cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/37547935
‘Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trump has got to go!’ protesters across the country chanted
Nearly 7 million demonstrators in small towns and cities across the country showed up for No Kings protests to rally against Donald Trump’s presidency, according to organizers.
The president declared he was “not a king” on Fox News Friday, but that didn’t stop millions of rally-goers in more than 2,500 locations across the United States from protesting the second Trump administration.
Saturday’s event marked the third mass mobilization since Trump reclaimed the White House — and one of the largest single-day nationwide demonstrations in U.S. history, surpassing the more than 5 million demonstrators who turned up to the first iteration of “No Kings” protests in June, organizers said.
Honestly I think a huge part of their value is just mental resiliency to cope with the situation and keep going. To keep getting up every day and being dirt in the cogs, and keep trying to survive and be part of the solution
For the protesters, certainly- that’s how I felt when I was at the protests (more hopeful. More capable of coping), but I imagine the impact might be even higher for folks in worse situations who drive by the protest.
I think they serve largely intangible, abstract social functions. They bring people together. They’re a symbol of hope. They give us energy. They allow us to meet others who might be organizing in other ways (was chatting with someone at the last event who also went with a group to protest and disrupt a local christian nationalist meeting). And for the people who go having never been to a protest before, there’s a chance they become part of the subset who takes greater action.
But I think it gives people a sense of mental strength to defy power in their day to day lives that can’t be overlooked. If we’re gonna succeed it’ll take just about everyone refusing to go along with things, and psychologically that’s hard, especially with the kinds of consequences that a fascist regime imposes.
Fascism wins if we give into hopelessness.