6 ms·

The people have the power. Why not millions of people are on the fucking streets every day across the US is beyond me.

by shafyy 2y ago

danparsonson 2y ago
Perhaps because they feel like they have the power and it's more often the disenfranchised who end up on the streets?
kristiandupont 2y ago
>The people have the power. What do you picture will happen because of protests, exactly? That the administration realizes the error of its ways? Because it seems more likely to me that they would use it as an excuse to implement more autocratic measures.
- MrDrDr 2y ago
  https://www.aeinstein.org/ https://www.aeinstein.org/
  - kristiandupont 2y ago
    This gave me something to think about. Thank you.
- digitaltinfoil 2y ago
  Protests let people at home who are feeling alone in their frustration that there are many more people who feel like them. I also felt like you did until someone framed it that way for me. A protest isn’t supposed to be a singular event, it’s a series of events that crescendos into a movement—and it’s the crescendo that scares the people in power.
  - DeathArrow 2y ago
    Then, since there are more people who voted for the current administration, there can be even more powerful counter protests. Then we can have people fighting in the streets, then a civil war.
    - dxdm 2y ago
      Are you really trying to say that people should not protest, unless they are the overwhelming majority or easily ignored, because their protest will (or even just might) turn into a civil war?
      - johnisgood 2y ago
        Civil war may be a necessary war, eventually.
  - astrange 2y ago
    Crescendoing into a movement doesn't /do/ anything. This is just self-satisfaction for the kinds of people who like protesting. Other things like voting and getting elected do actually do something.
emeril 2y ago
-as a democratic american - why bother? -roughly half of the us populace supports the current authoritarian regime and the other half's senators and representatives are largely useless and aren't even doing what they can except for say wearing an adult diaper while giving a 25 hour speech -I fully plan on eventually moving to canada (or elsewhere) when the time comes - much easier to move than any other option
- e40 2y ago
  Half the voters. 36% didn’t even vote.
  - brookst 2y ago
    Sure they did. They voted that they were fine with either option.
    - speed_spread 2y ago
      Or did not approve of either option. No way to tell. Same result.
      - ryandrake 2y ago
        If you don't bother to vote, then you're [almost literally] saying you're OK with whoever wins. If that wasn't your intention, you would vote for some third party that you were OK with.
        HPsquared 2y ago
        It's not an opinion poll. People vote to try and get their desired outcome. If someone views their preferred minor candidate as a lost cause in electoral terms, they won't bother going to vote because it won't make any difference to the outcome. Or, worse, there isn't a single candidate on the list in their district who shares their views.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
palijer 2y ago
The average person doesn't have capacity to care about policies that lead to the long term development of drug-resistant bacteria. We couldn't even convince everyone to wear masks, this won't be an issue people will rise up in mass protests for... People are literally being kidnapped and thrown into detention centers without due process and there are not massive protests. It takes a lot to make people protest, this ain't a battle for it.
- mandmandam 2y ago
  > People are literally being kidnapped and thrown into detention centers without due process and there are not massive protests. For the record, there have been (and will be more) significant protests about this [0]. Corporate media does a fantastic job of ignoring and minimizing protests they're not in favor of (because they are actually effective...). If you're old enough to remember, think back to how the world held some of the largest anti-war protests in history back in the early 00's. Turns out, corporate media with strong financial links to defense contractors aren't much interested in covering that. At the same time reporters who took too much of an anti-war stance were literally fired... And things have gotten progressively worse with every administration since.
  - victorbjorklund 2y ago
    How many millions joined those street protest? Not saying it is a bad cause but there has not been any significant protests about it with any significant % of the popultion.
    - logifail 2y ago
      > How many millions joined those street protest? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_prot...: "The British Stop the War Coalition (Stop) claimed the protest in London was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended." https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/11/slugs-iraq-war-london-protest-2003-legacy https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/11/slugs-iraq-w...: "In February 2003, 1.5 million people protested in London against the looming Iraq war. They didn’t stop the conflict… but their legacy still looms large" add in David Kelly - RIP - ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) ) and it's not a surprise that people are unconvinced that peaceful protest will achieve anything :/
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
MarcelOlsz 2y ago
Employment tied to healthcare. There's your answer.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  The only benefit of health insurance purchased via employers is that you can use pre-tax income to pay for it. Otherwise, it has all the same deductibles and out of pocket maximums as policies purchased on healthcare.gov, except for government employees and some unionized businesses. The answer is that most Americans still have pretty decent lives, and they like those in power (whether or not they are actually benefiting).
