One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I’m not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren’t big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.
It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can’t just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.
I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars “meet up” in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won’t even have any recourse, there aren’t enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.
Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.
This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.
From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can’t be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven’t noticed they’re full on into it for decades already.
I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can’t afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can’t make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don’t care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he’s doing and the result is much smaller protests.
Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I’m 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who’s own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because…oh my god…they have to go to work.
This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don’t have money for that but here I am…doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn’t have to ever learn and they’re doing it while missing out on lots of things they’re accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won’t or can’t.
Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.
I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I’m not making excuses, I’m just explaining why it’s hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.
So I am preparing my kids for no dad, even though I and my family had no say in the outcome of your citizens decisions and they get away with it cause they’re poor and no one wants to help organize or teach them because you all couldn’t be bothered. Gotcha.
The apologists are as bad if not worse than the instigators. Find a way.
It’s also worth mentioning that there WERE mass protests when Trump was elected the first time, and people have been standing up against MAGA for a decade at this point. And none of it has kept MAGAts from continuing to put him into power. I think Americans are pretty justified in thinking the protests won’t accomplish anything.
I think places you can look for American resistance at the moment are in the courts, boycotts, and in the townhalls yelling at their representative. There are some people protesting, but most liberals are giving a lot of thought to what is strategically effective at this point.
I mean I think even the mass protests we did have are nothing compared to the size of protests in Europe. I think that’s a mix of general American attitudes both with people’s general apathy and the extremely individualistic ideals that Americans tend to have pushed on them from a young age. As well as a mix of the lack of worker protections like I mentioned before. I think if we could pull off the kind of numbers we see in Europe in even a couple of big American cities they would be very effective. Protests are the kinds of thing that can help build community since while you’re there you can talk to people and find groups to join to push for what you believe in. And I mean compared to the other forms of resistance you mentioned two of those, courts and town halls, effectively are protests as you’re going to a town hall to protest your representatives or you’re going out and protesting to tell the court to do more to stop this. That’s why I think we need to focus on building up communities to help breakthrough the apathy and the intensely individualistic attitude people here tend to have, as well as setting up things like mutual aid to provide more of those safety nets that the government is abdicating on right now to help those who normally can’t afford to come out and participate. So that when there’s a push against something it doesn’t just take the form of hundreds of people showing up at something but is thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people showing up like what you’ve seen in Europe. Of course that will take time and at least from what Ive seen the number of people being involved in community groups has gone up but definitely not as fast as the number of people angry at Trump and I think trying to funnel those people into groups to help organize is gonna be the big thing that actually lets us fight back and oppose what’s going on right now.
But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.
I think a lot of people are unhappy but don’t know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn’t seem like enough. And there’s no obvious leader to the opposition.
This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That’s not a very motivating message, but that’s where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:
One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I’m not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren’t big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.
It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can’t just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.
I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars “meet up” in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won’t even have any recourse, there aren’t enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.
Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.
This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.
From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can’t be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven’t noticed they’re full on into it for decades already.
I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can’t afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can’t make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don’t care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he’s doing and the result is much smaller protests.
Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I’m 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who’s own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because…oh my god…they have to go to work.
This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don’t have money for that but here I am…doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn’t have to ever learn and they’re doing it while missing out on lots of things they’re accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won’t or can’t.
Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.
I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I’m not making excuses, I’m just explaining why it’s hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.
So I am preparing my kids for no dad, even though I and my family had no say in the outcome of your citizens decisions and they get away with it cause they’re poor and no one wants to help organize or teach them because you all couldn’t be bothered. Gotcha.
The apologists are as bad if not worse than the instigators. Find a way.
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
Ever occur to you that people can be mad at many different things at once?
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Are you out protesting every day? Otherwise you’re lazy apparently. Lol.
It’s also worth mentioning that there WERE mass protests when Trump was elected the first time, and people have been standing up against MAGA for a decade at this point. And none of it has kept MAGAts from continuing to put him into power. I think Americans are pretty justified in thinking the protests won’t accomplish anything.
I think places you can look for American resistance at the moment are in the courts, boycotts, and in the townhalls yelling at their representative. There are some people protesting, but most liberals are giving a lot of thought to what is strategically effective at this point.
I mean I think even the mass protests we did have are nothing compared to the size of protests in Europe. I think that’s a mix of general American attitudes both with people’s general apathy and the extremely individualistic ideals that Americans tend to have pushed on them from a young age. As well as a mix of the lack of worker protections like I mentioned before. I think if we could pull off the kind of numbers we see in Europe in even a couple of big American cities they would be very effective. Protests are the kinds of thing that can help build community since while you’re there you can talk to people and find groups to join to push for what you believe in. And I mean compared to the other forms of resistance you mentioned two of those, courts and town halls, effectively are protests as you’re going to a town hall to protest your representatives or you’re going out and protesting to tell the court to do more to stop this. That’s why I think we need to focus on building up communities to help breakthrough the apathy and the intensely individualistic attitude people here tend to have, as well as setting up things like mutual aid to provide more of those safety nets that the government is abdicating on right now to help those who normally can’t afford to come out and participate. So that when there’s a push against something it doesn’t just take the form of hundreds of people showing up at something but is thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people showing up like what you’ve seen in Europe. Of course that will take time and at least from what Ive seen the number of people being involved in community groups has gone up but definitely not as fast as the number of people angry at Trump and I think trying to funnel those people into groups to help organize is gonna be the big thing that actually lets us fight back and oppose what’s going on right now.
Removed by mod
But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.
I think a lot of people are unhappy but don’t know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn’t seem like enough. And there’s no obvious leader to the opposition.
This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That’s not a very motivating message, but that’s where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:
Serbia also only has about 20% more inhabitants than Wisconsin. 🙂