this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

"Protesting doesn't work" is literally propaganda for the status quo, don't spread this crap, worse than just being defeatist and doomer it discourages others from protesting.

Protest is a step in the process of rebellion... How many people are gonna rise up with an armed rebellion when they see the most of the population can't even be arsed to attend a march or rally?

And it does work.

[–] matthurtme@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

As someone with lived experience going through occupy wall street, no it doesn't. All I saw that accomplish was funds being embezzled, my friends get shot in the face with rubber bullets, and some of them now have criminal records. What did we get? A dollar raise to the already unliveable minimum wage.

Did anything change on wall street? Hell no. It got worse. Sanders says that the rich own 93% of all the wealth this country produces.

Protesting didn't do jack shit.

Protest now and you need to get a permit. What in the fuck is that? There's key note speakers and performers and shit. That's not a protest, that's a fucking festival for people who have enough money to cosplay protesting

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Agreed. Does anyone remember that Bidens response to the massive 'Defund and Reallocate 'movement was to reject the protestors demands and immediately raise police funding. Thats from a democrat-- and trump is worse. Vonnegut was right, protests "aint worth a pitcher of warm spit."

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/08/872376757/biden-opposes-defunding-police-campaign-says

[–] matthurtme@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yep! The police in San Francisco were granted actual FUCKING TANKS after that.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

And it does work.

Lol...

It worked in the civil right movement because it wasn't "Martin or nothing".

If the status quo didn't go with Martin's nonviolent movement, Malcolm was marching Black Panthers with AR15s in California...

That is what worked

If a protest ain't a threat it's pointless, and if the protestors aren't openly armed with rifles, the police are going to escalate to violence.

The only choice protesters get to make about violence, is if they do enough to discourage the state from starting it.

Like, youre just too young to remember all the peaceful protests that failed, we've been doing this shit for generations and shit keeps getting worse

Your funny fucking signs won't save us champ, and acting like it will makes people unwilling to do what would work

[–] ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even MLK would shake his head in disgust with our current "Protests", MLK was being peaceful but also doing things that broke the law, so they could overwhelm the jails, and police. Ones that made people uncomfortable so they had to pay attention. Protestors had to practice civil disobedience. The ones with signs and no pressure were the exact kind of protests MLK hated.

Our "protests" don't even do that. And any suggestions to do anything close to that is seen akin to violence by said protestors and they push back hard. People today don't realize the kinds of protests or actions that actually work, and refuse to listen to people that actually know their history.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

MLK could protest by having people just exist in a space...

The oligarchs learned their lesson and changed the rules. Part of which was drastically scaling up detention centers. Along with being able to label any protest as "terrorism" and throw people in prison for decades.

We have the highest percentage of imprisoned citizens of any country, and because of privatized prisons they'll happy to keep building more.

The system is fundamentally flawed, trying to fix issues one by one is impossible by design. But this is our best (and possibly last) chance in the next two years to fix it at a ballot box. And we can't put all our eggs in that basket.

There's a very good chance the oligarchs need a plausible threat of violence tho, and that means guns out at protests. If it stops police from using violence and arrests, then more people will be willing to protest

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The problem is, it won't be fixed at the ballot box.

You've been duped, not because you're dumb, but because they're very good at what they do... that's the genius of our political system. Good cop/bad cop has been in use since ancient Rome, and it is now a fine art.

It won't be fixed at the ballot box, the Democrats will not save you. What did Biden do for you? Wake up. He couldn't even pass minimum wage, didn't even bother with one standalone bill. In eight years, Obama didn't reform anything; "Obamacare" just funneled more money to for-profit insurance companies. Sadly, we're used to so little, even that was an improvement.

Go ahead and vote, I do. But that is because it's my duty as an American, not because I think it will work. I am old... it's never worked, and I don't expect it to magically start working tomorrow.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You should spend less time typing and more time reading.

If that doesn't help ask questions.

But all you're doing right now is telling people to give up, which is fucking stupid unless an oligarch is paying you, then it's just shitty.

[–] thlibos@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Please. The message I am taking away from his comments is that voting and protesting in and of themselves do nothing. That's not nihilism, that's useful advice. We need mutual aid and harm reduction networks that will allow for communities to have a critical mass of their members be fully supported by everyone else to they can effectively be "ungovernable" and engage in armed resistance, 24/7.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

The reason voting was ineffective for 30 years was neoliberals controlled the DNC.

That stopped being true after Kamala shit the bed.

Voting works now

Telling people it doesn't, depresses turnout, it's a self fulfilling prophecy.

I legitimately don't know how to make this any simpler champ, I'm sorry if it still ain't clicking for you, but just because you can't understand something doesn't mean it's illogical