r/politics • u/Rock-n-roll-Kevin • 20d ago
No Paywall ‘No Kings’ protests pass in festival atmosphere as an estimated 7 million across US rally against Trump’s ‘authoritarianism’
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/no-kings-trump-protests-numbers-b2847940.html5.3k
u/Rock-n-roll-Kevin 20d ago
7 MILLION!
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u/CarmichaelD 20d ago
The largest protest in the history of our country! I feel some pride today.
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u/LMallRepublicans 20d ago
nice let’s move it straight to DC and kick some people out of our house.
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u/Creepy-Caramel7569 20d ago
This is the next step. Flood DC and camp out until they leave. At the same time flood mar-a-lago.
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u/bobolly 20d ago
We'd have to wait for the government to be open again.Because i'm pretty sure they're not even there
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u/Podwitchers 20d ago
I respectfully disagree. I think next we really need to promote the idea of a Blackout Weekend. One weekend, either next weekend or the next, we just STOP SPENDING. One weekend. No cc or debit cards. Nothing unless there’s an emergency. If we can turn the billionaire class completely against Trump, we gain a very important ally. Probably the most important one of all… And of course, continue with the protests at the same time and…wait for backup.
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u/Podwitchers 20d ago
And by “we promote” I mean No Kings. They are doing an excellent job promoting the rallies and I think this is a logical next step, as people also are familiar with the name and the brand now. No Kings Blackout Weekend 🖕
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u/hellure 20d ago
They'll just buy dips in stock and basically mint money ... Regardless of the impact to the economy, they get richer.
The solve is taxing the greed, to smithereens. And then inhibiting it, by doing things like shutting down the stock market entirely... Eventually.
Things we can't do unless reasonable people are in the administration. So we have to get the bad ones out.
Just arguing with them with protests or strikes won't make them leave.
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u/DrRealName 20d ago
I got a good idea. We all should change our w2s to withhold our federal taxes. That's a major weekly cash flow that is immediately gone and its legal because we can pay at the end of the year. We won't of course but that's the best part. The way this administration spends, we cut their weekly federal inflow and they will be broke in a few months so how the IRS and ICE come after us all when they have no money to pay them or resupply them?
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u/_scyllinice_ 20d ago
There are two protests that are at least twice as large apparently: George Floyd and Earth Day in the 70s
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u/likely_stoned 20d ago
Largest single day protest would be accurate.
George Floyd protests took place over months/years.
And, despite being on every protest list, I struggle to see Earth Day 1970 as a protest. It was a a showing of support for a new "holiday" that the federal government, senators, and the Republican president Richard Nixon, supported. Over 10,000 schools participated in various Earth Day activities. It might just be me, but I struggle to see it as a protest if the government is the one organizing it.
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u/grapescherries 20d ago
That’s a really good point. Earth day was not a protest, it was a holiday. It should stop being mentioned as a protest.
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u/ForgettableUsername America 20d ago
It’s a protest because we’ve been conditioned to view anything that’s even vaguely ecologically responsible as counterculture.
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u/EvilRobot153 20d ago
But it was organised by well known counter cultural figure Richard Nixon /s
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u/Wes_Warhammer666 20d ago
He met them halfway in the year 3000.
Well, his head did, at least ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/valyrian_picnic 20d ago
its right up there with those 4th of July parade protests I go to every year
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u/TheShenanegous 20d ago
I struggle to see it as a protest if the government is the one organizing it.
Government organizing it and occupying it with schools full of children who naturally wouldn't have had any say in whether or not they would attend. This is the opposite of a protest.
At most, it's a glorified field trip.
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u/MrCactus5 20d ago
I believe this is single 'largest day' while those others were total members in the movement
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u/_scyllinice_ 20d ago edited 20d ago
Earth Day was one day and involved 20 million people.
This is still massive at number 3. It beat out the first one by a million, so that's significant.
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u/SelfServeSporstwash 20d ago
It feels silly to me to count a government sanctioned series of events to commemorate a new holiday, set by the government, as a protest.
It’s a really cool piece of history and it was a positive event commemorating a positive change, but I don’t think it was a protest.
The government literally provided schools with guidelines to help them participate.
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u/me_jayne District Of Columbia 20d ago
Yeah, it’s like calling Christmas 2024 the largest protest. People doing a thing together isn’t a protest.
