You identify a problem, you then call the attention of your family, friends and peers and really anyone who will listen to your rantings and ravings. After which if enough people support your claim to give confidence of legitimacy, you voice your concerns to authority. Or governing body or anyone that has been designated for the responsibility of resolving issues that arise within the realm of the aforementioned wrinkle in the rug. Only in the direst of need would would you and your conglomeration of dissatisfied citizenry shout, picket or otherwise raise a ruckus to your needs but life is such that needs be great at times. Go figure.
No, typically your movement starts with a letter campaign, phone calls and emails. If you’re real lucky you might get a tête-à-tête with someone and if you’re doubly lucky, on your way to resolution. It doesn’t go down like that for most causes, most of the time it’s all but ignored. Fear not seekers of change there is a way to avoid a fizzle out, get more people to join. Of course you could jump straight to hard disruption of daily life but letter writing, emails and phone calls are considered good places to start. Needs be great though and ignorance is willful and bliss. About now is a good time for ye ol’ controlled rabble rousing… (it’s a joke) but good intentions don’t account for the actions of others though property damage doesn’t trump a just cause. The bill on justification will come due and I expect to be satisfied. Feelings on rainbows don’t meet my admittedly meager standards on letting your opinion be known, not that anyone asked.
There’s not much recourse for your average person if the effects of your stance did not sway affections, unless that person is a multi-billion dollar corporation (cuz come on guys, corpos are people too) then you just drown the problem in money until it’s buried or washed away to become someone else’s problem. Most people are left with a problem unresolved and a pain in their chest that’s not from the cuts, bruises or contusions that can accompany making your displeasure publicly known.
I would like to take this moment to tell you how stupid anyone is that intends to create change with the destruction of life that is not their own. I make an exception for self-immolation. If you believe in your cause so strongly that your only option is to extinguish your own flame in a dazzling display of sheer will. You get my respect for your force of determination if not your cause. The only 72 things anyone else gets though is in being blasted to 72 different dimensions of pain and shrapnel and good riddance too.
That is all to say that if you can’t pay and you won’t choose violence what other avenue is left to pursue?
Stop the machinations that allow people to remain willfully ignorant of the problem. I am sorry that you might be late to work, I’m sorry that couldn’t get your triple pump whateverthefuck you’re getting in a cup that makes you feel like the emptiness inside isn’t so vast, I’m sorry you were delayed running those errands. I’m sorry for your death during a cardiac episode stuck in traffic. I am sorry. But to the point where your life has to stop in its tracks so you will listen, it’s important. Some person decided to put their own life in danger to warn you that your own and those around you are also in danger. I’m not saying it is not a bitter pill.
Let us not forget that all of this is predicated on the assumption that when the piper cometh those ends were indeed justified by the means. What constitutes a worthy reason is beyond the purview of the arguments I’m laying forth. As for the eggs that are gonna get cracked, I don’t mourn the loss of property only loss of life. In the many words I have used, I am saying that there is a reason the right to free speech and assembly are enshrined in places around the world and I believe in that reason. Whether or not those rights are protected in an equal and fair manner is a whole different can of worms.
tldr; I wrote this for amusement and for the play on words, doesn’t mean I don’t believe it. By default I care more about my own bodily waste than I’m going to care about your reactionary opinion. Exceptions will be made for adding to the conversation, upgrade to better-than-what-I’m-scooping-out-of-the-litter-boxes-at-home levels of interest.
I thank you for joining me in this ramble. Have a wonderful day.
edit: just want to give a couple special shoutouts, I won’t name names but you’ll know if I’m talking about you. First, to my peeps that are taking this personally, offensively or otherwise as an insult; fucking good, you need to face uncomfortable topics more often and I’m glad I could be there for you and share in this together. Second, to my peeps who found themselves vindicated in their original positions; the same to you as the first group. This has absolutely been my pleasure so thank you if you voted or voiced an opinion. Going to sleep for now but if you call me back to this topic with something good I’ll try to catch you in the morning.
both based and unpopular, a rare gem for this sub
edit: i didn’t read close enough and making this edit to say i don’t find the part with “sorry not sorry for your cardiac arrest, we won’t do better next time” based at all. the rest is fine though.
progressives are very in tune with the concept of harm reduction, and it is trivial to apply this to both the inconveniencers and the inconvenienced people of a protest to ensure maximum possible safety. fuck the “oops but it had to happen” attitude that’s cringe as hell.
