this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
630 points (98.9% liked)

politics

26105 readers
3197 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 18 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

3.5% participation is required for a population to reach a Tipping Point, and start a trend that leads to change. In America, that's about 12.5 million people. The last No Kings protest was about 5.5 million people, this one was around 7 million, so we're getting closer.

The thing to remember, because MAGA surely does, is that the 12.5 million doesn't all have to be out marching. The No Kings protesters represent less than half of their actual numbers. In fact, they probably represent less than 20% of their total. A LOT of sympathizers stayed home, most of them, in fact.

MAGA understands that the protesters are only a small portion of the actual resistance, and they know they are surrounded. It's time that the rest of the country recognizes that.

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 1 points 17 minutes ago

No kings needs to accelerate their frequency. This needs to move to every night.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 17 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Seem to be a lot of people posting this so I'll just repost what I wrote elsewhere :

The 3.5% theory is extremely questionable. The first paragraph of (the BBC) article is problematic if you know like 3 things about Philippine politics.

I’ve dug deeper into the data and it is very opinionated how it defines “success” and violence/nonviolence.

I’m not a pro-violence guy, i defend liberation struggles, but work to create educational/political/cultural revolution. Also the 3.5% mobilized population would be rad AF in USAmerica.

I haven’t read the whole book the study is based on, though I was working on it for a while. But IMO it misrepresents historical fact to make a nice-sounding abstraction, and I’m not sure how people will react to its failure, which would be based on a faulty premise.

We need to be more focused on what we will do with the power that will come from mobilizing like 12 million Americans rather than hoping some members of the political class notice and decide to fix things. The actual problem is that power is kept out of the hands of workers. The thought of building that power and giving it away would be a catastrophic blow to our movements.

The political system is empowered to fix problems, but not equipped. As far as I can tell, the only people who have ever created or fixed a goddamn thing in all of history have been workers.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 17 points 11 hours ago (7 children)

No it doesn't and stop posting this as gospel and read what the people who observed this actually say. For one there is one where 6% of the population was involved and it failed. Another protests are becoming less effective both peaceful and violent. Another other factors are also important besides the 3.5 number. Look up what these guys actually say instead of arriving some magical number.

[–] MBech 8 points 10 hours ago

I'd like to add. You also need them to actually be afraid. If they know a few protests is all it's ever going to become, they won't give half a shit. The threat, and the reason the government might start acting differently, is from the implecation that these (I suppose in this case 12.5 million) people are ready to hang the government. If they aren't ready to do that, fuck all is going to change. As it is right now, it seems 99% of the protesters are pacifists. As in, going to do fuck all either way.

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

That is the tricky thing about basing predictions on historic trends. IIRC, is was Arab spring in some countries that broke the rule (and that "rule" was calculated based on data from 1900-2006). I'm also curious how Nepal and Madagascar stack up compared to historic trends.

Other aspects of Chenoweths research (such as the importance of "converting" certain factions such as police or military - or at least getting them to be neutral) are important as well but don't get as much traction as the clickbaity 3.5% number does

ETA: Nepal's discord had about 100k members, and it's population is 29 million. So that was well below 3.5%. Like No Kings, Nepals protests were decentralized, which is potentially a factor compared to historic protests which tend to be focused on a single location or march

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

A good number of sympathizers were too busy working to stay afloat

[–] Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 4 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Crowds make a difference when they are out in numbers on a daily basis, one massive protest every month or so won't make a bit of a difference.

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago

There are protests damn near every week... I've gone to at least 20 this year

[–] tree_frog_and_rain@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Protesting every day might be less effective without economic disruption going with it.

That's just the nature of the news cycle, we've had over one mass shooting a day this year and it's not as much news as 10 years ago when they were much less frequent.

If it's always happening, it isn't news.

All of that said, there's other ways to protest that don't need to be news. Like out front of ice buildings. When you see ice harassing folks, disrupting them, recording them etc.

[–] Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 2 points 5 hours ago

Protesting every day might be less effective without economic disruption going with it Ideally there should be a general strike, get the workforce out in force, this administration only cares about the bottom line, once the billionaires start feeling it then maybe. Unfortunately I don't think this is possible in todays America, for various reasons including size, reliance on work for health reasons, etc etc etc.

[–] MourningDove@lemmy.zip 41 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I 110% guarantee you the White House is not panicking. He and his little Nazi party of buffoons have zero fears of anyone or anything getting in their way.

They think they’re above the law. And one that is above the law has no fear because he has limitless power to do with as he pleases.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 hours ago (8 children)

That should be the point of protests. Reminding them that the government should work for the people, and that they will be held accountable for what they did. Because if you don't, no one else will

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I think both are kind of true. They have more power than perhaps any administration in history given how stacked the Supreme Court is and how subservient the entire GOP is to Trump and the billionaire apparatus.

