My first job in high school was clerical work processing ID card applications for a large organization. I was paid to process ten applications per hour.

Hanging on the wall, we had a suggestion box with a pen dangling from one of those metal-bead strings along with a stack of feedback sheets.

My job duties included checking that box weekly and placing the forms directly into the trash.

I wouldn't wholly write off petitions though, they can be effective supporting tools in a larger campaign for change. Change.org petitions on their own though are completely worthless without further action.

Be the change.org petition you want to see in the world.

I've concluded quite some time ago that those online petitions are a way for politicians to diffuse people's indignance or anger whilst not actually having to adress their problems (they might, if it doesn't affect their priviledges or the benefits of the elites, but there is zero real pressure for them to do so).

People sign the petition and get a feeling that they did something about that thing that was making them angry, thus spending their impulse for action without actually having done anything trully effective, and politicians now don't have to deal with real pushes for them to fix things or even threaths to their position since people aren't getting together and going on demonstrations or even activelly campaigning to stop them from being re-elected.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if those things are propaganda ops devised for some mainstream party or other by some smart marketing types which then spread because they were so useful at keeping most people from actually acting in effective ways when they felt their elected representatives weren't representing their interests.

I don't see how anyone can do this themselves but someone with a lot of money who wants to help could certainly start an organization that tries to use capitalism to crush capitalism and robin hood the ultra rich as much as possible. What we need for normal people to be able to be involved at all is a platform that can enable conversation and action that helps keep track of progress and ideas and ways to accomplish them while belittling misinformation so that it can't gain purchase. I call it a consensus engine but there are many ideas of the same concept, none I've seen in real life though

situation one

politician/leader: i want to do XYZ

oponent: no one wants that

fact checkers: he’s right, there is no evidence anyone wants that

outcome: nothing changes

situation two

politician/leader: i want to do XYZ

opponent: no one wants that

fact checkers: yes they do, look at this change.org petition with 9999 votes

outcome: politician/leader has a public will-based platform from which to do XYZ

conclusion

petitions should not be the end of the story when it comes to making change. but they are an invaluable tool for starting it. don’t diss petitions.

“Let’s give the rich more tax breaks, corporations the same rights as people and allow them to pollute and kill the environment as much as they want so the stock can rise 0.1%. That will solve everything”

How about Reggie's chair?