3 ms·

Protesting on the streets in the US doesn't work. Unlike much of Europe, where the streets are used for walking and small cars, we have these big roads and big

by kefka 13y ago

Protesting on the streets in the US doesn't work. Unlike much of Europe, where the streets are used for walking and small cars, we have these big roads and big cars. These roads are for driving. Even the town squares in all the cities I've lived in were optimized for vehicles. Now, we can take this to the streets. But all that does is piss off every man and woman trying to live their life and work and get groceries.

pessimizer 13y ago
>Unlike much of Europe, where the streets are used for walking and small cars, we have these big roads and big cars. Tiny streets like these? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/french-protests-airport-fuel-supplies http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/french-protests... >all that does is piss off every man and woman trying to live their life and work and get groceries. That's the same thing it does everywhere else. The reason you have street protests is to disrupt what people are doing and have them focus on what you are saying. The reason street protests "don't work" in the US is because of a combination of the precariousness and conservatism of the middle class. It's too big a risk for middle-class people to participate in a protest, and the majority of them are racist law-and-order voters who have voted to eliminate most of the rights of the accused and to militarize their police forces out of their fear of black and hispanic people. Now that we're afraid of the Middle East, we've eliminated most of the rights of the unaccused. Europeans have a different history, and the development of civil rights there wasn't entirely born out of race-based fear, so their situation is different. Here, only poor people and students protest, and they are completely ignored by a monolithic media except to be taunted, confronted by police at a ratio of 10 cops to a protester, and carted off to jail if their permits aren't current or if they step off the sidewalk.
- aestra 13y ago
  Remember the Seattle WTO protests? http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/General/Pictures/1999/12/01/seattle9.jpg http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/General/Pict... Or the union protest in Michigan? http://images.politico.com/global/2012/12/11/121211_michigan_protesters_ap_328.jpg http://images.politico.com/global/2012/12/11/121211_michigan... http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iQN6PbfAWHDw.jpg http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iQN6PbfAWHDw.jpg Yeah, it happens in the US too.

by kefka 13y ago

pessimizer 13y ago

>Unlike much of Europe, where the streets are used for walking and small cars, we have these big roads and big cars. Tiny streets like these? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/french-protests-airport-fuel-supplies http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/16/french-protests... >all that does is piss off every man and woman trying to live their life and work and get groceries. That's the same thing it does everywhere else. The reason you have street protests is to disrupt what people are doing and have them focus on what you are saying. The reason street protests "don't work" in the US is because of a combination of the precariousness and conservatism of the middle class. It's too big a risk for middle-class people to participate in a protest, and the majority of them are racist law-and-order voters who have voted to eliminate most of the rights of the accused and to militarize their police forces out of their fear of black and hispanic people. Now that we're afraid of the Middle East, we've eliminated most of the rights of the unaccused. Europeans have a different history, and the development of civil rights there wasn't entirely born out of race-based fear, so their situation is different. Here, only poor people and students protest, and they are completely ignored by a monolithic media except to be taunted, confronted by police at a ratio of 10 cops to a protester, and carted off to jail if their permits aren't current or if they step off the sidewalk.

aestra 13y ago
Remember the Seattle WTO protests? http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/General/Pictures/1999/12/01/seattle9.jpg http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/General/Pict... Or the union protest in Michigan? http://images.politico.com/global/2012/12/11/121211_michigan_protesters_ap_328.jpg http://images.politico.com/global/2012/12/11/121211_michigan... http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iQN6PbfAWHDw.jpg http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iQN6PbfAWHDw.jpg Yeah, it happens in the US too.