See, I actually understand your frustration, but you I think you actually misunderstand why these protests are ineffective. Virtue signaling is indeed a big issue with protests in America. This could easily be seen with the signs. Everybody has signs and all these signs have puns, jokes, provocative drawings, or websites on them. The point isn’t to send a message, it’s to farm social media engagement. So you’re right on that, but the issue with American protest is much deeper than that.
For example, the bigger protests here aren’t exactly organic, they’re more like festivals. For example, I went to the “hands off” protest in Boston a few months ago, and they literally had a “program” for it like it was some kind of show. There were bands that played music, advocacy group leaders who gave speeches shilling for their causes at the expense of the cause that was being protested, local and state politicians getting PR and advertising their upcoming campaigns, and so on.
When it’s not a festival, then it’s a public nuisance. There’s this myth that’s widely believed among the American left (the right doesn’t really protest) where they actually believe that disruption is THE most vital part of protesting, and thus it’s presence is mandatory for every protest otherwise they’re simply ineffective. This leads to things like blocking intersections, vandalizing property, getting in the way of other causes, or being extremely annoying on purpose. For example, look at how “queers for Palestine” sabotaged Ottawa’s pride parade by dangerously stranding thousands of people in sun, made threats, and then had the event canceled for everybody… as you can imagine there’s a lot of people who resent this group and their cause because of their actions.
Another massive issue is the ever increasing presence of the omnicause. This is a product of a mentality that combines the worst elements of intersectionality and purity testing. This mentality insists that if you support one cause, you must support them all, and if you oppose or remain neutral on any “approved” cause, you’re branded as morally corrupt. This binary thinking forces people to label every movement as either wholly good or bad, leaving no room for nuance. What this leads to is protests that don’t stand for anything because they try to include everything. For example, the women’s march in Boston last year had people with Palestinian flags, black lives matter signs, Ukrainian flags, communist symbols, and there were even animal advocates in there… what do any of these have to do with women rights in America? The answer is they don’t, they just dilute and distract from the cause that’s being protested.
If we really want protests to lead to change in this country we have to look back at the country’s successful movements and see what made them work. Well if we look at the civil rights movement, the suffragette movement, the Vietnam war protests, and the LGBT movement, what do they have in common? They were all…
peaceful movements
tried to get the support of the public (as opposed to antagonizing the public)
had one single, central cause
they all disavowed extremists in their movements
they were inclusive in practice, not just in rhetoric (men were a part of the suffragette movement, whites were a part of the civil rights movement, and so on)
had clearly defined demands that the protestors and leaders genuinely believed in
We need all these elements to make our modern protests meaningful. Going to red states isn’t going to do anything. It’s not going to change anybody’s mind or do anything because it’ll have the same problems. If the protests in blue cities and states aren’t leading to anything, why would the ones in red states yield any results? We need to learn from our past and look at the rest of the world as to what good protests should look like. Protests in Europe, for example, are minimalist, there’s no “program”, there’s huge turnouts, people respect their fellow citizens, and people show up solely because they believe in the cause. Want examples? Look at the protests happening right now in Georgia and Serbia. Want none European examples? Look at Hong Kong or Turkey.
See, I actually understand your frustration, but you I think you actually misunderstand why these protests are ineffective. Virtue signaling is indeed a big issue with protests in America. This could easily be seen with the signs. Everybody has signs and all these signs have puns, jokes, provocative drawings, or websites on them. The point isn’t to send a message, it’s to farm social media engagement. So you’re right on that, but the issue with American protest is much deeper than that.
For example, the bigger protests here aren’t exactly organic, they’re more like festivals. For example, I went to the “hands off” protest in Boston a few months ago, and they literally had a “program” for it like it was some kind of show. There were bands that played music, advocacy group leaders who gave speeches shilling for their causes at the expense of the cause that was being protested, local and state politicians getting PR and advertising their upcoming campaigns, and so on.
When it’s not a festival, then it’s a public nuisance. There’s this myth that’s widely believed among the American left (the right doesn’t really protest) where they actually believe that disruption is THE most vital part of protesting, and thus it’s presence is mandatory for every protest otherwise they’re simply ineffective. This leads to things like blocking intersections, vandalizing property, getting in the way of other causes, or being extremely annoying on purpose. For example, look at how “queers for Palestine” sabotaged Ottawa’s pride parade by dangerously stranding thousands of people in sun, made threats, and then had the event canceled for everybody… as you can imagine there’s a lot of people who resent this group and their cause because of their actions.
Another massive issue is the ever increasing presence of the omnicause. This is a product of a mentality that combines the worst elements of intersectionality and purity testing. This mentality insists that if you support one cause, you must support them all, and if you oppose or remain neutral on any “approved” cause, you’re branded as morally corrupt. This binary thinking forces people to label every movement as either wholly good or bad, leaving no room for nuance. What this leads to is protests that don’t stand for anything because they try to include everything. For example, the women’s march in Boston last year had people with Palestinian flags, black lives matter signs, Ukrainian flags, communist symbols, and there were even animal advocates in there… what do any of these have to do with women rights in America? The answer is they don’t, they just dilute and distract from the cause that’s being protested.
If we really want protests to lead to change in this country we have to look back at the country’s successful movements and see what made them work. Well if we look at the civil rights movement, the suffragette movement, the Vietnam war protests, and the LGBT movement, what do they have in common? They were all…
We need all these elements to make our modern protests meaningful. Going to red states isn’t going to do anything. It’s not going to change anybody’s mind or do anything because it’ll have the same problems. If the protests in blue cities and states aren’t leading to anything, why would the ones in red states yield any results? We need to learn from our past and look at the rest of the world as to what good protests should look like. Protests in Europe, for example, are minimalist, there’s no “program”, there’s huge turnouts, people respect their fellow citizens, and people show up solely because they believe in the cause. Want examples? Look at the protests happening right now in Georgia and Serbia. Want none European examples? Look at Hong Kong or Turkey.