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What naysayers don’t get about ‘No Kings,’ the biggest protest in U.S. history
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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
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What proponents don't get:
Turning out in the streets with no action doesn't actually "do" anything. Yes, it gives participants warm fuzzies, but that's about it.
I really hope organizers used the opportunity to do something productive. Register people to vote, collect volunteers for the upcoming primaries and the general election in the fall, push the red states to reject Republican ideology and candidates that are actively injuring all of us.
8,000,000 / the current US population estimate of 342,400,000 is 2.34% of the US out protesting on Saturday. That's fantastic, but it's not enough to move the needle.
Where does it need to be?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Just short of 12 million. We are getting there.
No Kings June, 2025 - 5 million
No Kings October, 2025 - 7 million
No Kings March, 2026 - 8 million
On this track, the next one will be close to 10 million. Proponents will argue they are over, detractors will say they missed the target, but 10 million more or less.
We are at least 2-3 more protests of this size away from hitting the 3.5% thresh-hold, but it is do-able before the 2028 elections.
Great post! I have been spreading the same message, including the 12 million person goal.
Just don't forget those at home who can't protest for whatever reason. 3.5% is a tiny number of people. Homebound resistors number many times that. We can't forget that, and we have to remind MAGA of that fact often.
Have read the 3.5 peoples findings or observations? One it is not a guarantee there have been protests with far higher percentage that failed and two it is becoming more irrelevant as states learn from other failures. Third my option going out once every three months isnt rewlly protesting.
That 3.5% is the approximate percentage of the population that it takes to POTENTIALLY reach a Tipping Point, and kick off a trend that takes hold and increases. It's not guaranteed, but it becomes very possible at that point.
So they are trying to hit the 3.5% with protesters alone. That will scare the shit out of MAGA (it already is), because they know that those protesters are only a small percentage of the actual numbers. If all the voters were No Kings protesters, MAGA would win elections with 96.5% of the vote. Obviously there is a LOT of non-demonstrating resistance at home, watching in support. Many people simply can't go to a physical protest for many reasons.
The one I went to had a food drive and a voter registration booth.
Also protest do something incredibly important that people don't seem to understand.
They bring people together. People who have ideas.
People who are maybe a bit more impatient, violent, and reckless than the masses.
They motivate those individuals to take more aggressive action.
Protests make such individuals feel like they have the support of the people (and they do).
Like burning down Tesla dealerships.
Like trying to burn down concentration camps.
Because if you study any history, you know that the oppressors NEVER give up their power because someone asks or even demands.
It will have to be taken. At great personal cost to those taking it.
Such people will be inspired to action from the display of protests. They will feel validated in their illegal (almost certainly) actions. And feel like it's worth the risk.
This is very important.
That's fantastic they were doing a food drive and voter registration! Let's hope they organize "turn out the vote" events leading up to the elections.
Hopefully someone is helping people get the necessary documents for voting eligibility, too.
That's very different to the one where I am. Here every leftist org shoves anyone wanting violence out and does their best to make sure everyone knows they're not a part of the movement and should be shunned. They all want to just be peaceful and believe nonviolence is the only way to get anything done.
Well. See the protest movements have to make sure that the public sees them as non violent. Especially when it's still early. And especially to keep trump from using the military against them.
Remember what happened with BLM? low public support even though it was a very valid movement.
Now firstly, I'm pretty sure a lot of those rioters were opportunists because their targets were just stores with high end goods and not legitimate targets of oppression.
But it didn't matter. The stereotype of blacks being violent was validated by these people even if they were the minority. And it very much hurt the support of the movement.
You have to warm people up to violence and vandalism. And you have to make sure it looks legitimate. Like with Luigi.
Have a few who start. Slow. Then more people will join in.
also as a slightly off this point but still on topic.
I was watching this 2 part pbs documentary about suffragettes.
Basically the historians said that they needed an extreme group and a moderate group.
Because the moderate group looked extreme without a comparison.
When the extreme suffragettes started with their more aggressive tactics like burning down buildings and houses and such, the moderates and their demands seemed very reasonable.
Unfortunately one of the other ways that suffragettes were extreme was that one half of them also wanted black Americans to be able to vote. The other did not.
Now this is definitely a shitty part of history in the U.S.
But if we consider the strategy of this division of extreme and moderate civil rights group and how effective it was, we could apply it to modern day to get compromises that actually are much better than if only the moderates were being considered.
For instance.
Iets say I want it easier for immigrants to become U.S citizens or get work visas. (I do).
But I can instead argue that u.s citizenship should be given to anyone who lives here for 1 year or longer.