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    Uh, no, it's a group plan so it's cheaper.
    - DANmode 2y ago
      It can be. It often isn't, especially if you're the user using the plan.
    - lotsofpulp 2y ago
      Not necessarily. The risk profile of the group in a specific self insured business is not guaranteed to be healthier than one not part of a business. Most states publish their approved premiums for healthcare.gov plans, and I don’t think I’ve encountered a self insured business plan with materially different premiums/deductibles/oop max.
harddrivereque 2y ago
[flagged]
wormlord 2y ago
It took 30 years between Lenin's brother being executed by the state, and the Russian revolution. History has momentum, and the gains from the New Deal are still enough that many Americans dont feel comfortable putting their bodies on the line. People's dispositions are a function of their material reality and the reality is that most people haven't internalized the damage yet.
- NooneAtAll3 2y ago
  it took a world war for the state to weaken enough to matter...
- XorNot 2y ago
  Also Americans have always allowed government over reach and corruption on the assumption that the AR-15 they have a pretty good grouping on at weekends is what'll solve the problem if it gets "really bad". I call it the violence event horizon: a whole lot of people's critical thinking just stops, as though an actual war will make things so much simpler.
- ip26 2y ago
  As I look at it, rhetorically, when is the point for a US citizen where taking up arms against the US government seems less dangerous than business as usual? I’d say it’s still quite a ways off for most.
nine_k 2y ago
Trump administration is branded as "Republican", even though Republican icons like Reagan would be appalled by it. In the mind of most Americans, the opposition to the Republican party is the Democratic party, which has been comparably insane lately, only a different direction. A real opposition that the US politics needs is a kind of "common sense party" or "real needs party", but the FPTP election system, and the coasts vs "flyover states" division pushed by the forces that benefit from the "us vs them" division (most political forces) work against that. Forces like Forward Party, that sort of seem to fit the bill, are tiny. People don't go out to streets just because; they need well-formulated ideas, some local leaders that would organize it, groups of like-minded people (online at least) that let the ideas brew and steep, etc. All this is not in a great shape now.
- jyounker 2y ago
  > Democratic party, which has been comparably insane lately, only a different direction. How do you see the democratic party being insane in a different direction?
autoexec 2y ago
Americans are too busy going to work, with an increasing number of them needing more than one job just to get by. If people protest instead of working they will be fired which means they'll also lose their health insurance. Since we're all sickened by the poisons corporations put into our food/water/air/products and by a sedentary lifestyle which has been strictly enforced from the age of 5 we wouldn't last long without health insurance. Almost all Americans are just one uncovered medical expense away from bankruptcy and/or homelessness. Even still, there have been a huge amount of protests recently. There are protests nearly every weekend in and around major cities. All those fired government workers have a lot more time on their hands so I expect that will continue (until their prescription medications start running out anyway) https://wtop.com/dc/2025/03/vets-protest-trump-doge-and-musk-on-national-mall/ https://wtop.com/dc/2025/03/vets-protest-trump-doge-and-musk... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/17/anti-trump-musk-protests-us/78962739007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/17/anti-t... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/05/anti-trump-protests-50-states-updates/78239472007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/05/anti-t... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/thousands-across-the-u-s-protest-trump-policies https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/thousands-across-the-u... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/04/04/hands-off-protest-of-trump-and-musk-comes-to-mansfield-on-saturday/82782534007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/04/04/hands-off-pro... https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-protests-planned-worldwide https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-prote...
- tacet 2y ago
  > If people protest instead of working they will be fired which means they'll also lose their health insurance. Not protesting got Americans to this spot. sincerely a 28 day per year paid vacation enjoyer.
sMarsIntruder 2y ago
Nice concept of democracy you have

The people have the power. Why not millions of people are on the fucking streets every day across the US is beyond me.

by shafyy 2y ago

The people have the power. Why not millions of people are on the fucking streets every day across the US is beyond me.

danparsonson 2y ago

Perhaps because they feel like they have the power and it's more often the disenfranchised who end up on the streets?

kristiandupont 2y ago

>The people have the power. What do you picture will happen because of protests, exactly? That the administration realizes the error of its ways? Because it seems more likely to me that they would use it as an excuse to implement more autocratic measures.

