It's futile if nothing changes. 7 million, 8 million, so what if the regime ignores it? I lived in Egypt during the Arab Spring, where many people died from attacks by police during peaceful protests. (Are you naive enough to believe it won't happen here?). Instead of these murderers going after people who are marching, chanting and waving signs, they will stand by in futility when those same people walk off their jobs, closing banks, airports, even landline phone service - and nobody gets killed. Until you hit the regime in its bank accounts, nothing will change. You can have 200 million people marching, but the next day, it's business as usual for MAGA.
(Damn, it's hard to sign in to substack...gotta get a code from an email...smh)
I've been to a couple of protests and I've been volunteering at elections in my county. I'm no expert or anything, but I do know that sitting around and saying negative/nihilistic crap online is DEFINITELY not accomplishing a damn thing.
Ta, Lizz. I adore the photo of you with should-be-VP Tim Walz. We can't march in the streets every day, but we can be really enthusiastic when we do. At our last No Kings, I got the woman with the megaphone to lead this chant:
Thank you! Activist here completely over my head in things to do to fight and finding people everywhere I turn who want to help. This is different and important and I couldn’t disagree more with those hot takes! They must not have gone because what they describe is not what happens.
One of our local lefty nabobs said that the marchers failed to "address the material dialectic." My first thought was, "Christ, have you ever spoken to a stranger ever?"
(I remember marching in the 2017 march in New Orleans because that’s where we Northerners happened to be. So much trauma under the bridge. Still marching, tho.)
Yes and you can add all the “Why don’t Dems do something?!!?” thumbsuckers. Vote them into office in 2026 and 2027 and you can whine about them in 2027 and 2028 if they don’t act.
Same mindless no-sense-of-duty fuckheads who watched Gunsmoke reruns all day instead of trotting on down to the nearby elementary school to bother casting their vote.
My big excuse was no parking, and not wanting to put the arm on my neighbor (again) to be dropped off and picked up. Fuck it, I'll take an Uber next time if I have to, hang the expense.
I think Brian Tyler Cohen had the best “bumper sticker description” of it I heard: “This (No Kings) is the on ramp, not the destination.” He was in LA on a street where there were about a hundred tents set up by various groups signing people up. We had a (much smaller) setup in our (much, much smaller) town. I suspect the scene was the same everywhere. (I called it a “gateway drug”, but his metaphor is probably much less off-putting.)
(As for pussy hats, I knitted fifty of those fucking things myself to send to DC. But the most noteworthy achievement was the global shortage of pink yarn we caused.)
I'm on the opposite side of the continent, so all I got to see was what was in the immediate area where BTC had his broadcast set up, but it looked like a *ton*. It takes a lot of energy to overcome this much inertia, and people don't usually go from zero to Storm the Bastille overnight. They gotta find a lane they can merge into. This gives them that.
It's futile if nothing changes. 7 million, 8 million, so what if the regime ignores it? I lived in Egypt during the Arab Spring, where many people died from attacks by police during peaceful protests. (Are you naive enough to believe it won't happen here?). Instead of these murderers going after people who are marching, chanting and waving signs, they will stand by in futility when those same people walk off their jobs, closing banks, airports, even landline phone service - and nobody gets killed. Until you hit the regime in its bank accounts, nothing will change. You can have 200 million people marching, but the next day, it's business as usual for MAGA.
❤️
Ratfuckers gonna ratfuck. But 8 million is hard to brush off as a nothing.
So indeed, fuck em.
They ought to get out of the way if they can't lend a hand
"Temu Schopenhauers" for the fucking win. Brava, Liz. We're with you.
(Damn, it's hard to sign in to substack...gotta get a code from an email...smh)
I've been to a couple of protests and I've been volunteering at elections in my county. I'm no expert or anything, but I do know that sitting around and saying negative/nihilistic crap online is DEFINITELY not accomplishing a damn thing.
Ta, Lizz. I adore the photo of you with should-be-VP Tim Walz. We can't march in the streets every day, but we can be really enthusiastic when we do. At our last No Kings, I got the woman with the megaphone to lead this chant:
You're protecting pedophiles
Now release the Epstein files
N-O-W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you! Activist here completely over my head in things to do to fight and finding people everywhere I turn who want to help. This is different and important and I couldn’t disagree more with those hot takes! They must not have gone because what they describe is not what happens.
One of our local lefty nabobs said that the marchers failed to "address the material dialectic." My first thought was, "Christ, have you ever spoken to a stranger ever?"
Awesome, Lizz. Thank you!
(I remember marching in the 2017 march in New Orleans because that’s where we Northerners happened to be. So much trauma under the bridge. Still marching, tho.)
Yes and you can add all the “Why don’t Dems do something?!!?” thumbsuckers. Vote them into office in 2026 and 2027 and you can whine about them in 2027 and 2028 if they don’t act.
Same mindless no-sense-of-duty fuckheads who watched Gunsmoke reruns all day instead of trotting on down to the nearby elementary school to bother casting their vote.
Thank you, Liz. And to all the fantastic American Patriots in MN : ICE OUT! DHS OUT! And if you don’t like it, Move to Russia, F%#KWAD!
I dragged my old ass to the first No Kings protest but sat out this one.
I don't think I'll excuse myself next time, if there is a next time.
Shit happens. I’ve made ‘em all in some extreme circumstances - except the last one. There’ll be more, if we don’t all mob DC first.
My big excuse was no parking, and not wanting to put the arm on my neighbor (again) to be dropped off and picked up. Fuck it, I'll take an Uber next time if I have to, hang the expense.
I think Brian Tyler Cohen had the best “bumper sticker description” of it I heard: “This (No Kings) is the on ramp, not the destination.” He was in LA on a street where there were about a hundred tents set up by various groups signing people up. We had a (much smaller) setup in our (much, much smaller) town. I suspect the scene was the same everywhere. (I called it a “gateway drug”, but his metaphor is probably much less off-putting.)
(As for pussy hats, I knitted fifty of those fucking things myself to send to DC. But the most noteworthy achievement was the global shortage of pink yarn we caused.)
I saw more signup tents in LA at the last No Kings march than ever before. All of Grand Park was surrounded by them.
I've been there since the first one and there were no signup tents back then.
I'm on the opposite side of the continent, so all I got to see was what was in the immediate area where BTC had his broadcast set up, but it looked like a *ton*. It takes a lot of energy to overcome this much inertia, and people don't usually go from zero to Storm the Bastille overnight. They gotta find a lane they can merge into. This gives them that.
Can you tell if many of those asking are Russian or Republican bots?
Sick burns, Lizz! Bravo!