It is absolutely not how euromaidan happened, kind of the opposite of that actually.
Euromaidan had two very distinct characteristics that helped them to succeed - self-organisation and persistence. They had tangible achievable goals, demands that everyone knew and agreed upon, and they didn’t stop the protest ever, not when the fighting started, not when the police snipers started shooing at them.
What the US is doing is more of what Russia was doing from 2012 to basically 2022. Series of more and more numerous protesters where some random people said some vague platitudes and tried to shame the dictator into disappearing, and despite every protest being bigger than the last, in the end it achieved absolutely nothing. Just like random protests in US achieve absolutely nothing, mainly because there isn’t even something to achieve by them.
A protest is a tool in a toolbelt of people’s resistance, but alone it can’t do shit, you need all the other tools, and more importantly you need a metaphorical builder to actually use the tools.
the us method, is just people protesting for the sake of protesting. they wont fully commit to escalate the issue. i would say the most effective was a strike, by the railroad workers, it was enough to scare the elites and the whole congress. but that was a different issues, are people willing to do this again.
Peaceful, in a sense, but extremely disruptive to business as usual and so the government reacted with violence.
The so-called “no kings” protests were organized specifically to not disrupt business as usual. They weren’t just peaceful, they were passive. Friendly. Neutered. They were not intended to provoke a violent response (because people weren’t ready for violence yet) and that’s why they failed to accomplish anything. My observation of history is: if your protest doesn’t provoke a response it’s essentially worthless.
What’s insane is the organization isn’t calling for any more nationwide protests. The city next to mine has had no calls for protests since then. Just dead silence. I was hoping there would be a protest that size every Saturday to get people comfortable with going out and organized. But no, we get to happily go to one protest once every 3 months if we’re mad enough.
Well, on the calmer end of the spectrum there’s things like a general strike or Federal tax boycotts. On the more extreme end you haul out the gallows and support civil war. None of these are fantastic solutions, they all have their own issues, but it’s not exactly a ‘neat and tidy’ problem you’re facing. Things are going to get messy either way, they already are.
I’m not going claim to have all the answers to Americas problems, but I can at least recognize what’s not working. Something needs to change, because the current trajectory is catastrophic.
‘Stop, or we’ll say stop again.’ (except we didn’t even do that much)
That’ll definitely end the fascist dictatorship that’s taking over America.
I’m glad that many people managed to get together and speak up, but it’s woefully insufficient.
That’s how communism was overturned in Poland.
That’s also how color revolutions happened, including orange revolution in Ukraine and Euromaidan. That forced Russia to proceed with actual invasion.
The thing that absolutely doesn’t help is apathy and “activism” on social media.
It is absolutely not how euromaidan happened, kind of the opposite of that actually.
Euromaidan had two very distinct characteristics that helped them to succeed - self-organisation and persistence. They had tangible achievable goals, demands that everyone knew and agreed upon, and they didn’t stop the protest ever, not when the fighting started, not when the police snipers started shooing at them.
What the US is doing is more of what Russia was doing from 2012 to basically 2022. Series of more and more numerous protesters where some random people said some vague platitudes and tried to shame the dictator into disappearing, and despite every protest being bigger than the last, in the end it achieved absolutely nothing. Just like random protests in US achieve absolutely nothing, mainly because there isn’t even something to achieve by them.
A protest is a tool in a toolbelt of people’s resistance, but alone it can’t do shit, you need all the other tools, and more importantly you need a metaphorical builder to actually use the tools.
the us method, is just people protesting for the sake of protesting. they wont fully commit to escalate the issue. i would say the most effective was a strike, by the railroad workers, it was enough to scare the elites and the whole congress. but that was a different issues, are people willing to do this again.
Or maybe your read on the history is wrong.
Doesn’t it seem strange?
Those protests were peaceful. It was government used violence against people and that only made more join.
Peaceful, in a sense, but extremely disruptive to business as usual and so the government reacted with violence.
The so-called “no kings” protests were organized specifically to not disrupt business as usual. They weren’t just peaceful, they were passive. Friendly. Neutered. They were not intended to provoke a violent response (because people weren’t ready for violence yet) and that’s why they failed to accomplish anything. My observation of history is: if your protest doesn’t provoke a response it’s essentially worthless.
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What’s insane is the organization isn’t calling for any more nationwide protests. The city next to mine has had no calls for protests since then. Just dead silence. I was hoping there would be a protest that size every Saturday to get people comfortable with going out and organized. But no, we get to happily go to one protest once every 3 months if we’re mad enough.
There are next big one is this Monday. https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
There are also local ones that are happening all the time, you can’t find them on https://mobilize.us/
Which is why your suggestion iiiiiiissss . . . ?
Do the protests, but during a work day, together with a general strike
Well, on the calmer end of the spectrum there’s things like a general strike or Federal tax boycotts. On the more extreme end you haul out the gallows and support civil war. None of these are fantastic solutions, they all have their own issues, but it’s not exactly a ‘neat and tidy’ problem you’re facing. Things are going to get messy either way, they already are.
I’m not going claim to have all the answers to Americas problems, but I can at least recognize what’s not working. Something needs to change, because the current trajectory is catastrophic.
Certainly not to brag about your failure and act as though a few weekend sign-waving parades means that you’ve done all you can.