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35 years ago, protesters blocked the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm pretty sure they were protesting the war with Iraq (Bush the First) in response to Iraq's invasion
by watersb 10mo ago
35 years ago, protesters blocked the Golden Gate Bridge.
I'm pretty sure they were protesting the war with Iraq (Bush the First) in response to Iraq's invasion and capture of oil wells in Kuwait.
But far more clear is my memory of the searing rage of a coworker that day. She was flying on it, the hatred coming out of her mouth.
It shocked me for a couple of reasons. She was close in age to me, just out of school. I think that my college years had led me to presume to most young people would be more sympathetic to opposition of general warfare. There was lots of talk of forcing military enlistment among people our age.
But the main reason was that the trigger for her rage was the temporary threat to her right to drive her car wherever she wanted to.
You think Americans are nuts about their guns, don't you ever threaten their right to kill people with cars.
Any sympathy she could have felt for the protesters' cause was gone because they blocked a highway.
- cool_dude85 10mo agoAnd nowadays, if this happened in Florida, she could pretty credibly run the protesters down in the street and avoid even getting charged.
- ThrowawayTestr 10mo agoUnpopular opinion but blocking traffic is akin to cutting power lines. Don't fuck with people's utilities.
- ronsor 10mo agoIgnoring things such as emergency services being blocked, imagine if protesters could "block" the Internet. That would not garner much sympathy.
- krapp 10mo agoUnpopular opinion but social progress never been made while the government or the people feel safe and comfortable.
- ThrowawayTestr 10mo agoEveryone says this until it's your neighborhood hosting a protest.
- krapp 10mo agoAnd yet it's still true. If it comes down to my rights or your convenience, you're just going to have a bad day.
- bigstrat2003 10mo agoIf you can't advance your position without being a dick to others, your position doesn't deserve to advance.
- anonymars 10mo agoWhat are your thoughts on, for example, dumping a boatload of tea into Boston Harbor?
- krapp 10mo agoWell, then I suppose feminism, civil rights (to say nothing of ending slavery,) labor rights and literally every other right you enjoy didn't deserve to advance because all of them are the result of some people at some point at the very least being a dick to others.
- kelseyfrog 10mo agoIs this different than tone policing[1]? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing
- bryanrasmussen 10mo agoIf society at large is being a dick to me and my group as a whole, I'm likely to be an even worse dick to society at large, which is why protesting doesn't work for people like me because protesting is generally about very nice and calm about outrageous things and causing a bit of inconvenience, that is to say being not as bad as what one is protesting with the hidden message you don't want us to make things bad (I decided to drop the dick metaphor before it would have to get graphic) on edit: not to mention I hate crowds.