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Do protests like No Kings still matter? Here’s what experts say
(www.sfchronicle.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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Well when the news is telling you symbolic actions are effective, doesn't that mean the liberals have already accomplished their symbolic goals? I'm sure you are all quite satisfied with the results, but it has not stopped a single raid so far. You need to intimidate ICE, not "expose them as hypocrites". That is what the ONLY people who have stopped raids have done. But if you weren't willing to do it under Biden, why would you start now? I have zero confidence in these movements.
Symbolic actions lead to practical ones — My friend group has been canvassing for Yes on California Prop. 50. Making popular support visible gets more people on your side, so we are all taking a couple hours to attend the rallly.
Symbolic actions keep us passive, it keeps us from demanding better. Did the material conditions of black neighborhood get better with the symbolic action of adding an MLK Blvd 20+ years ago?
Malcolm X.
Symbolic actions actively take up time and energy that could be devoted to material actions, particularly if they are as disorganized as this. That connection exists in your mind. There's nothing stopping you from skipping the rally and going in directly canvassing more. Also, referendums fall squarely within the democratic system which elevated the guy you're calling a dictator. It's time to remember Hitler got elected. Gerrymandering laws won't stop them throwing people into camps. This whole thought process is disjointed. These people are breaking the laws what you're voting on state constitutional referendums to change! Did you forget this is a federal system and they are breaking federal laws too?
It's truly comical that people talk about the No Kings Rally like it's going to decolonize the U.S. and then you look at their actual messaging and its Hillary Clinton-tier wine mom sloganeering from the DNC. You guys have gotten me reading Baudrillard again. That's how bad this is. I'm reading fucking Baudrillard. I don't even like Baudrillard dude.
I have to disagree here: symbolic actions are how you get people hooked on action. Big ones like this have a significant bandwagon effect. Its very much a good use of a couple hours
Well, I wish you luck during the next election when you all go around hoping marginalized communities forgot you did nothing but cheer yourselves on. Nobody in the hood forgot the things Kamala "Do Not Come" Harris said, here that is where the Haitians are.
This is a shocker to you I know, but the "I'm just a widdle guy who doesn't wanna hurt anybody 😭🥺" rally is not going to inspire anyone who had their family members kidnapped. Why do you love being a joke to the right wing and coddling them?
LoL
I'm doing something and getting others to join me, taking advantage of a public low-risk event to get others started down the same path. You're sitting around complaining.
Yes, very lulzy, isn't this whole situation funny? I already understand being asked to act against the fascists is a joke to you. You're doing something for the democrats. You won't lift a finger against ICE. What's going to change other than your self-image during multiple fronts of ethnic cleansing? You won't guilt trip me into coming to your liberal complaint parade. Its purpose is to reassure fascists you pose zero threat to them. Go and dance for them, go on!
I know what you say to the marginalized when you campaign. "We're all you've got. 😁" The democrats are much like someone who got all their bones broken in a huge avoidable car accident and still thinks everything is fine due to shock. Things will never be the same. These strategies failed under Bush too. That's why you imitate them. They're safe. You have zero expectations for yourself other than telling people how right you are, scolding them. This is why the party has failed voters.
You keep saying about what they shouldn't do, yet you have not listed even one thing you've already done that is better than things you're calling as performative. If you want to prove your point, just list these things and explain how they're more effective than protesting.
These are not protests, they are parades. Protests dont have a set start and end time. Protests continue until things change.
Not saying they couldn't do better, but they are for sure doing more than the guy not doing anything other than criticise the way of people protest on the internet.
People that are effective in protest are being ignored by liberals that think they know how to. Liberals are incapable of protesting when they dont even know what they are protesting.
Who are these people? Got any links?
If they do exist, I think you'll find it more effective to spread the word about them instead of trying to pull down other people. You won't find acceptance amongst the general public if all they see you do is pull down others. Be more effective in your own messaging.
What is being protested at these events?
Why are you changing the subject? You said there were more effective protesters that are not being covered. Can you link them for me?
I also said liberals have no idea what they are protesting. Unless there's an actual end game in mind it's performative.
Yeah, but that's not the part I'm asking about. You're basically ignoring my question and attempting to force the conversation in a direction you're more comfortable with. I'm more curious about the ones that is not being covered by the media. You seem to have a problem with them not being covered, yet you avoid sharing any info about them when people are trying to find out. What's with the irregularity in your stance?
Still something you didnt address
Why should I address something I'm not trying to deny? You're the one not addressing what I've been asking. Bro, get your head together.
That's blatantly false, I already mentioned the people who directly intervene with ICE raids - which en masse can be relatively effective - rather than throwing a self-aggrandizing parade for the DNC (which ran in the last general election on Trump being weaker than them on immigration).
In Italy and Spain and other countries you can even see other liberals striking and blocking shipments to achieve protest actions. You are particularly cowardly and inactive, even for liberals.
Maybe it's the better European cuisine? /s
Those are people, not you. What did you do that gives you the right to say what other people do are useless? What did YOU do that was more effective.
Doesn't matter how effective other's actions are, because they are in a far better position than people who do nothing but criticises other people's actions.
This is exactly the kind of aggrievement that suffering-as-accomplishment generates. Going out and flaggelating yourself won't stop the raids. It's wasting people's energy on non-solutions, that's a negative. It's tiring inaction.
These protests are primarily against the prospect of violent resistance to Trump. Go look at their slogans and quit living in fantasy land.
Again, what have YOU done?
I never defended these protests. I only told you how to make your point actually stick, which is by showing what you did personally that was more effective than what they did. It's you who failed such a simple task and made yourself look like a completely useless keyboard warrior.
What you are attempting to browbeat me with is called standpoint epistemology. This position isn't premised on the identity of the speaker, however. That would be more like if I was arguing that I had accomplished a particular goal. Here I have pointed out that the very goal of these protests is to condemn violent resistance against a child-raping junta.
It does when you're acting like you know better than the protesters, yet have done nothing that is actually better. Actually, you have not even proven that you've done anything even on par with them.
Everyone know keyboard warriors have a point, yet everyone also know they are keyboard warrior because they lack the courage to do what they expect others to do. In that sense, you are just a hypocrite unless you prove yourself to not be one. Your use of specific terms to explain things don't change the fact that nobody listens to people who tell others to do things they are not willing to do themselves. Talk is cheap, even if it's based on the truth.
No it doesn't. Logic doesn't change based on the speaker. Your username is a pedophile who supports Israel (and tedious wordcount-padder), and now that I have noticed it you are blocked for being too dense, just like his tasteless books.
The situation isn't a joke. You are.
Epic clapbacks won't stop the raids. You guys already tried that.
Epic (mediocre) clapbacks is all they got
The people stopping those raids are recruiting at protests. Meanwhile you do nothing.
Batman is there too, carrying a sign that says Restore Society. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel is helping recruit people to stop ICE. This just in 🥳 he told his audience to start calling "North America" Turtle Island.