• Veraxus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    35
    ·
    7 months ago

    There has got to be a way to do this without hurting regular people.

    Like I agree with the protestors 100%… but trapping people on a bridge? Blocking traffic? That’s dangerous and irresponsible.

    Direct action and disruption is necessary, but this is absolutely the wrong way to do it.

      • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        But there definitely are though. Why wouldn’t you, say, protest the factories where these things are made? Not just hold up some signs outside, but blockade those businesses in.

        Maybe find out who their major shareholders are and publicly shame them. Dig up dirt on them. Do anything you can to stop them.

        Maybe find the neighbourhoods that those shareholders live in and blockade those.

        Protest at the schools that their children go to letting them know their parents are murdering people overseas.

        It took me like 3 minutes to think of those and those are far more effective than what is going on in this news story. Are protesters in America really that short-sighted but they can’t think of anything better than annoying other normal people and making enemies?

        This is like protesting the food in a prison cafeteria by beating the shit out of your cellmate, and then calling him complicit because he ate food yesterday.

        They’re not targeting the right people, they’re simply turning normal people off of their message.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          7 months ago

          No they definitely do that too. They are capable of doing more than one thing at a time.

          • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            I had to go look them up, but it seems that some have protested manufacturing plants, though not in a terribly effective way. The protests seem to be short-term, and none of the other things I mentioned have been done anywhere I was able to find.

            I’ve seen plenty of stories involving protests uselessly blocking main thoroughfares however.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              7 months ago

              Well there you go. You can see what gets media attention. And just as the police responded to the road being blocked they’re not going to let any protest in front of a politicians residence or corporate factory keep going either. Unless it’s just a few people on a corner. Protesters in the US have been doing this a while, they know what they’re doing.

              • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                7 months ago

                … which just means you have to get creative.

                Freeway blocking is not creative, doesn’t get people present on your side (quite literally the opposite), presents safety risks, may delay emergency vehicles, wastes natural resources, and doesn’t change minds of readers. Same with the stupid “throw soup / oil at a piece of art” shit I saw repeatedly. A throw-away headline seems to be the goal, but it accomplishes next to nothing.

                Target. Those. In. Power. Make life fucking hard for them.

                This thread (not you explicitly) reeks of this attitude I see frequently on Lemmy of “It’s a deeply stupid and astoundingly flawed thing to do, but I’ll defend it to the death because it agrees with my politics!”

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  You do know the emergency vehicles just drive up the other side right?

                  And the polling shows it does work.

                  • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    7 months ago

                    In this one instance they might do that. In the area where I live where it was done, there was no space for the emergency vehicles to go in the other direction. Just because there are ways they could do it in this one case doesn’t make it universal.

                    Also, are you able to provide the polling you referenced showing that highway blockades change minds? I was unable to find anything other than web and call-in polls, both of which overwhelmingly showed the exact opposite (but those are hardly scientific so I wouldn’t trust them).

                    Also, I’m not the one downvoting you. I do not do that.

      • Veraxus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        The protests that Google employees are doing right now is the right way.

        Protest in front of politicians homes, businesses, etc. Protest in front of companies and businesses that are complicit. Target the people who have clout.

        Actions that harm only the general public… how is that supposed to work? What do you think the end result will be?

    • Wahots@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      7 months ago

      “Lol, sorry we couldn’t get a firetruck to your burning apartment building, the road was blocked.”

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        7 months ago

        They actually have a specific procedure for getting emergency vehicles through. These guys aren’t blocking firetrucks.

    • Otkaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      31
      ·
      7 months ago

      Nothing like exercising your right to protest by infringing on everyone else’s right to travel freely.

      • TangledHyphae@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        7 months ago

        I’m still curious as to how people think a ceasefire will help, when historically letting terrorists proliferate has the opposite effect and only spreads more islamic terrorism and even more deaths long term. Do people really want to keep this revolving door of teaching palestinian children to murder their neighbors?

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      7 months ago

      Liberalism: Every protest is in history was righteous, except for the current one which affects me.

      • Veraxus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        Leftism: The proletariat harming the proletariat is worse than ineffective, it is self-defeating.

        • TokenBoomer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Maybe as leftists, we should protest against the bourgeoisie instead of each other, but that might inconvenience some people.