Gaza war protesters shut down Golden Gate Bridge, block traffic in other cities
Gaza war protesters shut down Golden Gate Bridge, block traffic in other cities
ITT- You're allowed your first amendment right to protest war crimes, just not where I can see or be inconvenienced. Because all of the civil rights and anti war protests in the past 70 years that were truly successful were very polite and inconvenienced no one.
MLK Jr. literally wrote about this exact same thing in his Letter from Birmingham jail.
that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ ”
Maybe I'm just fedposting, but I think probably my only objection to this protest is that it wasn't extreme enough, and I don't think it accomplished as much as it probably could've considering all the people protesting got arrested anyways. Probably a good amount of caltrops on the bridge and a bunch of cards or spray paint could've accomplished about the same goal, and I dunno if anyone would've even been arrested that way. Probably would take less in resources, too.
That's if you even looking at the same target, I dunno if shutting down the golden gate bridge is a great thing to hit up if you're looking to protest gaza. I would probably think one of many even local politician's domiciles, city halls, or lockheed martin manufacturing plants, offices, infrastructure, etc. would be better things to hit. I dunno of the economic or social impact or protesting at the golden gate bridge for what is basically an afternoon is going to put anyone under duress. Maybe the most you could say of it is that it's a mild social escalation, which, granted, isn't nothing, but is less direct and is harder to quantify the impact of.
I mean, the people they're irritating aren't the ones that can do anything about it. All you're doing is pissing everyone off. Go to your state's capitol and fuck that place up instead.
Pissing people off is irrelevant. You're irrelevant. You will not be swayed. You have demonstrated that after 6 months of innocent deaths. Even if 100,000 children die. 1 million children die. You're selfish and lazy.
This is direct action, it's about adding a financial cost to the government's direction. They've decided supporting a genocide is more financially beneficial than pursuing justice. If we shut it all down, they'll change their tune.
If you want the inconvenient protests to stop, fucking join them so that the change happens quicker.
Interrupting labor is the most peaceful way to threaten the capitalist class. If you object to this, you advocate for more extreme measures. Be careful what you wish for.
I mean, it sucks to get inconvenienced by stuff like this. But the goal is to make nations hurt economically for supporting the Palestinian genocide.
Most of the other options available would probably injure or kill innocent people. Like, you're not gonna make a difference without some casualties. Better that casualty be an afternoon instead of your life.
Nah, it's random people who are at fault. How dare they have jobs or other things to do
Did they have a permit to protest on a public road? Freedom of assembly comes with some perfectly rational stipulations.
Is this comments section: "fuck shit up, society isn't working," vs "follow the rules when you protest, that's how you make change happen."
This is such a pathetic attempt at both.
You didn't fuck any shit up and if the government, police etc really wanted to, they certainly could've fucked them up. Go hard or go home, blocking a bridge on another country is completely idiotic.
They probably pissed some Israelis off who will purposely go shoot some kids over it.
They were gonna shoot those kids anyway. It's not like they've been holding back until now.
They probably pissed some Israelis off who will purposely go shoot some kids over it.
This feels like a threat. You good?
You didn’t fuck any shit up
Oh really? Then why are the car-brains so incredibly triggered?
Seems like this protest really struck a nerve. There's so much whining going on in this thread precisely because of how successful it was.
ITT: car-brains who think being inconvenienced justifies murder
Ah yes, risk of getting fired and losing your livelihood after getting stuck on a bridge = "inconvenienced"
Can't wait to watch all the redditors who mostly don't commute or don't drive have a collective aneurysm over this.
There has got to be a way to do this without hurting regular people.
Like I agree with the protestors 100%... but trapping people on a bridge? Blocking traffic? That's dangerous and irresponsible.
Direct action and disruption is necessary, but this is absolutely the wrong way to do it.
Direct action and disruption is necessary, but this is absolutely the wrong way to do it.
There is no form of disruption that you wouldn't describe this way.
But there definitely are though. Why wouldn't you, say, protest the factories where these things are made? Not just hold up some signs outside, but blockade those businesses in.
Maybe find out who their major shareholders are and publicly shame them. Dig up dirt on them. Do anything you can to stop them.
Maybe find the neighbourhoods that those shareholders live in and blockade those.
Protest at the schools that their children go to letting them know their parents are murdering people overseas.
It took me like 3 minutes to think of those and those are far more effective than what is going on in this news story. Are protesters in America really that short-sighted but they can't think of anything better than annoying other normal people and making enemies?
This is like protesting the food in a prison cafeteria by beating the shit out of your cellmate, and then calling him complicit because he ate food yesterday.
They're not targeting the right people, they're simply turning normal people off of their message.
