I’m about to head out for my first protest march of the day. Are you all ready?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I’m about to head out for my first protest march of the day. Are you all ready?
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I confess I am a bit skeptical of the effectiveness of marches /on their own/, especially if they don’t focus on specific demands.
I remember going to the massive marches against the Iraqi war, which obtained absolutely nothing.
I fear the only message that the powerful will get is “I hate Trump and I will vote for whatever fascist-lite you put against him in the next election”.
Marches don’t have a great historical record of stopping fascism.
Still, I wish you all the best, I hope you mingle, find others you can team-up with, and that I’m wrong.
Holding down the fort while my mom’s in the hospital, but I’ll be with you in metaphorical spirit. Give ’em hell.
Ironically, this also the last day of the CPAC meeting.
Marches show people they are not alone. And the anti-Trump organisers have stated the marches are just a part of the effort.
.
I am at home in Sweden with a severe cold, but I am with you in spirit.
Tim Wilson:
The “no Kings” protests against Trump
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7r44R0HU8f4
Good luck and be safe.
@F.O. #1: I suspect that the historical record of doing fuck all is worse.
Satyagraha
chigau, I refer you to https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/reflections-on-gandhi/
Why?
F.O.–
I disagree that protesting is ineffective, or that the No Kings marches have no specific goals.
Because it’s relevant, chigau.
Maybe Ctrl-F for ‘Satyagraha’ in that essay.
(Basically, Orwell explicitly argues that Gandhi’s method of non‑violent resistance would not work against a totalitarian regime like Nazi Germany)
I just got home from our local No Kings III protest.
It was a huge rally.
We don’t have the crowd numbers yet but it was the largest protest in the last few years.
It was also a fun and entertaining time. A lot of art exhibits, activities, live music, and the tables of cooperating organizations to talk to.
Since I was on the Safety/Security team, I never even managed to see all of it in 3 hours.
It was also a peaceful and lawful demonstration.
We’ve had incidents in the past but today the counterprotesters were absent.
@ ^ raven : The absence of counter-protestrers seems like a really good sign. Perhaps even MAGAts are finally waking up to their stupidity. Probly too late but still.
@ 1. F.O. : “I fear the only message that the powerful will get is “I hate Trump and I will vote for whatever fascist-lite you put against him in the next election.”
Oh do fuck off with the “fascist-lite” Bothsiderist bullshit! Kamala Harris was NOT fascist nor was Bidenb nor was Obama. Words have menaings . fascism has a definition and NO, the democratic party is nowhere near fascist just becuase it isn’t as left wing as we’d all (most of us I’m sure) like. The Democratic party and its candidates have actively called out & opposed fascism. Kamala personally noted during the campaign that Trump was fascist and she very obviously is NOT and whilst a centrist party like the Democratic one is NOT a fascist one which would be the Repugs.
@ 9. chrislawson : “F.O.– I disagree that protesting is ineffective, or that the No Kings marches have no specific goals.”
Likewise and note the goalds of the No Kings Protest care described -among other places – here :
Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/no-kings-protest-what-is-the-no-kings-protest-and-why-is-it-happening-now-heres-why-millions-are-joining-the-no-kings-protest-across-the-u-s-/articleshow/129868839.cms#google_vignette
Why would I care what George Owell thought about Gandhi?
Because YOU adduced Satyagraha, which was his modus.
That’s why.
“However, Gandhi’s pacifism can be separated to some extent from his other teachings. Its motive was religious, but he claimed also for it that it was a definitive technique, a method, capable of producing desired political results. Gandhi’s attitude was not that of most western pacifists. Satyagraha, first evolved in South Africa, was a sort of non-violent warfare, a way of defeating the enemy without hurting him and without feeling or arousing hatred. It entailed such things as civil disobedience, strikes, lying down in front of railway trains, enduring police charges without running away and without hitting back, and the like. Gandhi objected to ‘passive resistance’ as a translation of Satyagraha: in Gujarati, it seems, the word means ‘firmness in the truth’.”
Our NK3 in Gainesville, FL, went quite well, adding a march onto the previous rallies (which entailed more police involvement, but without visible-to-me problems). I saw fewer media people than at NK & NK2, but fewer pro-fas; possibly more significant, more younger people.
I got lots of positive reactions to my 2-sided sign: “Abolish Ice-stapo” on one side, “Investigate EVERYTHING” on the other. Hands still slightly sore from wresting with same for 3 hours in a high wind.
Certainly a thing.
I saw this earlier:
https://www.reuters.com/pictures/scenes-anti-trump-no-kings-protest-across-america-2026-03-28/
Went to one held in our village (on the Hudson river.) A little difficult since I’m still dealing with Long COVID, and I was less well than usual, but since I had to skip NK2 because I was too sick, I was determined to go. I brought a camp chair and spent most of the time sitting in it, but I showed up. (Don’t they say that 90% of life is just showing up?) At a WAG we had a few thousand.
Unfortunately, we had some people who were upset that it wasn’t addressing their preferred cause. A bunch of Free Palestine folks tried to take over the mic, and there were some others who were shouting about stuff I couldn’t hear well enough to say what it was.
And today I feel like I have the flu (due to overexertion.) No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose.
Had a good turn out in our little Washington town, here in the foothills of the Cascades. Mostly positive reception. Had a few guys in diesel trucks (it’s always guys with diesels?!) drive through with giant trump flags but was otherwise calm, as far as I know.
Someone posted a walk through video. Not mine, don’t know them but thought it was neat.
https://youtu.be/CykdepndA84?si=qL-WlrsXVSo3vUet
@Erlend Meyer #5
Yeah, because the only two options are a) Protest in this specific way or b) do fuck all.
Great thinking.
@StevoR #12 which is why I said “fascist-lite”, rather than “fascist”.
Democrats are not actively pushing fascism, but are still enabling it.
Put it another way: Democrats are participating in making money and power more and more concentrated in the hands of a few, supported authoritarianism, genocide, police violence, jingoism…
That’s not stopping the fascists, they’re (I’m sure unwittingly) preparing the field for them.
F.O.:
“Democrats are not actively pushing fascism, but are still enabling it.”
≠
“I fear the only message that the powerful will get is “I hate Trump and I will vote for whatever fascist-lite you put against him in the next election.”
Enabling X is not being X-lite, so your retort lacks merit.
“Put it another way: Democrats are participating in making money and power more and more concentrated in the hands of a few, supported authoritarianism, genocide, police violence, jingoism…”
Unwarranted claim. Jaundiced perception. Not supported.
—
Basically, both are capitalists. so yeah. But capitalism is not equivalent to fascism, as you attempt to intimate.
(Tsk)
I’m reading that the No Kings organizers are now leaning towards a general strike.
This is IMHO a really good outcome of the marches.
All the best, I really really hope, for the world and for you, that you succeed!
To F.O. (and any other skeptics), see Eight Million Protestors and No Kings: The Case for Showing Up by Rebecca Solnit, about the protests/marches, what the achieve, how they fit in more generally in resisting the regime.