Protesters Shut Down Los Angeles Highway to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza : worldnews

[-] AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

I always feel conflicted when I see things like this. On one side good for them, they found a way to get their message across to a nation news. But on the other hand they are intentionally disrupting infrastructure people rely on everyday. I don't think it's a bad thing that people want global change, but I do think it is a bad thing that people feel powerless to influence this change so they have to resort to more disruptive methods like this. More representation in the federal government could help prevent this.

[-] bamboo@lemm.ee 54 points 1 year ago

A non-disruptive protest just gets ignored. You need to impact people’s daily lives to make them think why the problem arose in the first place.

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

But, you need to impact the lives of the people who have the means to make that change. A traffic jam isn't going to do that.

[-] bamboo@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago

I mean, is a major highway in the second largest city of the primary colonial sponsor a bad place? I guess if we had free teleportation they might find marginally better success in DC or Tel Aviv, but if you’re located in LA I can see why you’d choose to protest there and not somewhere else.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

If it happened in a vacuum, probably not. But traffic jams don’t happen in a vacuum. They ripple out and cause effects that hit millions of other people. Such as this news article, this lemmy post, and all of the people here discussing it.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Traffic jam equals lots of news coverage lots of pissed off voters, lots of attention lots of eyes, that is how you get to people who can make a change.

[-] EmoBean@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Fuck shit up for a many people as possible" isn't sustainable. Gandhi and Martin Luther knew that. If it weren't for the number of downvotes people are getting for even hinting that this isn't the right way to do things, I would think this is actually a psyop from the other side to put people off towards Palestine.

Like just stop oil is actually run by oil companies to recruit the most extreme left people that think sitting in the road is doing anything more than pissing the average person off and giving right wing media material to hate you.

But nope, people really are this stupid. On both sides. Both want to divide so strongly, because if people actually got along we would start addressing issues instead of bitching online about what you hate about the other side.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You think Gandhi and Martin Luther King didn't disrupt things? My god of course they did they were extremely disruptive. You've fallen for the whitewash history, were they teach you to be good little boys who sit down out of the way and don't bother anyone. It's fiction. It's not real. Martin Luther King was disrupting a ton of stuff Gandhi even more so.

[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 year ago

This is one of the most historically inaccurate things I think I’ve ever seen.

[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here's a quote from Martin Luther King that says exactly what he thinks of people like you:

First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

[-] EmoBean@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Guess that's why the government assassinated him. But no, don't talk to me about what I believe. Make assumptions because my think =/= your think.

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[-] bartolomeo@suppo.fi 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I swear you "both sides bad" guys have worms in your brain.

Left: "no genocide!"

Right: "genocide!"

EmoBean: "akschually you're both stupid wrong idiots we need to be doing some genocide maybe one day you'll be as smart as me"

[-] Goferking0@ttrpg.network 23 points 1 year ago

People will find a way to get mad at any protest no matter how little it impacts others. See kneeling for anthems or just wearing shirts at events

[-] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

I'm not really asking you to look it up or anything, but this gets parroted around a lot, and I wonder if there's actually any data to really support it or if it's just a statement that kinda sounds nice.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

I mean maybe not data but it's telling that almost every successful movement goes beyond the "quietly protest on the side of the road" step.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

This post itself provides a new data point as a piece of evidence to support that claim. There is a news article written about it, and we are talking about it.

[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago

What does a non-disruptive protest even look like? The entire purpose of protest is to be disruptive, and every protest is disruptive in some way.

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[-] reversebananimals@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

And a disruptive protest just makes people hate you and your cause.

[-] Serialchemist@ttrpg.network 17 points 1 year ago

Also conflicted: I don’t think the disruption itself is a bad thing if it’s disrupting a part of society that derives benefit from the whatever is being protested against.

That said, I’m not sure how disrupting traffic in Los Angeles is going to affect the change they want to see. You can’t get much further from Washington DC than the West Coast.

[-] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

This is the dumbest way to protest. Out of the book of any publicity is good publicity: “any protest is a good protest”.

[-] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Also, the US government isn't the Israeli government.

Also also, Biden is a zionist, so it's not like he's going to change his stance because of a traffic jam in LA.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

I don't have a problem with people disrupting traffic to protest, I have a problem with people doing it for a purpose that the government can't actually achieve, with only a few people, or in places that don't make sense for the cause.

If you want to disrupt it over some local (to at least the country) issue, and you have enough popular support to host an actual rally with hundreds or thousands of marchers blocking the road, go right ahead and disrupt traffic. If you're marching about the environment, rally at a park then march to a government office. If you're marching about police brutality, go sit down outside a police station.

