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I wish that we taught better civics in school today. These types of protests are not really effective, compared to actions that tend to be much more effective.

I wish that we taught better civics in school today. These types of protests are not really effective, compared to actions that tend to be much more effective. Whoever was behind the Leave It Blank movement in New York - that is civic action that strikes fear into the hearts of political parties. There is nothing scarier than eroding your base 6 months before a Presidential election in key states. If you can convince someone, on election day (for a primary that is relatively irrelevant), to go to their polling place and fill out a blank ballot...it gives me chills. Nothing sends a stronger message. Joe Biden (or any other politician) doesn't really give a shit about what college kids do, as long as they keep it on campus. I hope Columbia can recover. One of our local universities had what seemed like a mostly peaceful protest that was met with a nearly 1-1 force of state police and persisted for mere hours. Still, in retrospect only 1/3rd of those protesters were members of the student body or staff.

jauntywundrkind 2y ago
Protests today have nothing on the past. The grousing and whining from slightly inconvenience professors and colleges woeful that there's been a tiny bit of property damage are ridiculous next to a historical backdrop of what it took to get civil rights, what it took to end slavery, what it took to get labor rights. There's a much stronger streak of authoritarianism, of intolerance to any disruption. Telling people to go to the ballots and not vote seems like a very bad idea to me. You stand to deeply deeply injure & remove from power the people you probabpy best identify with, in 95% of cases. The new blood you vote for 4 or 6 years down the road after you get your representative kicked out are going to be fighting an incumbent, which typically is seen as a harder challenge.
woooooo 2y ago
Counterexamples include civil rights in the 60s and south African divestment in the 80s. These protesters are trying to reenact the south Africa divestment campaign. Who's running south africa these days?

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

Protests today have nothing on the past. The grousing and whining from slightly inconvenience professors and colleges woeful that there's been a tiny bit of property damage are ridiculous next to a historical backdrop of what it took to get civil rights, what it took to end slavery, what it took to get labor rights. There's a much stronger streak of authoritarianism, of intolerance to any disruption. Telling people to go to the ballots and not vote seems like a very bad idea to me. You stand to deeply deeply injure & remove from power the people you probabpy best identify with, in 95% of cases. The new blood you vote for 4 or 6 years down the road after you get your representative kicked out are going to be fighting an incumbent, which typically is seen as a harder challenge.

woooooo 2y ago

Counterexamples include civil rights in the 60s and south African divestment in the 80s. These protesters are trying to reenact the south Africa divestment campaign. Who's running south africa these days?