Microblog Memes

I thought a general strike was in the works for May 1st?

• People every time a post about protests is made: "This will accomplish nothing."
• Those same people when asked what they're personally doing since they talk like they know what will and won't work: "Also nothing."
• (Bonus points for the ones who say violent uprisings are needed, but are not violently rising up themselves. Double bonus for "well I don't live in the US.")

Protests aren't the solution on their own, they're a step in the process of people getting to the point of doing something about the situation they've found themselves in. You can't fix a problem if you don't first acknowledge and accept that it's a problem. Stop crapping on people for protesting. Instead, encourage them to use that energy to take things further. And if you know so much about what will actually work and are going out of your way to tell people what they're doing isn't going to work, maybe you should be doing the thing you claim will work so you can lead by example instead of armchair directing.

Remember, if your organization is big enough to organize a general strike, the feds are there and watching. Watch your back

recall that the FBI infiltrated the civil rights movement and more even before we had a police state empowered by the Patriot Act surveillance and AI data collection.

I have zero proof, but I suspect that they are actively disrupting all attempts at organization. This is based on the history of CIA and FBI; we never know what they are doing currently, we only know a tiny bit of what they have done in the past.

Maybe I'm paranoid.

Note that the person criticising the original is also not active in organising a general strike. It is permissable to hold opinions without being obliged to act on them.

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 the American government really is interested in.

And hats off to the person who successfully organizes a general strike. I’m cheering you on from Canada.

Could be a person not living in the USA, Max.

Us foreigners also have opinions on what's happening in the US, because it affects us too, but we have no way to affect change in the US, other than our boycotts.

The first comment / response or whatever that I read in there does a better job of expressing my opinion on this than I ever could.

"It's building the muscle. You have to get someone to show up one day before you can get them to show up often, or every day, or for the long haul."

Really the same goes for so many of the organizations running the events. They're local orgs, local people with different levels of experience (mostly very little) with organizing at this scale. It takes practice and time to get good at these things. It takes time to find volunteers and train them.

Contrary to what some of the comments implied, most of these events aren't planned/operated by paid professionals, not that paying for professional help is inherently a bad thing anyway. There's top-level guidance and coordination, that kind of stuff generally requires dedicated teams (aka paid employees) due to the time and skill requirements for those roles. But on the local level, it's volunteers all around. And the real planning, the hard work, is virtually all done locally by those volunteers.

The No Kings Marches are just a prelude. Imagine all those millions of people participation in the upcoming general strike . Then imagine those millions turning to violence. Imagine them armed.

https://generalstrikeus.com/

I'm not going to be first in line to start doing something that actually fucking matters, but you bet your ass I'll be third.

Being part of march is already more than what many people would do. Seen too many times after the whole CEO execution last year people saying shit like "oh won't somebody step up and do something", "somebody should really try and change the system", or "I would totally support someone stepping up".

Buddy, that someone better be you. If not, be quiet.

• Sincerely, a union representative of my workplace.

Oh yeah, lets argue amongst ourselves. That always works.

Why is it always a general strike? Why not a rent/mortgage strike?

This is a pretty valid thing to say in the US.

Too many people think that just protesting is enough for any change they want to be effected. We don't get taught about things like labor struggles.

Sure, we'll all voluntarily surrender our paychecks, and starve. I'm sure MAGA will show empathy, and totally change their attitude, and won't just point and laugh at us as we starve, and scabs do our jobs for us.

I'd rather shut down the MAGA government for an extended period, deny them THEIR money, and hurt THEM. So the airports are out of control, who care? Almost everybody inconvenienced in an airport is upper middle class at the least. Most of them have money, and disproportionately vote MAGA.

So I'm sorry about the workers who get screwed, but I'm extremely happy to see people with money whining about missing their time on the slopes, or that big merger meeting that will unemploy thousands, or that AI training that will unemploy thousands, etc. Fuck them, make them wait for hours, as they ponder how voting MAGA has improved their lives.

Just because the poster doesn't take action, doesn't mean they are wrong.

we've seen no kings 1 & 2 change diddly squat, so obviously we'll do the same thing a third time with the high hopes that nothing will change too!

Guy that is attending the useless no kings protest

You want actual change? Look at Europe on how to protest. I'm sorry for you Americans, but you got yourself in this, you gotta dig yourself out. Trump will NOT care about the o kings protest, and it'll fade from the news within two days tops. It. Is. Not. Enough.

Protest 24/7 for months on end until the fucker is gone

Have strikes everywhere, indeed, because that it the only way you'll get his attention and get this administration to understand that it's over

This person could be French. They know how to bring the state to heel, and they share their experiences for those clearly in need of learning Americans. But they have to leave organizing to the people who are actually involved.

They ain't wrong though. And you arguing with them is no better than them arguing with you about this.

no kings has no leverage and no power and no stamina and no guts. are the police attacking them in the streets? i personaly see these kind of protests as controlled off gassing. you have a large amount of people who would under other circumstances be pushed into actual action, thinking they make a difference doing this, allowing the system to functionally ignore them.

without the media on your side these protests do not work. and the media is captured, and neither side wants to see this stop