Dozens of Jewish protesters and their allies were arrested on Wednesday morning after they blocked rush hour traffic on a busy Los Angeles highway to demand a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza.

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[–] AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I always feel conflicted when I see things like this. On one side good for them, they found a way to get their message across to a nation news. But on the other hand they are intentionally disrupting infrastructure people rely on everyday. I don't think it's a bad thing that people want global change, but I do think it is a bad thing that people feel powerless to influence this change so they have to resort to more disruptive methods like this. More representation in the federal government could help prevent this.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 41 points 2 years ago (4 children)

A non-disruptive protest just gets ignored. You need to impact people’s daily lives to make them think why the problem arose in the first place.

[–] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 17 points 2 years ago

People will find a way to get mad at any protest no matter how little it impacts others. See kneeling for anthems or just wearing shirts at events

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (3 children)

But, you need to impact the lives of the people who have the means to make that change. A traffic jam isn't going to do that.

[–] bamboo@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago

I mean, is a major highway in the second largest city of the primary colonial sponsor a bad place? I guess if we had free teleportation they might find marginally better success in DC or Tel Aviv, but if you’re located in LA I can see why you’d choose to protest there and not somewhere else.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

If it happened in a vacuum, probably not. But traffic jams don’t happen in a vacuum. They ripple out and cause effects that hit millions of other people. Such as this news article, this lemmy post, and all of the people here discussing it.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Traffic jam equals lots of news coverage lots of pissed off voters, lots of attention lots of eyes, that is how you get to people who can make a change.

[+] EmoBean@lemmy.world -7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

"Fuck shit up for a many people as possible" isn't sustainable. Gandhi and Martin Luther knew that. If it weren't for the number of downvotes people are getting for even hinting that this isn't the right way to do things, I would think this is actually a psyop from the other side to put people off towards Palestine.

Like just stop oil is actually run by oil companies to recruit the most extreme left people that think sitting in the road is doing anything more than pissing the average person off and giving right wing media material to hate you.

But nope, people really are this stupid. On both sides. Both want to divide so strongly, because if people actually got along we would start addressing issues instead of bitching online about what you hate about the other side.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You think Gandhi and Martin Luther King didn't disrupt things? My god of course they did they were extremely disruptive. You've fallen for the whitewash history, were they teach you to be good little boys who sit down out of the way and don't bother anyone. It's fiction. It's not real. Martin Luther King was disrupting a ton of stuff Gandhi even more so.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 years ago

This is one of the most historically inaccurate things I think I’ve ever seen.

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that says exactly what he thinks of people like you:

First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

[–] bartolomeo@suppo.fi 1 points 2 years ago

Bro they said Martin Luther

God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.

[–] EmoBean@lemmy.world -4 points 2 years ago

Guess that's why the government assassinated him. But no, don't talk to me about what I believe. Make assumptions because my think =/= your think.

[–] bartolomeo@suppo.fi 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I swear you "both sides bad" guys have worms in your brain.

Left: "no genocide!"

Right: "genocide!"

EmoBean: "akschually you're both stupid wrong idiots we need to be doing some genocide maybe one day you'll be as smart as me"

[–] reversebananimals@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

And a disruptive protest just makes people hate you and your cause.

[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social -2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I'm not really asking you to look it up or anything, but this gets parroted around a lot, and I wonder if there's actually any data to really support it or if it's just a statement that kinda sounds nice.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

I mean maybe not data but it's telling that almost every successful movement goes beyond the "quietly protest on the side of the road" step.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What does a non-disruptive protest even look like? The entire purpose of protest is to be disruptive, and every protest is disruptive in some way.

[–] bartolomeo@suppo.fi 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Adding a flag to your profile pic.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 0 points 2 years ago

I wouldn’t consider that a form of protest personally. Just a way of expressing support.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

This post itself provides a new data point as a piece of evidence to support that claim. There is a news article written about it, and we are talking about it.

[–] Serialchemist@ttrpg.network 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Also conflicted: I don’t think the disruption itself is a bad thing if it’s disrupting a part of society that derives benefit from the whatever is being protested against.

That said, I’m not sure how disrupting traffic in Los Angeles is going to affect the change they want to see. You can’t get much further from Washington DC than the West Coast.

[–] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago

This is the dumbest way to protest. Out of the book of any publicity is good publicity: “any protest is a good protest”.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world -5 points 2 years ago

Also, the US government isn't the Israeli government.

Also also, Biden is a zionist, so it's not like he's going to change his stance because of a traffic jam in LA.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't have a problem with people disrupting traffic to protest, I have a problem with people doing it for a purpose that the government can't actually achieve, with only a few people, or in places that don't make sense for the cause.

If you want to disrupt it over some local (to at least the country) issue, and you have enough popular support to host an actual rally with hundreds or thousands of marchers blocking the road, go right ahead and disrupt traffic. If you're marching about the environment, rally at a park then march to a government office. If you're marching about police brutality, go sit down outside a police station.

Unfortunately, The US government is not the Israeli government. The most they could do is exert pressure on Israel, which to be fair is quite a lot of pressure given it's the US, but I highly doubt that Israel would stop immediately even if the US asked them to. In this case, from the pictures, they also only had enough people to make a single line across the road. The location isn't relevant to anything either.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just gonna say: Reagan stopped the bombing of Beirut with a phone call.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

After the bombings? That would have been done by primarily US troops, so of course he could stop it with a phone call.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

After the what? We're talking about Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 here.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I thought you might be referring to the 1983 attacks.

I was a little underdeveloped at that age to be aware of everything going on.

Doesn't look like he stopped anything though, given that fighting continued despite the ceasefire for a few more years, and that Israel still attacks Lebanon on a regular basis because of Hezbollah.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

He didn't stop the conflict as a whole, but he stopped the bombing of west Beirut itself.

That bombing was followed by a protest to the Israeli government by President Ronald Reagan. Within 20 minutes of a phone call between Reagan and Begin, in which the former said the bombings were going too far and needed to stop, Begin ordered the bombings stopped.