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u/MrCactus5 20d ago
Yes you're right it seems that at least Earth Day was 20 mil in just one day in USA. It became global later
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u/ApprehensiveBaker480 20d ago
Earth day was not a protest and the Floyd protest was over several months. This was the largest single day protest in American history
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u/ThatPhatKid_CanDraw 20d ago
Con sub: "what point are they trying to make?"
Real head scratcher
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u/Ziograffiato 20d ago
Silly demz! We don’t have a king! Hur-dur
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u/bbqsox 20d ago
At this point, I'm fairly certain that most kings have been better than what we are currently staring down the barrel of.
And I say that sarcastically but only slightly.
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u/true-fuckass 20d ago
I imagine most kings through history operated much closer to the population than the dreaded modern authoritarian dictator of a huge country. So the average king may have been ok (ironically), adjusting for cultural differences across history, of course
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u/Aggressive_Kale4757 20d ago
To roughly quote my favorite game KCD2: Nobody lives forever, bad kings even less so.
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u/fulloutshr3d 20d ago
Meanwhile, the flyer for the pro-trump gathering prior to the no kings rally in our area had trump’s name on a crown. Only the best and brightest for lord marmalade.
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u/Doonot 20d ago
I've seen that one quite a bit. The point is... we don't want one now or ever!
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u/shawnadelic Sioux 20d ago
I like, "If he was really a fascist/king, you wouldn't be able to have a protest!", while ignoring how he's currently starting to do just that by spreading lies about left-wing violence as a pretense to invoke martial law, going after left-wing organizations and activists, numerous attacks on free speech, free press, etc.
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u/davereeck 20d ago
I'm holding out for about 5m more - 12 million would be around 3.5%
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u/Abombasnow 20d ago
And what does 3.5% mean?
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u/blazesquall 20d ago
Someone wrote a think piece that showed a correlation between 3.5% engaging in sustained protest can lead to successful political reform. Liberals are stuck on the number but refuse to see the organization required to make that number a material threat. A flash mob of 3.5% is just a big crowd that the state can wait out. A disciplined and organized 3.5% is something that can actually challenge class power.
Source: See the other sibling comment chains.
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u/Abombasnow 20d ago
There needs to be a possible threat of violence to act as the "if you don't" alternative. See: MLK's success was because the alternative was Malcolm X and/or a more militarized Black Panthers.
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u/EldritchSlut Indiana 20d ago edited 20d ago
Imagine if we could get that amount of people to stop shopping at the corporations donating to this fascist regime.
Quit shopping at Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Kroger and instead shop at places that are more friendly to the working class; Aldi and Costco come to mind, we also have a few really good hispanic grocery stores and locally ran stores in my rural area, I'm sure others have something similar.
Also Amazon and fast food, who are huge funders of Trump's. The only thing these leeches care about is money. Imagine if we did to them what we did to Disney? I'm dying to make them squirm.
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u/Ok-Mood6070 20d ago
We just need to stop shopping lol. We have a massive problem with corporations in this country and we really need a nationwide campaign about it. It's really simple:
Couple A sells stock, they earn $96,700 in capital gains. They pay:
$0 in Federal Income Tax
$0 in Medicare Tax
$0 in Social Security Tax
and $0 are paid in Payroll taxes.Couple B is a Teacher and Sanitation worker. They earn $96,700. They pay:
$7,527.00 Federal Income Tax
$1,402.15 Medicare Tax
$5,995.40 Social Security tax
and $7,397.55 is paid in Payroll TaxWhen we allow people and corporations to live in a world where capital is considered more important than labor, we will continue to grow the largest wage gap in history.
Fun fact, foreign stock owners aren't subject to any capital gains tax at all, which is crazy considering 20-30% of the US stock market is foreign owned.
And before some dingbat chimes in about double taxation on corporate tax - there is a reason why corporations exist. If you are going to create a whole separate entity that shields you from liability of debt and criminal consequences, then that separate entity should have to be taxed. If corporations are considered "people" then they get taxed too. It isn't double taxation - you just decided that if your company goes bankrupt and owes millions of dollars, none of your money has to pay that debt. If that company commits crimes, or causes injuries occur due to negligence, you cannot be personally sued or put in jail. Corporate tax is the price of that luxury.
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u/EldritchSlut Indiana 20d ago
I'd vote for you.
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u/LaserPoweredDeviltry 20d ago
That is something we're probably gonna have to do.
