Periodic No Kings Protests are well-attended and make the news, and they have the attention of some elements on the right, who have taken the time to question our mental health or produce AI videos of themselves dumping shit on us. However, the Regime continues, seemingly unabated and undeterred.
We need to up our game. First, I think we need a sustained, localized protest that lasts for days if not weeks or months. like the Ferguson protests. Call it Occupy Washington, if you must. I’m hundreds of miles away, but I’ll be glad to donate money to whatever organization will feed the protesters, provide them with tents or clothing to protect them from the weather, or what have you. Second, we need to invoke some kind of economic chaos. A nationwide rent boycott, I suppose, or maybe a nationwide general strike. Something (as long as it’s nonviolent)
“We” need to do more, and I’ll tell you what other people should do…
I think we already have that. If nothing else, Moderator Removed fundraising appeal
As argued in the other thread, people like to bring up the “3.5 percent rule” but the 3.5 Percent Rule means that the 3.5% need to be continuously protesting. Like, for months on end. Not just once or twice a year. It’s not some magic number that, once reached in a single protest, leads to regime change. And the recent No Kings protest still didn’t come close to 3.5% of the population, either.
We need protests 2-3x the size of the No Kings, and it has to continue and even escalate without end. Otherwise the media will just shift focus within 48 hours to the next topic, as they did.
Is that poster serious? It seems delusional to me.
Peoples’ lives are going to have to be already hurting a lot for them to participate in a protest like that, a lot more people and a lot more hurting than is the case now. And what percentage of the population would have to join in before it was more than a blip? There isn’t a hope in hell.
The purpose of No Kings demonstrations isn’t to end the administration, that is also delusional.
The movement has to build organically, it won’t be the result of some manifesto invented and posted just because people have no patience.
And how do you propose to make that happen, instantly as you seem to want it?
I think organized opposition to ICE. We aren’t bringing down Trump (yet, that should absolutely be the aim of the protests, but that will take much bigger protests)
But we have enough numbers to seriously interrupt the operation of ICE, and actually make a difference people who are at risk.
Exactly what would be involved I’m not sure. And there would be a lot of risk (there are so many laws about obstruction of law enforcement)
And then shadow president Steven Miller says “thank you very much!” and invokes martial law to arrest opposition leaders ("terrorists’) and unfortunately postpone elections “until this all blows over”
If he can do that and get away with it, he’s doing it. Whether we sit on our butts or start blowing up ICE buildings
To be clear I am not suggesting a campaign of violence against ICE, that would absolutely help Trump and would do nothing to help ICE’s victims.
I am suggesting a mass highly organized peaceful campaign, focused on helping ICE’s victims by warning them and slowing ICE raids by civil disobedience and disruption, not making token gestures.
It absolutely would be treated by Trump as we were actually blowing up buildings, the people organizing it (and everyone else involved) would taking a massive risk. But this is a “first they came for…” situation
ICE would just get out of their car and start beating up those lying down in front of the car, tossing them inside and detaining them downtown. That is, if they didn’t just run them over.
This. This administration needs to be sued immediately and incessantly, from as many plaintiffs as possible, in every jurisdiction possible, every time it breaks the law. Trump and his cronies aren’t afraid of strikes and boycotts and other things that inconvenience everybody. In fact, they want that so they can continue to blame all of the country’s problems on the Left. And fuck guns or violence, that’s also something the administration would welcome. But drag their asses into court on a daily basis? They really hate that.
That’s a pretty effective way to stop them from sending immigrants to camps. That’s one car full of ICE that hasn’t disappeared any immigrants today, and a new set of protestors will be waiting for them the next day
Needless to say the people doing the protesting will need to be citizens who carry proof of citizenship.(And have good lawyers on hand as they will absolutely try and deport you anyway)
This why we should do this now. Right now ICE could not get away with running over a bunch of innocent protesters with no repercussions. That may not always be the case, better to protest now while the risks do not include being murdered in cold blood by ICE with impunity
This is indeed the way of Ghandi. I don’t know if Americans have the intestinal fortitude to engage in Dharasana Satyagraha, but I think it would be incredibly effective.
…as I said: I’m not arguing that people shouldn’t be putting their bodies on the line.
But remember what happened at the start of Trumps first term, when he introduced the “Muslim ban” and spontaneously airports were flooded with people including lawyers and how they shut things down?
That isn’t happening any more. And ultimately it didn’t make much of a difference anyway. Authoritarianism relies on wearing people down. It relies on complicity.
People absolutely should be protesting ICE. But what they are doing is playing “defence” in order for everyone else to get organised. It’s something that communities are doing to protect their own. But it probably isn’t something that can be managed at scale. If ICE are trying to raid the local supermarket, the best people to rally against that are already there. “Upping our game” in this situation isn’t asking someone else to organise it: it means getting out on the streets and doing it yourself.
And that’s really the crux of it. Because here’s the thing: nobody is coming to save you. The Democrats are largely complicit. The institutions and the media are largely just falling in line. “Stepping up your game” means putting your own neck on the line because nobody is coming to save you.
You delay, and you protect as much as you can until organically something hopefully gathers momentum. You do everything mentioned in this thread to the best of your abilities. You protest ICE. Donate to the ACLU. You do what you can.
That was written nearly ten years ago. What we are experiencing now didn’t just happen. People have been planning it for decades. To defeat it: you don’t just need to “up your game.” You need to adjust your paradigm. This is really happening. And these won’t even be the darkest days.
That’s just dooming the effort to failure. If the only people to rally against it are the people in the supermarket, then ICE win. For ICE to maybe fail it needs the people in the surrounding communities, backed up by a national network of tracking and support.
Ad hoc local efforts are all we have right now and aren’t good enough.