MrDrDr 2y ago
https://www.aeinstein.org/ https://www.aeinstein.org/
- kristiandupont 2y ago
  This gave me something to think about. Thank you.
digitaltinfoil 2y ago
Protests let people at home who are feeling alone in their frustration that there are many more people who feel like them. I also felt like you did until someone framed it that way for me. A protest isn’t supposed to be a singular event, it’s a series of events that crescendos into a movement—and it’s the crescendo that scares the people in power.
- DeathArrow 2y ago
  Then, since there are more people who voted for the current administration, there can be even more powerful counter protests. Then we can have people fighting in the streets, then a civil war.
  - dxdm 2y ago
    Are you really trying to say that people should not protest, unless they are the overwhelming majority or easily ignored, because their protest will (or even just might) turn into a civil war?
    - johnisgood 2y ago
      Civil war may be a necessary war, eventually.
- astrange 2y ago
  Crescendoing into a movement doesn't /do/ anything. This is just self-satisfaction for the kinds of people who like protesting. Other things like voting and getting elected do actually do something.

emeril 2y ago

-as a democratic american - why bother? -roughly half of the us populace supports the current authoritarian regime and the other half's senators and representatives are largely useless and aren't even doing what they can except for say wearing an adult diaper while giving a 25 hour speech -I fully plan on eventually moving to canada (or elsewhere) when the time comes - much easier to move than any other option

e40 2y ago
Half the voters. 36% didn’t even vote.
- brookst 2y ago
  Sure they did. They voted that they were fine with either option.
  - speed_spread 2y ago
    Or did not approve of either option. No way to tell. Same result.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      If you don't bother to vote, then you're [almost literally] saying you're OK with whoever wins. If that wasn't your intention, you would vote for some third party that you were OK with.
      - HPsquared 2y ago
        It's not an opinion poll. People vote to try and get their desired outcome. If someone views their preferred minor candidate as a lost cause in electoral terms, they won't bother going to vote because it won't make any difference to the outcome. Or, worse, there isn't a single candidate on the list in their district who shares their views.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

palijer 2y ago

The average person doesn't have capacity to care about policies that lead to the long term development of drug-resistant bacteria. We couldn't even convince everyone to wear masks, this won't be an issue people will rise up in mass protests for... People are literally being kidnapped and thrown into detention centers without due process and there are not massive protests. It takes a lot to make people protest, this ain't a battle for it.

mandmandam 2y ago
> People are literally being kidnapped and thrown into detention centers without due process and there are not massive protests. For the record, there have been (and will be more) significant protests about this [0]. Corporate media does a fantastic job of ignoring and minimizing protests they're not in favor of (because they are actually effective...). If you're old enough to remember, think back to how the world held some of the largest anti-war protests in history back in the early 00's. Turns out, corporate media with strong financial links to defense contractors aren't much interested in covering that. At the same time reporters who took too much of an anti-war stance were literally fired... And things have gotten progressively worse with every administration since.
- victorbjorklund 2y ago
  How many millions joined those street protest? Not saying it is a bad cause but there has not been any significant protests about it with any significant % of the popultion.
  - logifail 2y ago
    > How many millions joined those street protest? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_protests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_prot...: "The British Stop the War Coalition (Stop) claimed the protest in London was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended." https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/11/slugs-iraq-war-london-protest-2003-legacy https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/11/slugs-iraq-w...: "In February 2003, 1.5 million people protested in London against the looming Iraq war. They didn’t stop the conflict… but their legacy still looms large" add in David Kelly - RIP - ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) ) and it's not a surprise that people are unconvinced that peaceful protest will achieve anything :/

