politics

From what I've seen this is already happening, along with other engagement drives like circulating petitions and recruiting for mutual aid or collecting aid donations. Those efforts can vary by location but it's certainly not "just standing around with signs" like critics say.

I think this is an important part of protesting that goes overlooked by the "protests don't immediately solve the problem" people. I'm in a very conservative area as well but when I protest I get more support than opposition. It helps other people realize that hey, maybe I'm not actually surrounded by people who are okay with this. Maybe there are actually a lot more of my neighbors who aren't okay with things, and there's actually hope that if I start acting up more, I'll have support. Hope and morale are pretty important for resistance movements.

Same. I woke up and saw there was another protest scheduled for today projected to be bigger than the last one. I thought "maybe this time there will be one in my town" and lo and behold. I swung by at the tail end of it to see what was up and it was active to the very end. I talked to the event organizers who said 300 people showed up and most care were honking and giving thumbs up. I ended up following the group to a post-protest location to eat and hangout and all in all I talked for five straight hours. I only expected to swing by for a couple minutes to see if there were more than a dozen people.

(9 million ÷ 330 million) < 2.8%

340 million x 3% = 10.2 million

Everyone forgot that there is a hidden big good function for protests more than just a good way to show unity

The hidden function is to enable people to be together so they can socialize, get to know each other, and brainstorm on what they can do together to make things better in some way. Brainstorming, doing, and collaborating united

Everybody in a protest getting things done is more effective than a protest where everyone is only just walking with signs

3% of 320 million is like 9.6 million. I guess they needed another 1.6 million people before the world changes for them.

That's the problem with protests since Trump was elected. It turns out you can just ignore protests, and this never occurred to politicians up until this point. Up until then, politicians acknowledged protests as a good-faith effort to represent their constituents.

It needs a trifecta. Protests, Politics, and "Persuasion".

The protests give weight to the political group. They also give cover and a place to organise for harder actions.

The political elements act to focus the will of the protestors, and provide guidance to the agitators.

The "Persuasion" group add teeth to the political demands. They also act to defend the protestors, when the government gets aggressive.

The 3 need to work together to achieve major changes. "The Troubles", in northern island are a good example. The IRA didn't achieve much/anything practical. What they did was force the UK government to sit down and negotiate in (vaguely) good faith. The protests and marches acted to show large scale support for the changes.

Against an intelligent, aware government, the need for violence is implicit, rather than explicit. It's a lot better to engage early and diffuse political hot potatoes. Unfortunately, the US government doesn't seem like they will take the hints.

The marches should be used to crystallise the other 2 requirements. A political agency, to act as a voice. As well as those willing to go further, to act as the muscle.

The mythical 3.5% rule is to keep protests peaceful, which only helps the oppresser

You need to change your media diet. Here are a few recommendations:

• If you're into news sites, then add a few that have a little more "independent" coverage: E.g., The Guardian.
• If you're into social media, then you need to go out of your way to subscribe to local resistance groups and/or individuals that cover local protests.
• If you're interested, get involved with your local resistance groups! Do a search for "Indivisible" + [name of your city] as a place to start. This could mean going to meetings or it could be as easy as keeping up with a Signal thread.
• Find sites that cover local protests. Example: Mobilize. This is also a good way to find local resistance groups; look for protests and then look for the groups that are organizing them.

The bottom line is that you're going to have to do a tiny bit of work to get plugged in to the resistance. Once you do, the protests and actions you care about will show up on your radar.

I just googled it after the last one. Honestly though, I saw a lot less coverage on this one. I'm surprised that it was bigger.

It’s not too late to join - No Kings has more events coming up.

In the meantime, your wallet is your strongest voice in the eyes of this administration. Think carefully about where you spend your hard earned money. A single day of avoiding Walmart and Amazon is not meaningful if you give them your money tomorrow.

Find local businesses that deserve your money and spend your money with them instead. Buy less and buy better quality items that last longer. Reduce consumerism and give homemade gifts or experiences instead of more junk nobody needs. Use lending libraries, swap groups, and other methods to reduce your contribution to the economy, which is frankly the only thing your government cares about.

Nokings.org ? You do have to look for it. Not going to show up on your Instagram feed...