God love them, but since I joined the marches in 2017 and 2020 I’ve concluded that unless marches are the occasion for rather than the object of organizing, they’re basically posting that let’s you get your steps in. - ThreadSky

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social • 43 days ago

God love them, but since I joined the marches in 2017 and 2020 I’ve concluded that unless marches are the occasion for rather than the object of organizing, they’re basically posting that let’s you get your steps in.

Reposted from Alejandro Alvarez

The People’s March is moving through the streets of Washington: “We won’t go back!”

A broad coalition of activists — among them climate, women’s rights, immigration, anti-war, LGBT, D.C. statehood, racial justice — are mobilizing in unison against Trump, three days before his inauguration. 🧵

Comments

cataclysm922.bsky.social•43 days ago

Marches are just performative unless backed by action. Organize, run, vote, build community, set actionable goals. Small steps can create big wins.

midatlantica.bsky.social•43 days ago

I live close enough to DC that marches fade into the background. They’re easily ignored by the press, and easily misrepresented when they are covered. They make for a good photo op and maybe a good endorphin hit for the participants but they don’t move the needle on anything

stevenbodzin.bsky.social•43 days ago

Marches on their own are so depressing. At least group bike rides are fun and let you meet new people. Worse, without a clear organizer and demand, mass movements are a loaded weapon left out for whoever has the nerve to pick them up.

sarbot.bsky.social•43 days ago

Yes. Let’s do nothing, and complain harder on the internet instead.

shenanniegens.bsky.social•43 days ago

I do agree with you. I will also say that I went to one in my city yesterday. It was absolutely for the dopamine hit in a lot of ways. And the speakers did give some action points for people to actually DO beyond gathering.

shenanniegens.bsky.social•43 days ago

My city has a lot of pro-life marches, so it was nice to have a rebuttal rally. No, it didn't accomplish anything, but it did let other non-right wing folks who are scared to be non-right wing in this town that they can go against the rw "norm" and find others more like them.

shenanniegens.bsky.social•43 days ago

I dunno, it's all fucked I guess.

erinnthered.bsky.social•43 days ago

That's what marching is. That's why they are there. When you hear "broad coalition of orgs" that's it.

Yes, there are young, or new, people to social action who don't get that, just physically protesting without purpose, but that's not the usual way they work.

erinnthered.bsky.social•43 days ago

It's a myth to say they don't move the needle because, while sometimes show of force to the state it is usually a recruiting tool for other, more effective actions.

Also, movements take decades. No one should be looking for quick fixes from one march or event.

delonwheels.bsky.social•43 days ago

Liberals love milling around and holding handmade signs because it combines shallow, performative acts of “solidarity” and crafts.

They know it serves no real purpose. They know there are people doing the real work elsewhere. They simply can’t be bothered to join.

avalanche-andy.bsky.social•43 days ago

Controversially, marches are only effective if they're incredibly disruptive or violent.

erinnthered.bsky.social•43 days ago

The opposite. Those are the least effective, can push a movement back years.

Change takes time, discipline, and a lot of work. The weird desire to take personal anger out on others is not a part of it. Yes, this has been studied.

pocketseagull.bsky.social•43 days ago

I played a narrative video game recently called 1000xRESIST and there was a poignant dialogue about the futility of protest, and one character said: “So if we stayed silent? Didn't stand up for ourselves? They would say this is how it always was. They would say this is what the people wanted.”

tzipshmil.bsky.social•43 days ago

The time to march was to the polls in November 2016.

midatlantica.bsky.social•43 days ago

Cynical me can’t help but wonder how many people in that crowd didn’t vote and feel morally justified for not doing so. Having been in my share of them I know the number’s not zero

midatlantica.bsky.social•43 days ago

Or worse, voted for Trump but feel an act like this is enough to rein him in. Since as in marches in 2017, there are surely more than a few in this crowd given the demographics

nlbray.bsky.social•43 days ago

This really doesn't make any sense though?