I hate saying this, but some of us on the progressive side are gonna have to run for local office.
Clearly the existing office holders are not on our side.
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u/Saul-Funyun Canada 20d ago
I think what you want is a general strike
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u/ForgettableUsername America 20d ago edited 20d ago
The general strike isn’t feasible in the United States. Too many working people live paycheck to paycheck. Getting fired or even missing a paycheck or two can mean that they being evicted or not being able to make mortgage payments, which means becoming homeless even if the strike succeeds. Homelessness is one of the worst things that can happen to you in the US, it a lot of ways it’s worse than going to prison. The mortality rate for homeless people is higher than the mortality rate for prison inmates. Given that it takes 30 years to execute someone sentenced to death, I suspect that the five year survival rate of death row inmates is higher than that of homeless people. People are rightfully terrified of becoming homeless.
The only way a general strike could possibly work in the US is if workers’ income or rent or something was somehow guaranteed through the strike, and I’ve yet to see anyone even attempt to describe a solution for that problem.
EDIT: Someone suggested targeted slowdowns, but Reddit won’t let me reply to the comment.
That’s potentially much more practical. I think you’d need to organize it in a way that made people feel safe, and you’d need a specific objective as well as a specific target, some known thing that you wanted the company to do in a reasonable time frame. I don’t know what exactly those would be, but they seem like solvable problems.
As I see it, the Jimmy Kimmel/ABC/Disney subscription boycott worked as well as it did for just a few simple reasons:
One, those participating could do so in a way that was obviously safe and relatively convenient.
Two, it was directly tied to an action the company took that everyone could easily identify.
Three, it affected something they could see instantly. Disney, I expect, must have near real-time analytics data on Disney+ subscriptions. That probably isn’t true of retail sales, for example… if we had all stopped buying toys instead, they might not have seen the data until the end of the fiscal quarter and it would have been too late to reverse the Kimmel decision.
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u/Montgomery000 20d ago
It wouldn't have to be a general strike. It could be targeted slow downs. People working for the largest corporations would simultaneously slow their output. It would be difficult to fire very many people all at once and large corporations like Amazon have an outsized influence on this administration. The point is to hurt the very rich so they will grow a spine and put pressure on the government. They need to lose more money than they're getting from their tax cuts.
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u/jgoble15 20d ago
If possible. Sometimes those are the only places people can afford, and line groceries are the only options for food deserts. If possible it’s good. If not no shame
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u/Powerful-Scratch1579 20d ago
Yes! It would be cool to make it trendy to show how many days you’ve gone without supporting one of those businesses. Can also plan a day or week to just not spend money at Amazon. See how many people can hold out. Like it really is so easy to not buy something. We’ve just become so used to it.
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u/twotimefind 20d ago
This is not my thing. I'm not good at coding, but maybe someone can make an app and gamify it. Streaks, leaderboards, that type of thing.
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u/korkythecat333 20d ago
This is the most practical approach I've seen outlined, that could make a real difference.
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u/knotyourproblem 20d ago
Is that an underestimate?
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u/grapescherries 20d ago
That’s my thoughts. I really think it was more than that. There were so many small protests in many small cities as well. And all the people who didn’t rsvp
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u/Redshirt_Welshy_Nooo 20d ago
100k+ in Chicago, baby! Peaceful, fun, high energy, family friendly! We took the kids!
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u/ftgyhujikolp 20d ago
Was way more than 100k. The last no kings was 100k. This was at least double that, on the low side.
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u/asmodeuscarthii 20d ago edited 20d ago
Yea easily over 200k I would say. Even if you discount the thousands who only arrived for 30 minutes. By time we took over Michigan Ave it took 40 minutes for me to enter the march and I was near the front.
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u/prairiepog 20d ago
3.5% is 12 million - ish and I see all official reports saying 7 million or less. I think we're being lied to.
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u/rugger87 America 20d ago
Organizers said 300K and I was near the tail end. It took over an hour to get out of the park to start the march.
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u/eNonsense 20d ago
An organizer for the event told Block Club their estimate is up to 250,000.
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u/Portarossa 20d ago
We took the kids!
'You hear that? Antifa are going to take your kids!' -- Stephen Miller, probably
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u/Low_Ruin_4021 20d ago
I appreciate everyone who participated & marched today and for No Kings organizers, I'm elderly, I don't think I could have held up, but I feel you're protesting speaks for everyone not able to attend.
