill. :/

[–] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I'll get bombed for this but oh well.

Remember this when you see all of those "boomers made this happen by accepting X,Y, & Z."

They all had lives, children, etc, and the policies/administration weren't even 1/10th as stupid and shitty as what we see now.

And no, I'm not a boomer. I just think that argument (which I've seen many times) is ridiculous. We're all trying to do the best we can, just like they did.

[–] classic@fedia.io 5 points 4 days ago

Yeah, I respect their take at the same time that it ignores the history of at least the last hundred years. It's problematic trying to sector off one generation from another. We're all being worn down and have been since at least the mid or late 60s

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[–] InfiniteHench@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

There are huge lists of all the new policies, investigations, reforms, and more that happened after BLM. Same lists for the women’s marches during Trump’s first term. If you still don’t believe protests accomplish anything, you are being willfully ignorant and defeatist. It takes mere seconds to find these lists and start learning.

[–] LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Protest does work to a degree. But there is a dialectic change in that quantity begets quality when it becomes resistance.

[–] tlekiteki@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

*Bernie Sanders is not a democret

[–] mjhelto@lemm.ee 0 points 2 days ago

But he caucuses with the Democrats. He's been a consistent voice of progressive ideas in a party of geriatric complacency. So yeah, in our current political hellscape, he's a Democrat.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I am boycotting instead. Also, not American.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Direct action is great but eventually we will need band together to get the thing done

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

Well the movement to buy european is growing

[–] wgoinon@50501.chat 2 points 4 days ago

Lots of good feedback here. Not much to offer. But I’ll help out where I can. I came from Reddit. Deleting my Reddit accounts.

[–] MiniMoose4Free@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

Yea im not interested in the opinion of a cryptobro that says taxes are theft like this duckhunt fellow...

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I’m old enough to have lost friends in college for protesting the second Iraq War.

Americans are trash and if they want to act like trash I clearly can’t stop them.

[–] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 days ago

I watched a news program from 1968, it was special coverage of the Democratic National Convention. There was a Vietnam protest, and the jackboots came and started to beat the protesters. Later that night, members of the DNC held a vigil for those beaten earlier.

[–] i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 days ago

Speak for yourself.

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