The compromise might be that I get almost near what I actually want.
Anyway I'm getting off topic. But yeah.
Refusing to allow for a variety of tactics is how to make sure nothing ever changes for the better. This has been well documented.
I agree that non violence doesn't really work on its own. But it can help support more aggressive action , albeit, unintentionally.
People fighting against oppression need to be ramped up to violence and extremism.
They don't start that way right off. People start to get frustrated with the lack of progress of "peaceful' methods and will start taking matters into their own hands.
The peaceful movements still help keep public opinion more positive.
It's weird how we glorify war veterans that kill, murder, rape.
But in our history and reflections, we often look poorly on the extremist of civil rights and revolution movements as being out of control and excessively violent. And promote the leaders who were peaceful but didn't actually achieve much.
Yet it is those extremist people who actually make the change happen.
It's a bit of a paradox.
You don't want a culture or society to promote violent behaviors in the people, because when you do it often spills over into people hurting each other (within the same society).
But if you discourage violence and see it as always wrong, then those who do use it will be on top with no one to hold them accountable.
At the very least in states where open carry is legal encourage people to bring guns and masks to these parades. Make sure they are seen by any cop or government enforcer who would love to look for a weakness to get in and arrest people for no reason. Encourage everyone there to purchase guns and point them towards things like Pink Pistols and other organizations that are outwardly friendly towards LGBTQ+ and other leftists. Do this the same , if not greater, extent ya'll keep pushing to register to vote and vote Democrat cause those bastards aren't going to help us even if given a supermajority thanks to their love of the rotating villain and need to "reach across the aisle and compromise".
Like the other comment says, the "protests don't do anything" argument looks like it makes sense, but it really doesn't. Sure, it alone doesn't do anything, but it doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's a stepping stone. It leads to further organization and action. It's an easy, relatively risk free, way to get people involved, and it's easier to get them to go further after that first step is taken.
That's the thing, without further organization and action the net result was "Well that was fun!"
Yes. No fucking shit.
But the alternative to the protests is telling everyone "fuck it, we give up, go home."
You want change, then the protests are one of the things helping us get to that point.
People shitting all over the protests and trying to discourage them only helps the fucking fascists.
I doubt that there's any protest without further organization and action. Just meeting new people is further organization.
“Well that was fun” is also an okay feeing to have coming away from the protest. It means it’s more likely for that person to show up again next time.
The 3.5% would still actually have to do something. General strike to end the war in Iran would put additional pressure on the administration and since its position is already very week it could actually make a difference. Getting a win like that would do much more than this vague marching against Trump.
Could you imagine the difference enlisting 10 million people to run a one day registration drive would make?
You wouldn't even necessarily need to travel far. Groups of 10-15 door to door and 10 million people could basically knock practically every door in a day.
I'll shout this from the rooftops indefinitely: American elections aren't about preference, by and large, they are about turnout. There's very little we individuals can do when the party selects (repeatedly) unpopular candidates. But increasing registration would materially impact turnout.
Save the doomer BS. It's not for hyper online people like yourself. You're a minority in this.
I live in protest central, I know a useless protest when I see it.
Here's the #1 problem with No Kings:
Trump doesn't CARE. You can't shame the shameless. The only thing that will cause him to take notice is if something impacts him PERSONALLY.
Get 8 million people in DC and shut it down for a month? That would have an impact.
A million people trapping him inside Mar-A-Lago? That would have an impact.
As it stands now? Every protest in a blue city or a blue state? Dismissed with a subtle jerking off motion, or in Trump's case? Not so subtle. Nothing about him is subtle. LOL.
BUT - BUT - if No Kings moves to impact the upcoming Senate races to a point where people up-set the apple cart in the same way they are going to do the House? That is going to NEUTER him and he knows it.
The big thing is, this can't be a "throw the bastards out" movement, it needs to be about how, specifically, Republican candidates, policy, and ideology are all toxic to us, as a country and as individual people. They went from "the party holding us back" to "the party actively harming us."
Sybau
... right
You just can't accept facts when it's infront of your face and slapped you.
Maybe if those protests did not only happen half a year apart...
6 months to organize. A lot of people have to work on Saturdays.
It will be interesting to see if the general strike on 5/1 has any impact, that's on a Friday.
Have you learned how the Iron Curtain finally fell? A substantial part of the GDR was protesting. Every f-ing Monday. And they did not have Fakebook or Twatter to "organize". They just showed up.
Americans protest when it is convenient. They think if they do it once or twice, it is effective. Doing it consistently is just 'too much' for them.
Yeah, and No Kings is not that. Not in numbers or dedication.