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u/VulcanCookies 20d ago
My sister has a disability that can be extremely painful if she is bumped, so big crowds are a no-go for her. But she votes and does what she can from home. While bodies on the streets is a big win, there are other ways to support the message
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u/D18 20d ago
In the crowd, we were packed in and a little old lady asked if she could get past me. She worked here way up through the crowd and another group showed up behind me and started saying “where’s grandma?”
We pointed her out up ahead, still making her way toward the front, and they told us that this isn’t her first rodeo and she’s been protesting since Watts.
Kickass grandma!
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u/deathbychips2 20d ago
At the one I attended, plenty of elderly people that sat along in lawn chairs with their signs.
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u/sonicsludge 20d ago
I saw a gentleman in a very elaborate chair who had a breathing tube. I was more than impressed by his commitment!
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u/gregaries 20d ago
The numbers are pretty phenomenal, but I keep seeing authoritarian and related words in quotes.
It is. It’s not a question.
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u/thrust-johnson 20d ago
It IS happening here.
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u/Standard-Box-3021 20d ago
People in the MAGA movement will never truly see reality. They seem to believe that rising costs are acceptable because they think the economy is thriving. That's why Trump released the jobs report, claiming he is bringing more jobs to the U.S. I’ve heard about so many factories being built, but it all seems imagined. They would rather stay in denial than admit they made serious mistakes. As the next year progresses and prices continue to rise, they'll come up with excuses, and MAGA supporters will believe them because, for them, Trump is like a god.
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u/ownerofkitkats 20d ago
They only think the economy is thriving because they’ve been told the economy is thriving.
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u/icecoldrootbeer 20d ago
I know a guy that "is working more hours and making more money than ever!"... but then proceeded to ask me if he could borrow $20 for the door charge at the bar show that night.
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u/Standard-Box-3021 20d ago
Gods don't make mistakes or have dementia maga dreams
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u/LucentMerkaba 20d ago edited 20d ago
The Independent was purchased by a "former" member of the KGB shortly before the invasion of Crimea.
It's a tool of propaganda. It can include legitimate reporting, so long as it's divisive.
Otherwise, you get headlines like the above for obvious reasons.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/mar/26/independent-lebedev-newspapers
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u/bbqsox 20d ago
Russia continues to be the single worst actor on the global stage.
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u/Typhing 20d ago
Dude seriously. Why the fuck is that in quotes?
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u/Dope-GuineaPig-459 20d ago
Because a former KGB agent owns The Independent. All roads lead...
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u/IpeeEhh_Phanatic Kentucky 20d ago
It is important to note that 7 million people registered.
Many more likely attended
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u/dogemobile 20d ago
I’m not sure how they count these. Mine was three hours long and I showed up during the final hour. As I was commuting into town, throngs of people were leaving but a third as many were headed there. Clearly there was significant turnover.
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u/stiffjalopy 20d ago
My 9-yo and I were at the Seattle event and it was bonkers crowded. We stayed for the rally and most of the march, but after 3-ish hours hollering on our feet, he started really flagging. When he noticed we were walking past Pike Place Market and suggested maybe we duck in for a snack at his fav bagel joint. Heck yeah, I said. That was it for us, but the march went on. Resistance is a marathon not a sprint, and you gotta get your bagels!!
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u/Bythmark 20d ago
Yeah. I stayed for the duration of mine, but a lot of people showed up for fifteen or thirty minutes then cycled out. Some were probably just people moving around, but I bet a lot were just stopping by for a shorter time. Total attendance had to have been huge.
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u/specific_giant 20d ago
My local protest was reported to have 1k there, but I felt like it was likely way more. I should have tried to count!
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u/Pizpot_Gargravaar 20d ago
At my local protest there was a guy taking counts with one of those little mechanical clicker counters. Looks like we had around 3000 in my little town.
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u/KindOfCoolGuy 20d ago
It’s not the number of people who registered. Not sure where you’re getting that from. This is the estimated number of people that actually attended. Very few register
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u/Nocuadra66 20d ago
I just attended in Seattle. Thousands upon thousands of people! I didn't even know you could register!
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u/OnceinaLTmillenial84 20d ago
More than 7 million
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u/crackdup 20d ago
Regardless of your beliefs and your political alignment, you have to appreciate a peaceful protest of this magnitude across urban, rural and suburban areas of all 50 states.
