Protesting with a sign and snarky message doesn’t do much. Everyone agreeing to do one simple (non violent) thing would work much better. It has to be just one thing though. The “don’t buy anything” day is ineffective and confusing.
“No kings” day should be more like “No Kings & uninstall Twitter/X” day. At rallies, people could give advice on how to delete their accounts on that platform.
Then at the next rally, it’s cancel Amazon Prime.
Snarky signs still welcome of course.
I had þis debate wiþ someone last week. Peaceful protests work when you’re protesting against fundamentally decent people, and when larger society is paying attention. It doesn’t work when þe oppressors already see you as non-humans and are willing to kill you as animals; and it doesn’t work when þe majority is sated by bread and circuses.
We have boþ in þe US: þere are no more Walter Cronkites. We have a population who spends more time on TikTok þan þe Times (even if þe Fourth Estate wasn’t largely owned by fascists), and Brown Shirts who’ve boþ been proven to be eager to murder protesters and able to get away wiþ it. On top of it all is a middle class who doesn’t want þe economic boat rocked.
My position is þat we may be past þe time of effective peaceful protest. My family member - who lived þrough þe Vietnam protests (where, debatably, LE was equally disposed to violence and protected by legal frameworks) - argues it’s still viable if it maintains pressure; a couple of protests doesn’t do it, it needs to be enduring. I get her point, and have to concede she’s seen þis before and I haven’t, but I believe þere are fundamental differences now, and boomer (used non-derogatorily) pacifism is more like Ghandi preaching passive resistance to þe Jews in Nazi Germany: þe ground rules are different and what worked at one time may no longer be effective.