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The Trump administration is positioning the upcoming No Kings protests as an excuse for crushing dissent
(www.mediamatters.org)
this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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Where I was we had easy evacuation routes. An attack would have dispersed the crowd, but not done more.
OTOH a massacre would likely destroy Republican legitimacy among a chunk of their supporters
I think you over estimate the humanity of many of their supporters.
Fox and friends would cover it like a massive terror of burning the city.
We dont need to flip most of their supporters to change things radically. Flipping 1 in 10 would do it
Absolutely correct. More people need to understand what flipping just 10% on the end of the spectrum would do
Last time I ran the numbers in 2024 it would take more than 10% to get the 17 Senate seats needed to impeach. While that may have changed I still feel folks over estimate the impact of something like this on that voting population with the propaganda engine in place.
That's what people aren't getting. We will never have 100% come back to reality. Many are lost to the MAGA fantasy forever. We'll deal with them later.
We just need to wake up enough of them to weaken their voting base to either switch parties, or refuse to vote at all. Nothing is worse than someone who has been converted. Ex-MAGAs will be Trump's worst nightmare.
Agreed; if the State Regime Media was able to cover up the terrorism of J6 and paint the terrorists as the victims that needed a pardon from the felon-in-chief, AND have most of their audience feel that "cities burned to the ground" during BLM protests (and one of their more idiotic viewers - Taco - seems to think that Portland is still burning, FFS), then there is a sizable chunk of this country that will believe all kinds of obvious bullshit.
Doubt it. Some talking heads on Fox would simply be instructed to parrot some bullshit about "the protestors started it" and their base would lap it up. These are the same idiots who just take it at face value when El Presidente claims that Portland is "burning to the ground" even though it's trivially easy for anyone with an internet connection to determine that this is bullshit.
A lie like that would just confirm the beliefs that these bozos already have, the fact that it's totally divorced from reality notwithstanding. Pure confirmation bias.
Remember that a huge swath of not-coincidentally Republican rednecks wholeheartedly believe that the North fired the first shot of the Civil War even though this is manifestly false.
You can know which alleyway to run down. During a stampede? Even the 10-20 feet it would take to get to that alleyway can feel like 10-20 miles of getting elbowed, kicked, and stomped by panicking people.
Under a "normal" protest? When the tear gas starts flying, people pause to pull their mask up or wrap a scarf around their face. When the rubber bullets start flying? People take cover and suddenly you realize why that woman had a really heavy sign. Eothas forbid, a gunshot? You have people from The Hood who are tragically well trained in identifying what kind of gun that was and what direction it came from. And so forth.
When you have a bunch of shirtless dudes trying to pick up chicks and people focusing on the choreography for their protest dance? They haven't read up on what to do. They aren't listening to the hippie with a glass eye talking about what happened the last time the cops rushed them. When the tear gas starts flying? They get the fuck out no matter what it takes. Which turns a protest into Black Friday at a Toys R Us. Same with that car backfiring (or that dumbass having a negligent discharge...).
Newbies at a protest is good. We need more bodies. But you need newbies who actually "care". Rather than people who are just looking for an excuse to show off their gym bodies because they painted a message on their chest.
That said: I am REALLY happy that the frog suit protests in Portland have gotten so much (social) media coverage. It is pageantry but it is also REALLY effective PPE.
A "stampede" where a protest turned on itself because of an inciting incident (false flag or not) just paints the victims as rabid dogs. It is an extension of "The LA Riots were full of looters" and so forth.
But also? I dislike how much people have decided their lives are Call of Duty and they are going to John McClane their way through The War. But I still think "Who are you?" from Andor is essential viewing for anyone who at all cares about the world. Because it depicts exactly how a false flag can be used to incite a powder keg and turn genocide into "both sides". And the follow up episode makes it 100% clear what happens when the fascists control the media that is reporting on what happened.
The one I was at did training on how to respond. Remember: people are at a protest in their own community
Which, in a situation where you have people who understand what it means to protest, works great. I've given that training myself on quite a few occasions over the... decades.
When you are just grabbing as many warm bodies as you can and most people are there because it is a party and isn't TOO much harder than using an app to put a watermelon on top of their facebook profile picture? You can "train" them but they aren't paying attention to the scrawny woman who has seen some shit and is trying to explain that the first thing you do if you hear a gunshot is to duck down, take a breath, and figure out what direction it came from so that you can move for cover. They are instead thinking about how fun it will be or what they'll be able to put on instagram.
Like I said, Parade Protests. They are awesome for showing that people DO give a shit. But as things get more and more real, you are putting a LOT of uncontrollable variables into the mix.
It's all about knowing a friend is looking out for you too.
Violent government reaction may achieve the short term goal of ending the protest and terrorizing citizens, but it often backfires badly in the long run.
During Vietnam, protests were common, they covered them on the news every day. Lots of people were against them.
Then Kent State happened, and 4 students were murdered by National Guardsmen because they were protesting the evil Draft ( and several others injured, some permanently), and a LOT people changed. They may not have liked the protests, but murdering students who were exercising their 1st Amendment Rights was too much.
It was an enormous change in perception, and it was the beginning of the end for the draft, and the war.
If they react violently to the protests, especially if they use live ammunition, it will be very, very bad for them.
And watch out for agents provocateur among the crowd, encouraging violence, maybe carrying weapons, Molotov cocktails, etc.
We're at the point most of their base would cheer and depending on if any progressives were also taken out both parties would party for days in celebration