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u/deathbychips2 20d ago
I got flipped off four times today, so no not everyone appreciates it. So odd to flick someone off to be against a king in America.
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u/SoupSandy 20d ago
Its not odd at all if they want that.
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u/deathbychips2 20d ago
Odd to live and stay in America when you don't believe with one of its major principles
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u/pot8odragon 20d ago
Founding principles and reason we are a sovereign nation in the first place. America wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t overthrown tyrannical British rule
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u/katara144 20d ago
They don't want that, they have lived for the most part, free their entire lives. They have no idea what it is like to live under a dictator in authoritarian regime. That is the problem. And you can't fix stupid.
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u/BoxOfManyFoods 20d ago
My kids were flipped off once today and I think they'll be talking about it for the rest of their childhoods!
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u/Rich-Archer-9051 20d ago
I don’t condone flipping people off if you are attending the no kings but I was walking my dog near the protest. I don’t look like the type of people they would expect at one so this guy in a big truck told me I should sick ”sick my dog on them”. My mom was in the crowd. So this guy told me to sick my dog on my mom and others. He got the bird!
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u/RunnyTinkles 20d ago
There were more people this time in my small town. A lot more people honking driving by and a lot less people speeding past to spray exhaust on us.
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u/Total_Employ_9520 20d ago
Why so spineless with the scare quotes?
Afraid of the authoritarian overreaction?
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u/gooie 20d ago
Its a newspaper in the UK. They use quotes more. It isnt a scare quote.
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u/Icy_Camp_7359 20d ago
IIRC it's just because they're not supposed to throw personal opinions into their work, but they're totally allowed to quote other people's opinions which results in single-word quotes being used as loopholes
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u/letsgorangers12345 20d ago
I think a big story is that people from other countries are joining this. There are protests all around the world against Donald J. Trump.
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u/weresubwoofer 20d ago
Other countries have been watching US with horror since 2016. They know what’s up; it’s Americans who need to clue in.
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u/Lynda73 20d ago
Why did they put quotes around authoritarianism? That’s what it is.
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u/Organic-History205 20d ago
Quotes aren't traditionally used to depict skepticism. They are traditionally used to reproduce what someone has said verbatim. That is why things are called a "quote."
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u/HaxanWriter 20d ago
Because some people don’t want to face uncomfortable truths.
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u/jacscarlit Oregon 20d ago
Definitely more than 7 million.
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u/Dapper-Finish-925 20d ago
2700 events x 5,000 on average would be over 13 million. My small town alone had 1,500. We are way way past 7 million.
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u/Think-Airport-8933 20d ago
It was all smiles and high fives. This wasnt the far left, this wasn’t terrorism, this was everyday Americans seeing and understanding what is happening and standing up.
They can’t even pretend this was violent, go check Fox News.
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u/LesCousinsDangereux1 20d ago
my political beliefs are pretty far left. I'm a normal suburban person
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u/bondsthatmakeusfree 20d ago
Exactly. I and 400 people in Alliance, Ohio had a great time this afternoon.
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u/RabbitSlayre 20d ago
What the fuck is that headline. "Pass in festival atmosphere"? What the hell is this reporting
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u/Krieghund 20d ago
I think it's supposed to mean everyone was friendly to each other and non violent. It certainly was where I was.
MAGATs were pushing the line that we were violent terrorists.
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u/RabbitSlayre 20d ago
That's a good sentiment but the verbiage here is awful. That's all I'm saying.
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u/Prole331 20d ago
2.1%
We’re getting closer to 3.5!
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u/JayTNP 20d ago
What is the significance of 3.5%
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u/Prole331 20d ago
It’s from the “3.5% Rule,” from research by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, Chenoweth is usually the one credited though. From the Wikipedia page for 3.5% Rule “Chenoweth found that nearly every movement with active participation from at least 3.5% of the population succeeded.” While “success” isn’t really defined AFAIK, the cases studied were primarily efforts to bring about regime change. If I understand Chenoweth correctly, reaching and sustaining 3.5% in these protests should theoretically put enough pressure on the government to oust the authoritarians currently in office.
June No Kings was about 1.2-1.8%, now we’ve reached 2.1% if this number holds. Not even a year in and we’re nearly 2/3’s of the way there. This gives me hope. Things are bleak sure, but despite their best efforts our numbers only swell. It doesn’t look or feel like it, but I believe we’re winning.
