Americans have not had to protest like this in many many decades. That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population to not really do anything, so there is no system that people can tap into like in France. So thinking that you are going to get a million+ people to go into the streets and shut everything down for a few weeks isn’t realistic.
American protest opposition also has a great response to these gatherings by getting them to turn into riots so there is justification for military style responses. Which makes people on the fence hesitant. Getting people to dip their toe in the lake of resistance is the best way forward. It’s slow, it looks silly and limiting but if it works it emboldens more people to do more.
“That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population”
There’s the selfish ‘as long as it’s not me attitude’.
You also think it was ‘good enough’ and didn’t need to protest is even more telling and comfirms my view.
You were OK with having no healthcare, mass incarceration and de facto slavery in that system.
Authoritarian police with an unrivaled murder rate, mass drug abuse and homelessness.
ANY of those things would be reason for a population to revolt and resist.
The US simply doesn’t know better and think this is normal and mistakenly believe other countries are worse off.
Imagine being so pacified that they take all this.
And yes, real resistance is hard and difficult.
They are not going to give you anything by asking nicely.
The US population is like an abused housewife that stays with her bully would rather not make waves in the hope it will get better and doesn’t get another beating.
If she doesn’t resist and leave she doesn’t deserve saving.
Yes, Americans have been pacified - though I think most western countries’ populations are to some extent. And because of that pacification they are not going to jump up and do the really difficult stuff of resistance until it starts effecting them more - this I agree with. But your argument or your complaint sounds like if Americans don’t jump from pacification to doing the hard stuff nothing else matters. It’s all or nothing in your mind.
But that isn’t how it works, small protests and boycotts on large scales do have some impact. They also demonstrate to Americans that resistance does work and possible get them to do more. If there is small successes then larger, more difficult resistance has the chance to grow and be sustained.
should these protest happen sooner and more often, sure but they didn’t and that is arguments for history - So maybe this administration will actually prompt more people to start doing more uncomfortable actions to change the country for the better?
Americans have not had to protest like this in many many decades. That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population to not really do anything, so there is no system that people can tap into like in France. So thinking that you are going to get a million+ people to go into the streets and shut everything down for a few weeks isn’t realistic.
American protest opposition also has a great response to these gatherings by getting them to turn into riots so there is justification for military style responses. Which makes people on the fence hesitant. Getting people to dip their toe in the lake of resistance is the best way forward. It’s slow, it looks silly and limiting but if it works it emboldens more people to do more.
Stopping for one day isn’t a protest.
“That is it’s been “good enough” for a large part of the population”
There’s the selfish ‘as long as it’s not me attitude’.
You also think it was ‘good enough’ and didn’t need to protest is even more telling and comfirms my view.
You were OK with having no healthcare, mass incarceration and de facto slavery in that system.
Authoritarian police with an unrivaled murder rate, mass drug abuse and homelessness.
ANY of those things would be reason for a population to revolt and resist.
The US simply doesn’t know better and think this is normal and mistakenly believe other countries are worse off.
Imagine being so pacified that they take all this.
And yes, real resistance is hard and difficult.
They are not going to give you anything by asking nicely.
The US population is like an abused housewife that stays with her bully would rather not make waves in the hope it will get better and doesn’t get another beating. If she doesn’t resist and leave she doesn’t deserve saving.
Yes, Americans have been pacified - though I think most western countries’ populations are to some extent. And because of that pacification they are not going to jump up and do the really difficult stuff of resistance until it starts effecting them more - this I agree with. But your argument or your complaint sounds like if Americans don’t jump from pacification to doing the hard stuff nothing else matters. It’s all or nothing in your mind.
But that isn’t how it works, small protests and boycotts on large scales do have some impact. They also demonstrate to Americans that resistance does work and possible get them to do more. If there is small successes then larger, more difficult resistance has the chance to grow and be sustained.
should these protest happen sooner and more often, sure but they didn’t and that is arguments for history - So maybe this administration will actually prompt more people to start doing more uncomfortable actions to change the country for the better?