As an American (I know some people will scoff at that statement but that’s what we would genuinely say), but I feel like protests are effectively pointless in the modern day. The people in power don’t care and even Amy Coney Barrett has said how she has people around her house day and night and that they are wasting their time. Protests are great for the morale of the protestors, but they effectively don’t have any impact on people in office. I like the idea of protests, I support what most protestors are doing, but I don’t feel like they are making any real difference to the political stance of those they are protesting.
That’s the thing. You have to get enough people arrested that the system can’t handle it. Its tough to find that many people willing to make that sacrifice until things get much worse than they are now
Eh, that’s not really a good example. The US already has more people incarcerated per capita than any other country. The biggest limitation is how many people they can arrest at one time, not how many people they will arrest total. You might be able to get enough people to protest at once that they can’t arrest them all at once, but they absolutely will arrest them over 1-3 years. They kept arresting Jan 6th people for 4 years under Biden, you don’t think that the current administration will be after you as long as possible?
Obviously people standing outside a politicians house with a sign are ineffective, thats just not how politics works.
Obviously large scale protests aren’t going to make Trump change his ways or resign.
However, I think large scale protests might activate a lot of apathetic people, and get them connected.
America doesn’t need Trump to resign and Vance to take over. You need societal change. You need your population to realise that your trajectory is pretty awful and that it doesn’t have to be.
As an American (I know some people will scoff at that statement but that’s what we would genuinely say), but I feel like protests are effectively pointless in the modern day. The people in power don’t care and even Amy Coney Barrett has said how she has people around her house day and night and that they are wasting their time. Protests are great for the morale of the protestors, but they effectively don’t have any impact on people in office. I like the idea of protests, I support what most protestors are doing, but I don’t feel like they are making any real difference to the political stance of those they are protesting.
I think part of the issue here is not following through with that energy into elections to get progressive platforms in office.
Agreed. Protests that don’t disrupt anything are about as effective as online petitions.
Except that protests that actually disrupt something get you arrested. Still doesn’t actually do much in the USA.
That’s the thing. You have to get enough people arrested that the system can’t handle it. Its tough to find that many people willing to make that sacrifice until things get much worse than they are now
Eh, that’s not really a good example. The US already has more people incarcerated per capita than any other country. The biggest limitation is how many people they can arrest at one time, not how many people they will arrest total. You might be able to get enough people to protest at once that they can’t arrest them all at once, but they absolutely will arrest them over 1-3 years. They kept arresting Jan 6th people for 4 years under Biden, you don’t think that the current administration will be after you as long as possible?
Thats a generalisation.
It depends what the objective of your protest is.
Obviously people standing outside a politicians house with a sign are ineffective, thats just not how politics works.
Obviously large scale protests aren’t going to make Trump change his ways or resign.
However, I think large scale protests might activate a lot of apathetic people, and get them connected.
America doesn’t need Trump to resign and Vance to take over. You need societal change. You need your population to realise that your trajectory is pretty awful and that it doesn’t have to be.