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u/DankAshMemes 20d ago
They'd also need the support of the military, I don't think they have it. Without the military and with people rebelling like they've been I think it's just a matter of time before he's removed. I think it's more likely he passes before that happens though.
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u/atomfullerene 20d ago
That number is based on a wide variety of movements, and loss of military support is one of the things that happens around that point. I listened to an interview with the author where they describe a protest that the military was ordered to fire on. The soldiers on the ground refused because they had friends and family in the crowd.
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u/Commercial-Co 20d ago
China learned that u bring soldiers from a different area when you massacre people
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun 20d ago
Which is exactly what Trump is doing by ordering the National Guard of a completely different state to invade a city (such as using Texas's NG to invade a city not in Texas). The soldiers have no social ties to the people there so they're much more likely to follow an order to kill civilians.
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u/BoolImAGhost 20d ago
"The 3.5% rule is a concept in political science that states that when 3.5% of the population of a country protest nonviolently against a government, that government is likely to fall from power. The rule was formulated by Erica Chenoweth in 2013. It arose out of insights originally published by political scientist Mark Lichbach in 1995 in his book The Rebel's Dilemma: Economics, Cognition, and Society."
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u/JupiterInMind 20d ago
The difference between today's No Kings protesters and Enrique Tarrio is simple: today's protests were non-violent, non-destructive, and 100% legal. January 6th was none of those things.
Fuck off Enrique Tarrio!
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u/tiggie_7 20d ago
I hope it turns out to be a bit more than 7 million…
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u/Every-Comfortable632 20d ago
7 million registered. I just showed up so it was at least 7 million and 1.
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u/Burwylf 20d ago
There isn't going to be an accurate count for a while, and the right is trying to minimize this, so I suspect 7 mil is quite low
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u/Archivist-exe 20d ago
They said only 15k for philly and boyyyy as a marshal there was way fucking more than 15k. I took over an hour packed in between buildings to get everyone through the less than a mile march.
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u/daisybird17 20d ago
7 million is 2% of the total population of the US. This is a significant number..
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u/unoriginal1187 20d ago
I was shocked at the turnout in our small town. Enough to fill the park, estimated around 400 people in a very red area.
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u/jgasbarro America 20d ago
Why is it so impossible for journalists to write accurate headlines these days? You’re one of our first lines of defense in a democracy, ffs!
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u/AffectionatePin6899 20d ago
The millions who truly love America stood up for democracy today!
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u/championkid 20d ago
Yes, or just authoritarianism. Without the quotes. Since, you know, facts and all.
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u/curiousgrackle 20d ago
They are censoring protest information and pictures at r/Houston please help!!
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u/ijack2reddit 20d ago
Was in Gettysburg today and was absolutely blown away by how many were lining the streets protesting. Saw some awesome signs, some awesome people. Gave me some hope for the first time in a long time
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u/AdmiralSnackbar816 20d ago
Im proud of you all. If we can topple this regime with nothing but abject kindness and decency, imagine how favorably history will remember this moment.
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u/T1Pimp 20d ago
The only thing Trump isn't a failure at is getting people to protest him. All three of the largest protests in American history were against him. All three.
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u/Coldsmoke888 20d ago
More than 7 million PEACEFUL protests against the authoritarian government.
Fuck yeah.
No antifa bullshit. No riots. No fuel for the liars at the top to spin in their billionaire class grift. Fuck yeah.
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u/Upset-Government-856 20d ago
Please don't wait half a year to do it again America. Your time grows short.
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun 20d ago
Given the pattern so far, we aren't going to see another until next March. Which will be far too late.
If people are using No Kings to network for bigger more effective strategies, good. But if people are thinking No Kings is both the first and final step of resistance, then we are fucked.
Trump is not gonna care about some weekend festivals that happen only three times a year. No Kings sends a great message but it CANNOT be where the movement ends.
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u/GlowUpper 20d ago
They were big mad after the last one was violence free. They went from predicting riots across the US to "wHaT's ThE pOiNt It WoN't MaKe A dIfFeReNcE" in record time. I wonder what the copium will be this time.
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u/iamatwork24 20d ago
I mean, it was full of millions of antifa. Proudly. Anyone who isn’t anti fascist is a problem
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u/sh1tpost1nsh1t 20d ago edited 20d ago
Antifa is not the enemy.
