politics

Great idea and funnel them to RunForSomething to learn

I admit, it almost worked on me. I was a little scared to go, and I left my phone and identifying information at home. I also brought a 360 degree camera in case shit happened, figured I’d have a better chance of getting it on camera.

But instead it was a massive party, just fun people, hilarious signs and a truly pleasant and enjoyable walk through the city. It really helped break some of my cynicism; some, not all.

I can’t wait for the next one.

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.

3.5% participation is required for a population to reach a Tipping Point, and start a trend that leads to change.

Do you have a source for this? I was recently wondering about specific numbers and would happily read something on the topic.

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.

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

A correlation not a requirement.

You could at least as easily say the calendar date is most important. With peoples lack of attention span, will this still matter to them next election? As we continue to build support, will it hit critical mass at the right time to affect next election?

Or on the shorter term, is it only the local results that matter. I live in a blue state that is trying to fight back in some ways. My most important short term goal is to show them that’s what their constituents want. They need to fight back with every chance they get and to not be discouraged.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.