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4 days agoThe purpose of a mass expressive protest is threefold: 1. Demonstrate to the fascists that we are many, we are organized, and we will not stand by silently as they try to steamroll our rights, 2. Demonstrate to other anti-fascists or just those with doubts about the regime that they are not alone, and 3. Get casual protestors involved in more direct resistance activities. There are often tables with resistance organizations handing out flyers with ways to join up.
These big protests are just one piece of a healthy resistance movement.
While I agree on all points, I think many folks on Lemmy are pretty uneducated on how activism and non-violent resistance is work and takes time—leading to an expectation that if something unjust is happening, we should all just riot and engage in armed rebellion or whatever. It’s like they’re impatient with the slow progress, which honestly I am too. The difference is that I recognize that slow progress is really the only viable path right now.
For our part, I think we need to do better at surfacing progress so that it’s clear that real resistance wins are happening even if the media generally prefers not to report on it.
(I expect there to be some serious progress surfacing going on at No Kings tomorrow.)