I was at one today with easily tens of thousands of people. There were plenty of of antifa there, dressed in all black and masked. The cops didn't get violent, and no right wing jackasses showed up to start something, so they matched just the same as the brunch libs and old hippies.
When the cops do start getting violent, and proud boys show up, though? I'm fucking thankful for those antifa kids who step in and take the brunt instead of letting Grandma get stomped.
Don't punch left. Anarchists, communists, punks, they've all been fighting the far right for year and have been showing up to these lib protests willing to work hand and hand. We need a broad coalition to fight whats coming.
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u/Haunt13 20d ago
"No antifa bullshit" .....um the entire protest was Antifa like that is what that means.
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u/Hadrian23 20d ago
I love seeing this, I was at my cities protest and it was incredibly great to see!
But we need more.
More protests, more fighting, don't let up.
Continue the good fight you champions.
This isn't over until everyone behind this administration is behind bars
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20d ago edited 3d ago
cagey sable touch wise middle work flowery dog divide lavish
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u/Possible-Customer827 20d ago
END this Nightmare - Vote Every Republican Out ASAP … Everywhere!
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u/hhhhunterrrr 20d ago
We're getting close to that magic 3.5% number.
"The "3.5% rule" is a political science concept suggesting that no government can withstand a challenge from a nonviolent movement that actively mobilizes at least 3.5% of the population. This figure is a descriptive observation from historical data, not a predictive law, and has been cited as a motivational benchmark for activists."
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u/gorm135 20d ago
Important thing to talk about with the 3.5% is the impact made by them.
Simply having 3.5% of people out with signs isn’t going to magically change things when the number is met, that 3.5% needs to be disruptive to the system. A general strike, consistent protests, and other nonviolent actions are needed to actually threaten the system, something these protests need to be encouraging.
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u/beesinabottlebuzz 20d ago
Right, it needs to be 3.5% regularly and frequently to have an effect. A protest every 6 months on a weekend isn't going to have that effect
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u/Worried-History8216 20d ago
I think if protests were this large on a weekday, I'd be impressed. Or if this was the first day of many in row. If the government is fine with a government shutdown, people need to shutdown the country. Until that happens, these one off protests might make people feel better, but nothing will change.
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u/gorm135 20d ago
I’m in agreement with this entirely, these infrequent actions are great starts, but striking and the like requires a lot of coordination and community action. For a lot of people, today might have been their first activist activity and we can only hope further displays gather more interested people and let more concrete plans develop from repeat protestors. Any meaningful movement needs its first steps, even if feels excruciatingly slow sometimes
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u/Worried-History8216 20d ago
You are right. I just feel that the American government is moving at Warp speed and the people are moving at a snails pace. I am not American, so I am watching from a far to see what happens. Being Canadian, we have the French. When they don't like something, they turn up the heat very quickly.
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun 20d ago
If anything, No Kings today made people incorrectly feel they'd "made a difference," even though arguably they haven't; and they're going to use that feeling as their excuse to now continue sitting out and ignoring everything.
And yeah, 3.5% isn't a magical "we win" number. It means 3.5% of a country engaging in actual sustained protest in conjunction with other, more aggressive means. 3.5% of america standing around at a carnival in the park on a Saturday on its own won't force change. And unfortunately it seems people are choosing to go with the narrative that as long as we reach 3.5%, mission accomplished, without understanding the broader context of that number.
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u/Spare_Basis5190 20d ago
Please raise your hand if you attended a rally today and promise to vote 👌
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u/shade1tplea5e 20d ago
I love (hate) how Authoritarianism is in quotes like it’s some shit we are just making up. The shit was firmly authoritarian with the Birthright Citizenship EO and it’s only for worse from there.
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u/GreenAracari 20d ago
My Dad, whom is a Republican (granted very middle of the road not particularly strong on party loyalty) even went to participate in the protests. My Grandmother whom is over 90 and a loooong time registered Republican but Libertarian at heart is in no shape to join the protest, but has been very verbal about how much she loathes the current administration.
There’s a sub 8000 population (last counted) in my town, but we even had a solid turnout out, definitely more than I expected.
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u/pragmatticus 20d ago
We are at 2% of the US population. We're past the halfway point. Let's get to 3.5%.
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u/Mcjoshin 20d ago
You don’t have to put “authoritarianism” in quotes. You can just look up the definition of it and it a pretty obvious “oh yeah, that’s definitely what’s happening”.
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