Any more than it would make sense to say that some of the black people cheering at Trump rallies probably don't support him.

bullsharkowski.bsky.social•43 days ago

This particular photo should be plastered EVERYWHERE. The sign speaks the truth; meanwhile, the women in the back are part and parcel the white housewives of suburbia who without a doubt voted red cuz their husbands told them to. This is a photo op for their social media clout, nothing more.

giuli.revolutionarygames.co•43 days ago

White female voters voted 53% for Trump vs 46% for Harris, which is a very narrow majority. To take from that 7% margin that if you see a white woman — even one protesting Trump — she almost certainly voted for him is utterly asinine and evidence only of your innumeracy.

giuli.revolutionarygames.co•43 days ago

I can think of no better way to sabotage any attempt at resistance against Trump than by attacking people trying to fight him for being in the wrong demographic group.

janetherevelator.bsky.social•43 days ago

They "without a doubt" voted for Trump? This is a wild statement

bullsharkowski.bsky.social•43 days ago

I'm being facetious, but, most likely.

bpie7.bsky.social•43 days ago

Literally no one thinks marches are the object of organizing. They're for raising awareness and morale and connecting people. Folks posting about politics on the internet all the time rather than IRL activism are a much bigger problem than activists occasionally doing a march.

jamiecarracher.bsky.social•43 days ago

I don't think this is true. It may not magically make a cause successful at the end but it gets attention and allows advocates to connect in person and build community. There is a reason why in places like Russia and China people are persecuted for doing it.

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

Hi, Jamie. I agree: *if* advocates use the march to build community — getting names of volunteers and having a plan to use them e.g. — marches can be useful. I even said as much. I don’t think big *national* marches can be sure of getting attention though. They can be ignored or distorted easily.

jamiecarracher.bsky.social•43 days ago

Sure. I just worry at this specific time some would have us believe peaceful dissent is futile.

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

What actually works is — well, dammit, I don’t know…

erinnthered.bsky.social•43 days ago

What works is what they are doing. The CRA/ VRA took nearly 100 years of organizing. Women's suffrage took 70. The ADA was 25. Not from the idea things need to be better, but years of uninterupted, organized actions by related, disciplined groups doing the work.

willfb.bsky.social•43 days ago

I sort of agree, but exercising this right is of utmost importance as Trump takes office to show that we intend on keeping this right. I lived in Russia in 2012 when Putin stole his election and then protests formed. He allowed them temporarily and then squashed them completely.

willfb.bsky.social•43 days ago

If Trump has his way, that’s where we’re heading rapidly.

nmwilkinson.bsky.social•43 days ago

Surely the moment and purpose for this was back when the Dem admin still had the time, but lacked the courage, to prevent the fall of US democracy. At this point onwards, it'll just provide something for Trumpofascism to crack down on.

anyfishanytime.bsky.social•43 days ago

This is true. Thank God I have always managed to do some really good organizing at them.

populuxe.bsky.social•43 days ago

if i hadn’t marched in 2020, i (a more or less economically secure, middle-aged white person) wouldn’t have gotten to see police violence up close & personal

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

What Chris reminds me is matches can be good for moral: it can be important to know you’re not alone. This helped a lot in 2002-2003 when we were protesting in the run up to the invasion of Iraq and the media was in the grip of war fever. But what we didn’t do was stop the war.

midatlantica.bsky.social•43 days ago

True. Ultimately if the media isn’t with the movement the March is just exercise. Large protests against invading Iraq (and even Afghanistan) were buried and soon retconned out of existence. Smaller rallies for the Tea Party were hyped endlessly and treated like a major movement. Rigged games

lifewinning.com•43 days ago

"not alone" also extends beyond borders in a way that matters--my partner is Lebanese and seeing news of US protests of the Iraq war and later the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon didn't stop it but it did contextualize it as an act of the state rather than a mandate from US public to kill Arabs.

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

At the same time, Chris is right: if they ever made things happen in the USA, they no longer do, for the reasons Chris states.

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

I sympathize with this view, but I think the US faces additional demographic hurdles in the form of exurbanization and the fact our capital is not our cultural and population center. Seoul Metro Area houses half the RoK’s population; Tbilisi a third of Georgia’s.

womzilla.bsky.social•43 days ago

It's also clear that the political press is willing to dismiss literally *anything* that happens in New York or Los Angeles, let alone Chicago, Seattle, Portland (the other obvious places to have massive protests) are niche issues that only ultraliberals could care about.

irina1967.bsky.social•43 days ago

That’s a hurdle, but not an insurmountable one for a committed and organized movement. It’s not like wealth and power isn’t concentrated in major populated areas. We saw this starting to work in New York.

jimhenleymusic.bsky.social•43 days ago

Marches not matches

williameburns.bsky.social•43 days ago

That sounds like someone trying to push non-violent resistance as a superior alternative to arson.

ashkeladd161.bsky.social•43 days ago

Protesting is useless against people that get off on being hated. This is what they want, clearly defined in and out groups to further fuel their divisive rhetoric.

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