# What would you do if an angry mob demands you raise your fist in support?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 26, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071 "2020-08-26T14:49:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@urbanredneck2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urbanredneck2)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/1 "2020-08-26T14:49:07Z")
This is in response to the recent [video of a woman being attacked for not giving a raised fit salute to BLM.](https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/513646-viral-videos-show-protesters-demanding-dc-restaurant-patrons-raise) Also their is more video of other diners getting attacked.
So what would YOU do if you were out eating, peacefully minding your own business, and some protesters came up and demanded you give a salute?
Also if you saw people going after someone would you do anything?
---
### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/2 "2020-08-26T14:56:00Z")
I wouldn’t cave in. I have a right to neutrality - as everyone ought to.
---
### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/3 "2020-08-26T15:03:20Z")
My response might well involve pepper spray if they didn’t get out of my face.
---
### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/4 "2020-08-26T15:07:57Z")
If time permitted, a short lecture on liberalism and the ideals of a free society.
If not, shoot em.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/5 "2020-08-26T15:19:37Z")
> [@urbanredneck2](#):
>
> Also if you saw people going after someone would you do anything?
What would _you_ do if people were yelling at someone walking into a medical clinic? What if it was a clinic that performed abortions, among other medical services?
---
### Author:  [@urbanredneck2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urbanredneck2)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/6 "2020-08-26T15:22:42Z")
I would hope I would be one of the first to stand up and defend patients and staff but I dont know if I had my kids with me or something.
---
### Author:  [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/7 "2020-08-26T16:03:57Z")
Seems like the single digit salute is all that would be warranted and I would happily give it.
---
### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/8 "2020-08-26T16:14:55Z")
So, we have two votes for responding to unwanted speech with violence. Good to know.
I will keep this in mind next time I escort someone through a protest at Planned Parenthood location.
---
### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/9 "2020-08-26T16:28:41Z")
> [@urbanredneck2](#):
>
> This is in response to the recent [video of a woman being attacked for not giving a raised fit salute to BLM.](https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/513646-viral-videos-show-protesters-demanding-dc-restaurant-patrons-raise) Also their is more video of other diners getting attacked.
As is typical for you, the video doesn’t show what you claim it shows. The video you linked shows a few still shots from what it claims is a viral video of a woman being attacked, but doesn’t actually show a woman being attacked, and definitely isn’t video of a woman being attacked. All that is seen in the video is people crowding around a table with fists raised, the stuff about someone being attacked and the existence of another video of someone being attacked is all just unsourced claims by the (obviously biased) maker of the video. If you’re using ‘attacked’ and ‘going after someone’ to mean ‘saying words the other person doesn’t like’, that’s another rather unusual use of language.
It’s interesting how there are two people who claim that the appropriate response to protesters shouting near you is ‘pepper spray’ or ‘shoot them’, if they really believed that and helped pass laws to make that legal it would certainly make the anti-abortion protests less one-sided. I doubt either one of them supports using chemical weapons and/or firearms against “pro-life” bullies, however.
---
### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/10 "2020-08-26T16:50:00Z")
I remember a scene in a Nestor Burma novel, I believe it was, where an old man (who evidently remembered the Franco-Prussian War) sitting in a café when WW1 was announced was beaten to death by the mob for not demonstrating sufficient pro-war enthusiasm.
---
### Author:  [@urbanredneck2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urbanredneck2)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/11 "2020-08-26T16:58:43Z")
> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> > [@urbanredneck2](#):
> >
> > This is in response to the recent [video of a woman being attacked for not giving a raised fit salute to BLM.](https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/513646-viral-videos-show-protesters-demanding-dc-restaurant-patrons-raise) Also their is more video of other diners getting attacked.
>
> As is typical for you, the video doesn’t show what you claim it shows. The video you linked shows a few still shots from what it claims is a viral video of a woman being attacked, but doesn’t actually show a woman being attacked, and definitely isn’t video of a woman being attacked. All that is seen in the video is people crowding around a table with fists raised, the stuff about someone being attacked and the existence of another video of someone being attacked is all just unsourced claims by the (obviously biased) maker of the video. If you’re using ‘attacked’ and ‘going after someone’ to mean ‘saying words the other person doesn’t like’, that’s another rather unusual use of language.
No, check again. Their is video. Actually 2 of them. And the 2nd one shows 2 other guys being attacked and this time the BLM person was black.
---
### Author:  [@urbanredneck2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urbanredneck2)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/12 "2020-08-26T16:59:58Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> I remember a scene in a Nestor Burma novel, I believe it was, where an old man (who evidently remembered the Franco-Prussian War) sitting in a café when WW1 was announced was beaten to death by the mob for not demonstrating sufficient pro-war enthusiasm.
There are also people who dared not give the nazi salute.
---
### Author:  [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/13 "2020-08-26T17:40:40Z")
It looks like both videos show people being yelled at by BLM protesters. I guess you could call that intimidation, not so much an “attack”.
Understand that I believe that people should have the right to protest without threatening non-participants in their protest. Personally, I approve of the BLM protests, but I don’t feel that getting in the faces of people on the sidelines and demanding compliance is a good thing to do.
There is something to be said about “reading the room”, though. Would raising a fist for a moment have honestly caused anybody any grief? It’s not as though they were asking anyone to have “BLM” tattooed on their forehead.
---
### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/14 "2020-08-26T17:51:56Z")
> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> It’s interesting how there are two people who claim that the appropriate response to protesters shouting near you is ‘pepper spray’ or ‘shoot them’,
Story, I was trying to jokingly say something outlandish in response to the over the top reaction of our OP.
---
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/15 "2020-08-26T17:55:45Z")
I would simply tell the mob that my Bill Gates-implanted video and tracking chip is recording their every movement.
They’ll back off fast.
---
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/16 "2020-08-26T17:57:42Z")
I would probably do so out of fear of the mob.
> [@Seanette](#):
>
> My response might well involve pepper spray if they didn’t get out of my face.
Did you watch the video? Pulling out pepper spray against a mob of dozens of people is a good way to get killed.
---
### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/17 "2020-08-26T18:04:38Z")
I’m sure as hell not caving in to a mob assault.
---
### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/18 "2020-08-26T18:06:18Z")
When I am being surrounded by shouting people with fists raised, how is that not violence? Mob intimidation by threatening physical force is assault.
---
### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/19 "2020-08-26T18:07:45Z")
So you think it’s OK to force someone to make a gesture or otherwise “express support” for YOUR cause against their will, by behaving in a manner that meets the legal definition of assault by threatening physical force?
---
### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071/20 "2020-08-26T18:12:11Z")
Ah, I did not take your post as a joke.
Especially as it followed another poster advocating violence, who is certainly not joking.
Poe’s law and all, but sometimes, you need to go ahead and put a /s on some things.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-if-an-angry-mob-demands-you-raise-your-fist-in-support/919071.md?page=2)