Good post. I completely disagree with this opinion. Stoping traffic and holding up the lives of ordinary people is attacking the wrong target. We’re all out here in traffic, not because we want to be, but because we’re struggling to survive. Not all of us are on a frivolous trip to star bucks mate. Take your grievances to the court house, city hall, or a police station, hold up those people’s lives, shout at them. I have to pick up my kids before the daycare closes. Don’t protest at me, I’m not the one voting on legislation that keeps people in debt, funds foreign wars, and keeps people from having access to healthcare. Those of us stuck in traffic are not willfully ignorant of any of these problems, we’re just fucking helpless to do anything about them because the system is designed to keep us that way. Protesting on highways doesn’t accomplish what I assume is your goal, to educate people and get them to agree with you. It just makes them not like you and not want to support you in your cause.
The difference is that sit in’s were directly related to what they were protesting against.
Shutting down highways to protest oil, shutting down campuses to protest funds going to violence, shutting down businesses that profit from settler colonialism…
…these are all directly related. It’s concerning that you don’t know this.
How does shutting down a highway punish oil companies? It hurts the person just trying to live their day. You want to punish oil companies? Block their trucks, not your average person. Oil companies couldn’t give less of a fuck about a random blocked highway.
same way sit-ins punished racist politicians: it doesn’t.
it’s important to remember: protest is not about punishment, it’s about sending a message. if you’re seeking punishment, direct action might be more appropriate. protest is all about spreading awareness and making a statement. not punishment.
Your freedoms extend only so far as they aren’t encroaching upon others freedoms. Blocking my freedom of movement included
Until individual freedom encroaches on the others is right. Move, be moved or lose all freedom. Joining costs only the freedoms you’re willing to sacrifice, turning away costs only what you’re willing to take with you.
You and I won’t agree but I appreciate your point of view.
I don’t even understand what you’re trying to say there lol. You don’t have a right to block people from driving their car to work, under any circumstances. Period.
It’s not justified, no matter what the cause you’re trying to bring awareness to. It’s selfish.
Selfish is matter of perspective. Selfish to impose collective will on the individual or selfish to impede progress for the masses in the name of personal freedom. Something has to give, someone is going to lose.
No, I don’t get to care about any of that bullshit, because I need to get to work so that I can feed my family. So it’s great that you have some hill you want to die on, but my family will die if you stop me from getting to work. See?
I understand your position but respectfully your family is as important to me as my hypothetical cause is to you.
“Your cause” is some macro thing, and blocking my car will have zero effect in achieving whatever you’re looking to achieve. My family is all that maters to me. And blocking my car will just result in you getting run over. So don’t do it
What an idiotic argument
Zero effect on you but not the person sitting next to you or the one behind you. If you are willing and able to crush one or several people under your vehicle for the sake of your precious family. Do so. The person impeding your path needs to be alright at that possibility.
I agree in principle, but if you put people in danger or could put people in danger, I consider that crossing the line of the Golden Rule of Liberty. That includes trapping people on highways and bridges.
So while protests can and should be disruptive and inconvenient, they must never endanger the general public.
See the thing is that most protests that adopt these tactics do permit emergency services to cross the picket. We just hear more about the ones who don’t because reasonable behavior doesn’t make for click getting headlines.
Trapping people is harm. It’s kidnapping at best, and putting lives in danger at worst. “Allowing emergency vehicles through” is not good enough. If the protest is structured in a way that the public needs to take a different/longer route, that’s one thing… but if someone is trapped by such a takeover with no way out, that is an unacceptable infringement on the public’s natural rights; particularly the right to not be trapped or imprisoned (in either person or property).
Trapping people is harm
This I agree with. Am I wrong or would it be dead simple to do a protest on a highway where it doesn’t trap folks and causes no harm? Like two steps:
- hold it not on a bridge and just after an exit
- allow any/all emergency vehicles through, coordinating with them as much as possible
Obviously this is still a major inconvenience, which is good per the whole point of protesting. Perhaps I need to read more on protest history and strategy as I know there is a whole body of literature on the subject.
Then people should have a right to shut down protestors.
What does this even mean?
It seems clear to me. What’s wrong?
I don’t know what you mean by shut down exactly.
Put an end to their disruptive activity.
That just seems to be a synonym to shut down. How do suggest this be done exactly?
Yeah, there wasn’t much to interpret. How would you remove disruptive people?
I don’t think we should remove protestors. How would you remove protestors?