So there’s this awful cause that you’re 100% opposed to. An organization dedicated to grinding up kidnapped puppies into falafel mix and selling it to vegetarian restaurants. A cause who thinks all grandmas deserve to be punched and is trying to spread the message about what a grave injustice it is that more grandmas don’t get punched. A group that wants to mandate that all male teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 are issued RPG’s and AK-47’s. You get the idea, whatever they want, you vigorously oppose.
They’re applying for a permit for their protest, which is designed to raise awareness and support for their cause. By a happy coincidence, you and you alone are able to choose the location and time of their protest. What do you choose?
I contend that if I had complete control over the time and place of a protest for their protest, I would happily assign them to a time and place most calculated to disrupt rush hour traffic in major cities. I think this will generate a lot of attention and donations for the causes I actually WANT to win.
But I’m just one person - what do the fine minds at the Dope think of this one?
(and forgive me if I mess this up, it’s the first poll I’ll have posted)
What a bizarre poll. If it’s a cause I hate, I’m going to want the protest to be ineffective, so obviously I don’t want anybody to notice it. If I somehow am given the chance to sabotage this protest, then obviously I’m going to sabotage it, because I’m evil. So of course it’s going to happen in the middle of nowhere, if it has to happen at all.
Of course in real life the whole point of protests is that the people notice they’re happening. If you want the government to notice it you put it in front of a federal building; if you want the populace to notice you put it on the street.
Sure, that’s one way of thinking about it - bury it and nobody sees it or supports it.
But I think if you keep going past nobody seeing it, there’s a more effective means to work against their cause, and that’s to stage their protest in a very visible way that pisses everybody off, so now not only will nobody support it, but people will actively work against it because they were irritated by it.
Which to my mind, is better than burying it - if you bury it, you leave their bad cause about where it was before the protest, but if you enlist the rage of rush-hour commuters on your behalf, you’ve actively harmed the bad cause.
The “Freedom Caucus” may hold their protest on base McMurdo, Antarctica on February 16th. Unfortunately, the last flight of the Antarctic Winter leaves on February 15th, so they’ll be stuck there until November.
That’s fine. I’ll put mine in the streets of your city as well, but I sure don’t want one on the streets for my commute – and I only live 2 miles from work.
It’s my understanding that historically, the squeaky wheel actually has been shown to be the one who gets the grease. Step 1: Bad things are happening to people. Step 2: The people in question make a stink and draw attention to themselves. Step 3: Steps are taken to help the people. You never get to step 3 without going through step 2.
So I suppose it comes down to ‘do you risk pissing people off’ or ‘do you make certain nothing changes to help you’. Because while some protest movements backfire, no protest is less effective than no protest at all.
I voted for a political location. I’m one of those weird people that actually believes in a free exchange of ideas. I realize that people are easily misled, but I prefer open exchanges of viewpoints, even abhorrent ones. I’m not so self-absorbed as to think that my opinions somehow constitute the Absolute Truth. I really, really hope that ‘make rape legal’ people are wrong and that as a country we would fairly unanimously vote them down (although after Trump, who knows anymore?) and I would certainly stand up to be counted against them and fight them in whatever way I legally could. I don’t think I would silence them though. Silencing dissent is just not a path I care for.
I can’t speak for the OP but to me it sounded like the OP just hates traffic obstruction SO SO MUCH that he can’t even conceive of how the protesters haven’t just summoned an angry mob to murder them and everything they advocate for.
