I’m a bit tired of the people who want like a neat list of 2 demands and deadlines and a plan of action and an excel spreadsheet of if-then statements that lay out precisely what needs to happen.
We’re not in charge of fixing shit.
The citizenry does not need to have a clean plan. These protests are as wide as the abuses of power that we’ve seen. They contradict Trump’s ability to take the narrative and shift it. If the protests were all about stopping war, then they’d shift the narrative to something else.
Yes, I understand it’s broad, but the Trump Administration has shown that they are fine going in any direction. So the protests are responding to that directly, and people don’t seem to understand it.
You can cuddle up with your “these aren’t real protests” theories all you want, but these are the largest gatherings in history. At a minimum you have to ask yourself why it’s different. Maybe you think the answer is mass delusion among an unprecedented group - whatever, I can’t stop your reasoning there.
But it cannot be denied that these have spurred more action than any other protest movement, and it’s growing. At a minimum you should try to understand why.
EDIT: clearly struck a nerve with this one. People getting fiery in the comments. It’s the same “if you can’t name the solution then it’s pointless”. I think that’s quite short sighted. Also one comment was talking about economic pain… There is a general strike planned for May 1st. This is a ramping up. If they started with the general strike, there’s no way it would have worked. This one has a chance. People are acting like all they needed was the right list of demands and then everyone would have immediately agreed and then something would have changed. It’s a growing movement. People are buying into the idea. A general strike has an exponentially better chance to work, but yet these protests were apparently pointless. If you don’t think they will work, then get out of the way. The amount of people trying to diminish the efforts of others while doing nothing themselves is baffling. Maybe this isn’t a great use of time or energy, but it’s far more than what you are doing. So get onboard or go start your own thing and win out in the marketplace of ideas.
Love this. I think people expect to work through things with the same understanding that they look back on them with.
We have actually mobilized a record number of people. If we’re having the argument about where to point them, I think people are missing the point that it’s the right problem to have.