leaders with the most prominent Trump-resistance group organizing “No Kings” answered that complaint Saturday when Indivisible’s Ezra Levin took to the stage in Minneapolis and announced that a nationwide general strike is planned for May 1, modeled after a successful local action that shut down much of that region in January
What proponents don’t get:
Turning out in the streets with no action doesn’t actually “do” anything. Yes, it gives participants warm fuzzies, but that’s about it.
I really hope organizers used the opportunity to do something productive. Register people to vote, collect volunteers for the upcoming primaries and the general election in the fall, push the red states to reject Republican ideology and candidates that are actively injuring all of us.
8,000,000 / the current US population estimate of 342,400,000 is 2.34% of the US out protesting on Saturday. That’s fantastic, but it’s not enough to move the needle.
Where does it need to be?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Just short of 12 million. We are getting there.
No Kings June, 2025 - 5 million
No Kings October, 2025 - 7 million
No Kings March, 2026 - 8 million
On this track, the next one is on track to be close to 10 million. We are at least 2-3 more protests of this size away from hitting the 3.5% thresh-hold, but it is do-able before the 2028 elections.
The one I went to had a food drive and a voter registration booth.
Also protest do something incredibly important that people don’t seem to understand.
They bring people together. People who have ideas.
People who are maybe a bit more impatient, violent, and reckless than the masses.
They motivate those individuals to take more aggressive action.
Protests make such individuals feel like they have the support of the people (and they do).
Like burning down Tesla dealerships.
Like trying to burn down concentration camps.
Because if you study any history, you know that the oppressors NEVER give up their power because someone asks or even demands.
It will have to be taken. At great personal cost to those taking it.
Such people will be inspired to action from the display of protests. They will feel validated in their illegal (almost certainly) actions. And feel like it’s worth the risk.
This is very important.
That’s very different to the one where I am. Here every leftist org shoves anyone wanting violence out and does their best to make sure everyone knows they’re not a part of the movement and should be shunned. They all want to just be peaceful and believe nonviolence is the only way to get anything done.
Well. See the protest movements have to make sure that the public sees them as non violent. Especially when it’s still early. And especially to keep trump from using the military against them.
Remember what happened with BLM? low public support even though it was a very valid movement.
Now firstly, I’m pretty sure a lot of those rioters were opportunists because their targets were just stores with high end goods and not legitimate targets of oppression.
But it didn’t matter. The stereotype of blacks being violent was validated by these people even if they were the minority. And it very much hurt the support of the movement.
You have to warm people up to violence and vandalism. And you have to make sure it looks legitimate. Like with Luigi.
Have a few who start. Slow. Then more people will join in.
I was watching this 2 part pbs documentary about suffragettes.
Basically the historians said that they needed an extreme group and a moderate group.
Because the moderate group looked extreme without a comparison.
When the extreme suffragettes started with their more aggressive tactics like burning down buildings and houses and such, the moderates and their demands seemed very reasonable.
Unfortunately one of the other ways that suffragettes were extreme was that one half of them also wanted black Americans to be able to vote. The other did not.
Now this is definitely a shitty part of history in the U.S.
But if we consider the strategy of this division of extreme and moderate civil rights group and how effective it was, we could apply it to modern day to get compromises that actually are much better than if only the moderates were being considered.
For instance.
Iets say I want it easier for immigrants to become U.S citizens or get work visas. (I do).
But I can instead argue that u.s citizenship should be given to anyone who lives here for 1 year or longer.
The compromise might be that I get almost near what I actually want.
Anyway I’m getting off topic. But yeah.
That’s fantastic they were doing a food drive and voter registration! Let’s hope they organize “turn out the vote” events leading up to the elections.
Hopefully someone is helping people get the necessary documents for voting eligibility, too.
The 3.5% would still actually have to do something. General strike to end the war in Iran would put additional pressure on the administration and since its position is already very week it could actually make a difference. Getting a win like that would do much more than this vague marching against Trump.
Like the other comment says, the “protests don’t do anything” argument looks like it makes sense, but it really doesn’t. Sure, it alone doesn’t do anything, but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a stepping stone. It leads to further organization and action. It’s an easy, relatively risk free, way to get people involved, and it’s easier to get them to go further after that first step is taken.
That’s the thing, without further organization and action the net result was “Well that was fun!”
I doubt that there’s any protest without further organization and action. Just meeting new people is further organization.
Yes. No fucking shit.
But the alternative to the protests is telling everyone “fuck it, we give up, go home.”
You want change, then the protests are one of the things helping us get to that point.
People shitting all over the protests and trying to discourage them only helps the fucking fascists.
“Well that was fun” is also an okay feeing to have coming away from the protest. It means it’s more likely for that person to show up again next time.
Could you imagine the difference enlisting 10 million people to run a one day registration drive would make?
You wouldn’t even necessarily need to travel far. Groups of 10-15 door to door and 10 million people could basically knock practically every door in a day.
I’ll shout this from the rooftops indefinitely: American elections aren’t about preference, by and large, they are about turnout. There’s very little we individuals can do when the party selects (repeatedly) unpopular candidates. But increasing registration would materially impact turnout.
Save the doomer BS. It’s not for hyper online people like yourself. You’re a minority in this.
I live in protest central, I know a useless protest when I see it.
Here’s the #1 problem with No Kings:
Trump doesn’t CARE. You can’t shame the shameless. The only thing that will cause him to take notice is if something impacts him PERSONALLY.
Get 8 million people in DC and shut it down for a month? That would have an impact.
A million people trapping him inside Mar-A-Lago? That would have an impact.
As it stands now? Every protest in a blue city or a blue state? Dismissed with a subtle jerking off motion, or in Trump’s case? Not so subtle. Nothing about him is subtle. LOL.
BUT - BUT - if No Kings moves to impact the upcoming Senate races to a point where people up-set the apple cart in the same way they are going to do the House? That is going to NEUTER him and he knows it.
The big thing is, this can’t be a “throw the bastards out” movement, it needs to be about how, specifically, Republican candidates, policy, and ideology are all toxic to us, as a country and as individual people. They went from “the party holding us back” to “the party actively harming us.”
Sybau
… right
You just can’t accept facts when it’s infront of your face and slapped you.
Maybe if those protests did not only happen half a year apart…
6 months to organize. A lot of people have to work on Saturdays.
It will be interesting to see if the general strike on 5/1 has any impact, that’s on a Friday.
Have you learned how the Iron Curtain finally fell? A substantial part of the GDR was protesting. Every f-ing Monday. And they did not have Fakebook or Twatter to “organize”. They just showed up.
Americans protest when it is convenient. They think if they do it once or twice, it is effective. Doing it consistently is just ‘too much’ for them.
Yeah, and No Kings is not that. Not in numbers or dedication.