I think that like. Look. I don't really want to get into an arugment about the ethics of violent action. But I will say that from a stance of pure messaging, going up against black bloc protestors gives law enforcement a chance to look cool and tough and macho. But trying to fight a bunch of guys in inflatable frog suits doing the cha-cha slide makes them look like fucking morons. Especially when they have to go on TV and act like the guys in frog suits are a national security threat. They look like little babies that are scared of sports mascots, and the longer they do it the more support they lose.
He was in the capitol on January 6th but he's scared of something Seattleites take their children to see every summer solstice.
#it has its place I think but the issue is that its like...the only thing happening#its that and people standing there filming yelling thats illegal while these fuckers disappear a guy in front of them#its not enough on its own
It's...really not the only thing that's happening?
McCook residents file lawsuit aimed at stopping ICE detention facility
A bunch of people who "self-deported" are suing ICE for violating their protected status
Another bunch of groups are suing ICE
Chicago is requiring ICE agents to wear bodycams; other cities will probably follow
California is banning ICE from wearing masks; other states will probably follow
and meanwhile:
American support for legal immigration is at a record high (and here's another one)
The raids are increasingly unpopular and independents hate it
and that's before we get into national guard deployment.
The protests the other day were the single biggest mobilization of peaceful protesters in America since 1970.
If you think that's not extremely important you are a fucking moron. Literally if they were the only thing happening they'd still be bigger than protests against the Iraq War.
If you are downplaying this, you're a collaborator. Shut up.
Relentless protests by students, faculty, and staff at universities have led to multiple universities rejecting the compact Trump wanted them to sign. Seven of the nine universities initially approached have rejected it, even some with conservative administrations who clearly kinda wanted to sign it. I feel awful for students at UT Austin and Vanderbilt, and they now have to take new avenues of making life difficult for the administrations that caved are still waffling. And they are doing that.
Professors I know have taught classes to undergrads about intersex people and the variability of both sexual characteristics and gender identities across world cultures, and told the students, "If the compact is signed, I couldn't teach this lecture. The government doesn't want you to know about this. They think you need to be kept away from this, that you can't make up your own minds."
Dozens of reporters publicly left the Pentagon rather than agreeing Pete Hesgeth's rules that would restrict who they could talk to and what they could report, including Fox News.
Community groups are rallying to track ICE actions and warn their neighbors about ICE, block ICE access to buildings they have no warrant for, and make loud disruptive noises all night at the hotels ICE are staying at.
Indigenous nations on the US-Canada border are testing the boundaries of state economic control in the face of the ridiculous tariffs by doing their own tariff-free commerce on their land.
Trump's desired coal mining goals keep getting stalled by judges, environmentalists, Indigenous groups, and Biden- and Obama-era legislation. A different metal mining project Trump is trying to push through is being stalled by different Indigenous groups, forcing the government and government-backed corporations to negotiate on Native Alaskans' terms, and the fact that they aren't is making investors balk.
Various people are doing things in various ways, but it's the "protest whose goal is making the news" that is making the news. Because that was its goal. It's just one of a bunch of things that different people are doing! And you might not be a tenured college professor or a Pentagon reporter or a UT Austin student, but there are probably things you can do, too. And one thing a lot of people can do is go to protests.