Unfortunately, The US government is not the Israeli government. The most they could do is exert pressure on Israel, which to be fair is quite a lot of pressure given it's the US, but I highly doubt that Israel would stop immediately even if the US asked them to. In this case, from the pictures, they also only had enough people to make a single line across the road. The location isn't relevant to anything either.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

Just gonna say: Reagan stopped the bombing of Beirut with a phone call.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

After the bombings? That would have been done by primarily US troops, so of course he could stop it with a phone call.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

After the what? We're talking about Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 here.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I thought you might be referring to the 1983 attacks.

I was a little underdeveloped at that age to be aware of everything going on.

Doesn't look like he stopped anything though, given that fighting continued despite the ceasefire for a few more years, and that Israel still attacks Lebanon on a regular basis because of Hezbollah.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

He didn't stop the conflict as a whole, but he stopped the bombing of west Beirut itself.

That bombing was followed by a protest to the Israeli government by President Ronald Reagan. Within 20 minutes of a phone call between Reagan and Begin, in which the former said the bombings were going too far and needed to stop, Begin ordered the bombings stopped.

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[-] pan_troglodytes@programming.dev 23 points 1 year ago

accomplishing absolutely fuckall

[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The fact that it made news enough to be posted on social media is quite an accomplishment.

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[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Regardless of your feelings on the conflict, blocking freeways is beneficial even if done for no reason at all. Urban highways were a mistake and never should have been built. Every minute they continue normal operation is a minute they continue destroying our neighborhoods, poisoning the innocent and vulnerable who live nearby, and destroying the future for our descendants.

So I commend these activists and hope we see more of this.

[-] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No matter the outcome of this, nobody is learning that lesson from this demonstration.

If you want to take a (more obvious) environmental bent, this is a terrible idea for them to do because all they're doing is causing vehicles to have to run substantially longer.

[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This assumes the same number of people will use them, just more slowly. But this is quite obviously false if you think it through. If the highway is so backed up you can’t get onto it then you won’t use it, will you? I would be fairly confident that this more than offsets the idling engines. Covid was a big eye opener in realizing how much traffic actually protects us from the real dangers of unfettered high speed traffic.

This individual protest may only have a small effect but it seems we’re seeing more of these as time goes on, and the more often they happen, the bigger the impact.

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[-] graymess@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Please, someone tell me how the fuck these protests get organized? I've been scouring IG for upcoming demonstrations in LA and nobody's registering their actions on Shut It Down For Palestine. For months I've tried to get involved and it feels impossible for any full time worker to help take action for Palestine. Best case scenario is I find out about an event a few hours beforehand when I'm already in the office and it's too late for me to be there.

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Xitter probably. Easy to retweet and get the word out, big community, lots of political guys

[-] therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

[removed by mod]

[-] frshmt@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Brand new account shilling for Israel…not sketchy at all

[-] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't disagree that the conflict has to stop, but I don't see how anyone can force a ceasefire between two separate independent countries. What action do they think the US can take to force this situation? No matter what you offer or withhold it's still ultimately up to the individual parties involved.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

America only cares about money. This shit costs them HUGE money.

This is exactly how you stop the war by shutting down infrastructure.

[-] Chainweasel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ok, but this war is between Israel and Hamas, what can America do about it other than what they've always done and bomb the shit out of both sides?
It's like protesting in Toronto because they don't like a new policy in Tokyo.

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

The US just vetoed a ceasefire agreement in the UN security council.

[-] drislands@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

True, though the US is one of the biggest suppliers, if not the biggest, for Israel's military.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Great initiative.

The peaceful protests are over.

Next phase is nonviolent disruption. Block infrastructure.

[-] badaboomxx@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Instead of going to their local government, they deside to close a road....... if they want to be branded as idiots, this is a good way of doing that.

[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, why didn’t the American’s go to their government instead of protesting with the Boston Tea Party?

[-] badaboomxx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Rhe issue is that doing protests that way is not going to win sympathy from the people who is using the road.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Do they understand that the conflict is between two separate countries and neither of them is the USA?

[-] Celediel@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

You forgot about the nearly $4 billion USD worth of military aid every year.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

They're US allies. They've been receiving that aid long before the hamas broke the ceasefire by attacking an EDM festival and killing a thousand civilians. The conflict over there is a terrible situation, but fucking up people's commutes 7500 miles away from the conflict zone accomplishes nothing except for ruining those people's days, and possibly causing them massive hardship.

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