Don’t you DARE suggest they get off their cowardly asses or they’ll start throwing MAGA-level language at you real fast

I guarantee your writing class has a syllabus. The problem here is a disconnect between what you think the syllabus says and what it actually says (this may not be your fault- a lot of teachers are notoriously shit at communicating the purpose of the syllabus).

English prof up on a soapbox here.

Comments like “you have to learn the rules before you break them” are kind of missing the mark. For the most part, those of us who teach English aren’t particularly concerned with “rules” (with the exception maybe of English as a second or foreign language, where conventions/rules are used to scaffold learning rather than as universal truths). English teachers are familiar with linguistics and the fluid, messy nature of language and all the fun things we can do with it. In short, the grammar Nazis you encounter online are VERY unlikely to be English teachers, who are often the first to point out that language is constantly changing and that what’s considered “correct” depends heavily on … everything, really.

But we’re talking here, ostensibly, about a “class.” And if we’re talking about a class, we’re talking about a syllabus. Specific outcomes on which a course is responsible for improving and checking proficiency. Your English class isn’t necessarily about “learning English,” especially if English is your first language. It’s about getting you to become proficient at doing a specific selection of specific things with your language. Very often these things aren’t even about rules or grammar, but that doesn’t mean the expectations aren’t strict- and what most people read as strictness is usually just specificity.

It’s damn near impossible to know whether a curriculum, teacher, method, or activity is successful without an outcome to measure. Lack of specificity makes measurement difficult and potentially unfair. If you’re told to “write a persuasive essay,” what exactly does that mean? What separates an A from a C? How does the teacher justify that distinction, and how does the student know what they need to improve? Without very specific target structures or a “can do” inventory, assessment becomes messier and we leave students guessing about what an given teacher might want from them, which isn’t especially fair (or useful, from a pedagogical POV).

A teacher can understand perfectly well that language is flexible, that different contexts call for different kinds of language, and that conventions change over time, while still expecting students to demonstrate a particular skill according to given criteria. There isn’t one correct way to use English, but a class DOES needs to establish what it’s trying to do, what students are expected to be able to do, and how anyone can tell whether they’ve been successful. That’s not necessarily prescriptivism, it’s just how a curriculum works.

Hey look, I found one of those people!

You’ve spent half a century watching these people and knowing exactly what they will do. Sure, I guess if it makes you feel better, you can “blame them” the same way I’d blame a bunch of 12-year-olds playing with fireworks in a warehouse full of gasoline. But at a certain point, the people who knew exactly what was going to happen and kept allowing them to obtain matches are the ones who need to be held responsible and deserve whatever they get if not.

Why would Meta or Twitter block them?

The people with crumbs STILL doing nothing despite having nothing to lose will allow America to be destroyed.

WHOOPS

White liberals will kick the can down the road, allow MAGA to further steamroll their institutions, refuse to fight back, keep doing bullshit little parades every four months, and insist (while on their way to the camps) that all they REALLY need to do is just VOTE harder in 2028, because direct action is just SO UNCOUTH.

The people in power have nothing to gain from stopping it. The people who are NOT in power have everything to gain from stopping it- but the cowards choose not to.

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

deleted by creator

Cool. Start acting like it

For Americans, doing the protest is an end in itself. They’re a way for comfortable white liberals to telegraph that they’re “on the right side” and “the good ones” so that they can return to doing nothing after a few hours of waving signs around and posting photos.

There is never any plan to escalate, never any thought to what happens if their demands aren’t met. The US does parades. Bring the kids, it’ll be fun- you can LARP participation in democracy.

Wait… you think the SIZE of the protest matters one bit? When the thing you’re opposing gets WORSE following your protest?

Also, let’s call it what it was. It was a parade. And yes, it was very big and cute.

Unfortunately for white liberals in the US, protesting isn’t an end in itself unless you’re just using it as a way to telegraph that you’re “on the right side.”

Outcomes matter- and the only outcome of the once-every-four-months, “scheduled in advance,” “peaceful” No Kings parade was to communicate to MAGA that they are free to continue doing what they’re doing because their opposition is easily ignored and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

You’re not asking what to do. You’re saying: “Please acknowledge that none of the things available to me are sufficiently easy, safe, convenient, individually decisive, personally gratifying, or guaranteed to work, so that I can go on pretending that doing nothing is a reasonable response.”

Donald Trump is not even 10% of your country’s problem. Wake up. This shit didn’t start in 2016.

Imagine thinking I owe Americans anything

I’ve answered this question enough times that I’ll play it out for you.

I answer you.

You give me excuses (usually “but that would require me to risk or sacrifice my comfort!”).

I call you a coward.

Someone shows up and deletes all my comments.

So I’ll just jump to calling you a coward and we’ll count down until my post gets deleted and you can make yourself feel better about doing fucking nothing.