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

MarcelOlsz 2y ago

Employment tied to healthcare. There's your answer.

lotsofpulp 2y ago
The only benefit of health insurance purchased via employers is that you can use pre-tax income to pay for it. Otherwise, it has all the same deductibles and out of pocket maximums as policies purchased on healthcare.gov, except for government employees and some unionized businesses. The answer is that most Americans still have pretty decent lives, and they like those in power (whether or not they are actually benefiting).
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  Uh, no, it's a group plan so it's cheaper.
  - DANmode 2y ago
    It can be. It often isn't, especially if you're the user using the plan.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    Not necessarily. The risk profile of the group in a specific self insured business is not guaranteed to be healthier than one not part of a business. Most states publish their approved premiums for healthcare.gov plans, and I don’t think I’ve encountered a self insured business plan with materially different premiums/deductibles/oop max.

harddrivereque 2y ago

[flagged]

wormlord 2y ago

It took 30 years between Lenin's brother being executed by the state, and the Russian revolution. History has momentum, and the gains from the New Deal are still enough that many Americans dont feel comfortable putting their bodies on the line. People's dispositions are a function of their material reality and the reality is that most people haven't internalized the damage yet.

NooneAtAll3 2y ago
it took a world war for the state to weaken enough to matter...
XorNot 2y ago
Also Americans have always allowed government over reach and corruption on the assumption that the AR-15 they have a pretty good grouping on at weekends is what'll solve the problem if it gets "really bad". I call it the violence event horizon: a whole lot of people's critical thinking just stops, as though an actual war will make things so much simpler.
ip26 2y ago
As I look at it, rhetorically, when is the point for a US citizen where taking up arms against the US government seems less dangerous than business as usual? I’d say it’s still quite a ways off for most.

nine_k 2y ago

Trump administration is branded as "Republican", even though Republican icons like Reagan would be appalled by it. In the mind of most Americans, the opposition to the Republican party is the Democratic party, which has been comparably insane lately, only a different direction. A real opposition that the US politics needs is a kind of "common sense party" or "real needs party", but the FPTP election system, and the coasts vs "flyover states" division pushed by the forces that benefit from the "us vs them" division (most political forces) work against that. Forces like Forward Party, that sort of seem to fit the bill, are tiny. People don't go out to streets just because; they need well-formulated ideas, some local leaders that would organize it, groups of like-minded people (online at least) that let the ideas brew and steep, etc. All this is not in a great shape now.

jyounker 2y ago
> Democratic party, which has been comparably insane lately, only a different direction. How do you see the democratic party being insane in a different direction?

autoexec 2y ago

Americans are too busy going to work, with an increasing number of them needing more than one job just to get by. If people protest instead of working they will be fired which means they'll also lose their health insurance. Since we're all sickened by the poisons corporations put into our food/water/air/products and by a sedentary lifestyle which has been strictly enforced from the age of 5 we wouldn't last long without health insurance. Almost all Americans are just one uncovered medical expense away from bankruptcy and/or homelessness. Even still, there have been a huge amount of protests recently. There are protests nearly every weekend in and around major cities. All those fired government workers have a lot more time on their hands so I expect that will continue (until their prescription medications start running out anyway) https://wtop.com/dc/2025/03/vets-protest-trump-doge-and-musk-on-national-mall/ https://wtop.com/dc/2025/03/vets-protest-trump-doge-and-musk... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/17/anti-trump-musk-protests-us/78962739007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/17/anti-t... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/05/anti-trump-protests-50-states-updates/78239472007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/05/anti-t... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/thousands-across-the-u-s-protest-trump-policies https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/thousands-across-the-u... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/04/04/hands-off-protest-of-trump-and-musk-comes-to-mansfield-on-saturday/82782534007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/04/04/hands-off-pro... https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-protests-planned-worldwide https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5343986/anti-musk-prote...

tacet 2y ago
> If people protest instead of working they will be fired which means they'll also lose their health insurance. Not protesting got Americans to this spot. sincerely a 28 day per year paid vacation enjoyer.

sMarsIntruder 2y ago

Nice concept of democracy you have