That said, I DO sense a panic of how so many months have gone by and midterms are right around the corner. With Trump's approval-ratings plummeting to Jimmy Carter levels already and their lack of justifying consolidation of power while Democrats are energized — IF they don't succeed by next midterms, GOP are going to lose pretty big.

Prop 50 Yes in California is a must as well.

[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Only an absolute collapse in support for the GOP will affect them. The SCOTUS is going to rule against section 2 of the voting rights act and then southern states are going to jerrymander another 12 seats away from the Dems. That's not insurmountable, but they will need a national lead of 6% in the popular vote just to break even.

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 34 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

Dude what. Last presidency he got scared during the anti-abortion law protests of May 2019 and installed new fencing around the Whitehouse that are roughly twice as high.

https://apnews.com/united-states-government-f0dae0200dd945dcb868d98b1e8ff378

Then he had additional fencing and concrete barriers installed around the already huge fences during the BLM/George Floyd protests, and when one of those fences was partially pushed down (still leaving a 14 foot fence protecting the Whitehouse), he ran off and hid in a bunker.

Then he spent the next weeks telling everyone he's very brave and did not go to a bunker. While Whitehouse leakers confirmed he did.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/trump-is-literally-building-a-wall-around-the-white-house

He's repeatedly shown he's a scared little piss-baby, especially of protesters.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Trump's first term was so much wilder than people remember. It drives me nuts every day.

[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 minute ago

It feels like ancient history now.

[–] WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Bruh those fences weren't fear, they were a publicity stunt and rile up the right... They know what they are doing and it's basically a psychological war.

They can just send a manipulated poor person to do their dirty work, including murder, without having anything to fear at all.

Trump is just a puppet to larger organized crime that's global. America is just being used as a tool in the lawless global game that is above the law.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 17 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Thewhite house panicked so hard the President of the united states posted a video of homself with a crown on shitting on the protesters. Think about that for two seconds.

[–] MourningDove@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago

That’s not panicking, that’s laughing and making a joke of the whole thing.

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 22 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

A dictator is always afraid of the people the rule over. Law is not something they fear. It is lawlessness. Protests is the way to show them a glimpse of that.

[–] WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Lawlessness is their upper hand, but when they realize their victims are willing to die or kill things change. They do have pawns that will die for them though so it's not so simple.

It's exactly like mafia and gang life on a larger scale.

Most Americans are not playing the same game as them... Most Americans are taught not to play that game... But when they start things might have hope.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

I mean they are above the law at least Trump. He literally cannot be procedures for anything done as an official act. Also whoa going to enforce the law?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 119 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Trump posting a video dropping bombs from his asshole on the protests shows that he does, in fact, care a lot about the protest so he is doing as ridiculous of a thing as he can to counteract it...

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The next national protest should proactively disappear all ICE agents.

Make ICE fear putting boots on the ground.

Make people fear joining ICE.

That's a real start.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] 5too@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Escalation of violence tends to go in favor of the despotic regime.

Instead of making ICE disappear, make it impossible for them to disappear. Make their identities public, and keep them that way as long as they're associated with ICE. Then see what the community around them does.

[–] ravenaspiring@sh.itjust.works 76 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The day was not only nonviolent but also historic. The estimated nearly 7 million who showed up across America marked the second-largest one-day protest in U.S. history, surpassed only by a very different type of event, the first Earth Day in 1970. That was roughly 40% largest than the first “No Kings” event in June, and in talking to protesters Saturday it seemed the turnout was only boosted by the right-wing rhetoric, that anti-Trump protesters must be some kind of domestic terrorists.

...

The official White House reaction, as related to one reporter, was “Who cares?” But guess what? They clearly cared, a lot. You could see that in the week leading up to the demonstration, with the increasingly insane rhetoric and warnings about “antifa” — a tiny, unorganized sliver of young rock-throwing radicals who were nowhere in sight Saturday — that aimed to neutralize the reality that millions of everyday Americans are sick of seeing a masked secret police snatch people off the streets.

In a maneuver that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un must have surely applauded, Trump’s Pentagon fired some artillery shells over a closed I-5 in the heart of Southern California’s anti-Trump rally as the protests were taking place — ostensibly to mark the 250th anniversary of the armed forces, but alsoas a reminder of the regime’s military might as Trump weighs invoking the Insurrection Act.

[–] ctrl_alt_esc@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 day ago (3 children)

All good, but saying that antifa is a group of rock-throwing radicals is dumb at best and plays into the fascist's narrative.

[–] WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 0 points 5 hours ago

And a sign we shouldn't be fighting for America anymore, we should be fighting for something better.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 22 points 1 day ago

yeah I hate this bullshit throwing around antifa like its a particular group. they tried to do the same thing with black lives matter. even funnier that anti-anti-facists want to talk about the people protesting them as being anti-american.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›