See, this is the big thing. When people protest in Paris, it's huge because, it's Paris. When people protest in Raleigh, NC, it's not even a blip. We're too big. Too comfortable. I'd love if the European answers were America's answers, but it's too easy to ignore the things you don't care about. Maybe the answer is to break up, break the union. Make the problems more local. I dunno.
Thatâs not it though. See, yeah, sure, itâs one thing to only protest in Raleigh, but itâs a completely different thing of people also keep protesting in other places. Youâre not too big. Thatâs a ridiculous statement in this context. Youâre simply not turning out enough anywhere.
When people protest in Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Frankfurt, Munich, Potsdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Halle, or Hanover itâs news, because they donât only protest in one of those places, but in all the places that are in the country.
Itâs not â10,000 people took to the streets in Bremen in protestâ, but itâs âlast week, 700,000 took to the streets in multiple German/French/Belgian/Italian/Polish etc. cities. They were protesting xyzâŠâ
Your size has nothing to do with it. Itâs good that folks protest in Raleigh. Itâs even better if itâs all over NC. Itâs even better when itâs across multiple states. If folks in Raleigh, Chicago, Seattle, NYC, Boston, Bismarck, New Braunfels, Houston, Phoenix etc⊠protest, itâs suddenly news. Youâve got to step up your game with that. And you donât need to concern yourself with the other cities. Focus on your own city. If youâre in Raleigh, hold protests once or twice a week. A big one on Saturday and a smaller one during the week with those who can come. Make posters, bring friends and family and tell each of them to also bring five people and so on. Itâs really not that hard. And just keep doing that. Show it on social media. Be active about it. Invite people to join randomly.
But do it.
The reason why nobody gives a shit about a protest in Raleigh right now is because the country can afford to ignore stuff that happens in just Raleigh. Keep doing that, and invite other cities to join in. But that doesnât happen if you donât do it. You canât wait for activists to protest for you. They wonât. Youâve got to do it yourself.
I understand your frustration and I agree that more should be done, but in my opinion there are 3 factors preventing mass protests. the main one of these is that americans are stuck in a loop of flat denial because the federal system means that what happens in washington rarely directly impacts people. anything that happens at the federal level can be mitigated by opposing state level infrastructure pretty easily so states who have much more left favoring governments can prevent their people from being harmed through litigation and legal disobedience. this prevents the majority of the likely protesters from feeling the pain immediately
2, people who dont pay attention to whats going on around them (1/3 of the country + also most of trumps base) will not be forced to break out of their conditioned trance until they see stuff that personally impacts them. they are fools without empathy who only interpret things through their own experiences or that or their family members
finally the democrats are not fighting. a lot of people say this is a mistake, but they're not fighting because 1. the sentiment after the election took the wind out of the party and its base's sails. we became disillusioned with our countrymen who betrayed us despite all of our warnings and all our fighting 2. a large percentage of the base and party as a whole is content with the country burning under terrible policies because we have told them 100s of times what would happen and they still didnt listen 3. the democrats have very little power as a minority goverment 4. they have no idea how to reach people who would willingly vote trump in. i hear a lot of complaints about dems not doing enough, but that fundamental question still remains: "how do you get through to someone so engrossed in propaganda that they will deny reality so much that you can barely even hold a conversation?" it is legitimately that bad
to put it succinctly, the protests are hopefully coming. when this destroys our economy and people start to feel it a few months from now, trump voters and anti political bystanders are in for a rude awakening. the democrats are just now getting out of the pity party and the republicans are about to pass insanely unpopular legislation to fund trumps gifts to the wealthy
our government does not work like european governments. there are many moving pieces which keep americans from being actively engaged in politics because the federal system has paralyzed our government and rendered it unable to respond to the wills of the people. if people want to bury their heads in the sand, our system stupidly allows it. they arent protesting because their lives are largely the same as 6 months ago. its exactly why we still have school shootings if some people die or get deported its so far away average voters simply do not care
finally i'd like to point out (as an example of what im talking about) that the most recent mass protests in 2020 against police injustice were largely successful. while leftists didnt get as far as they hoped, police reform has been adopted all around the country. why? because george floyd's death viscerally affected anyone watching it. even the most insane trump cultists could not deny the sheer brutality of watching a man die in the street like an animal at the hands of the police
i hope this provides a reasonable explanation of whats happening in our country. it sounds idiotic to even explain this like it was a valid excuse which it is not. this is just the way it works under the current system which is an embarrasment on the whole
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u/Manck0 14d ago
See, this is the big thing. When people protest in Paris, it's huge because, it's Paris. When people protest in Raleigh, NC, it's not even a blip. We're too big. Too comfortable. I'd love if the European answers were America's answers, but it's too easy to ignore the things you don't care about. Maybe the answer is to break up, break the union. Make the problems more local. I dunno.