Nothing like exercising your right to protest by infringing on everyone else's right to travel freely.
Liberalism: Every protest is in history was righteous, except for the current one which affects me.
Unfortunately any protest in the US is at best constrained to stopping future weapons shipments to Israel. But as Netanyahu has already shown he doesn’t care what Biden has to say, the US is unlikely to be able to stop them from continuing to use the weapons they already have.
Bibi doesnt care what Biden says because Biden will never actually cut off the arm shipments.
The US could also do more like actually sanction Israel for committing genocide.
I support any protest that blocks car traffic. The fact that the protesters are protesting something important is a nice bonus.
So you were in favor of the fascist Canadian trucker rally?
Too bad it also blocks bus traffic. And it’s not like the buses have an alternative route.
Edit: in fact it’s worse for bus passengers as the Golden Gate Transit system relies heavily on timed transfers and many buses run once an hour, so even a 10 minute delay could cause bus passengers to miss their transfer and make them have to wait an hour.
One more reason why trains are superior than any other form of commute.
You could block train tracks this way too.
I don't care what you're protesting. But it should be done in a way where I don't have to hear about it or see it.
Hillarious.
I have a real problem with this, and I've been on both sides of it. It really doesn't do anything to help your cause by having people stuck in traffic. There are many reasons that someone could be in their car at that moment, not just commuting to or from a job. They could be on their way to a court appointment, they could have dinner in the car, they could be going to pick their child up from school, they could be on their way to a doctor's appointment, or any of a million other reasons that make this not just an inconvenience, but a complete shithead thing for someone to put someone else through. Protestors aren't making their case against the war by pissing off every person stuck in traffic, they are just being dickheads. If you want to protest a war, go hang out outside of a government building, or in front of an elected official's house. Make them feel uncomfortable, not some poor schmuck who has somewhere else to be at the moment.
Edit: Ok, I guess I need to give a peaceful example. You want to block traffic? Block the exits to the parking garage where the elected officials park downtown. Do that for a week and see how much of an impact you make. Blocking commuters is a waste of energy.
I don't think the goal is to convince the people stuck in the artificially created traffic about Gaza. I think it's to get news coverage from sites like nbcnews.com so as to raise the profile of the Gaza war so that politicians must address it. You are welcome to argue whether that's an effective strategy, but I think that's the intent.
Also, side note.. Social progress rarely comes from rule following.
Is the profile not high enough? I'm pretty sure everyone knows about it who needs to know about it. Blocking traffic isn't going to make a ceasefire happen across the world. Annoying your fellow citizens and ruining their day isn't getting any politicians to act. It's pointless. Actions must be taken against those in charge if we want to see any forward progress. Blocking traffic to protest a war is like yelling at a frycook because you want the McRib back. The actions are being aimed at the wrong people.
Right... because the global leaders of the world aren't already aware of what's going on. Thanks for raising awareness, guys.
They're not in front of the White House, they're not even in front of city hall, they're hurting their own.
The King loves it when the peasants fight amongst themselves.
Not sure if you are agreeing with me or not, but that is exactly what I'm saying. Right now, blocking traffic is about as easy for the "king" to ignore as anything else.
The objective is to appear in the News, which will result in way more people becoming aware of just how many people are against what Israel is doing in Gaza and the US Administration's support of it, which in turn will lead others to become more open about they themselves being against it since they will feel that "we are many" rather than "it's just me" - grassroots movements independent of established politicial and media networks, no matter how many potential supporters they have, must be seen in order to grow otherwise they'll just fizzle away and nothing will change.
That usually means some kind of stunt in an important and highly public place which is almost certain to affect lots of members of the public.
Barelly disturbing a handful of politicians as you suggest would not make the News unless the Press was already there for some other reason and it would still have to be some kind of stunt (think the Iraqi guy that threw his shoe at George Bush) for the Press to even mention it in the news.
Unfortunatelly in the World we live in people have to use marketing strategies to merelly be seen, more so to have soap box to be heard by the rest of the nation, especially in Theatre Of Democracy countries were the "choice" is either pre-selected A or pre-selected B, and were the Press is not at all a Pillar Of Democracy independent of the Political Pillar but is pretty much joined at the hip with Political and/or Wealth Powers.
If it had the kind of Political and Press environment were those things could just be done the way you naivelly (or maybe propagandistly) suggest, the US would be quite a different place in terms of Power, Voice and Representativeness and not one where the only electoral "choice" is between two genocide-loving presidential candidates.
Yeah, but you're not getting public support. You're getting the opposite.
Completely agree. Blocking the average Joe driving home will get attention, but potentially for the wrong reason. I think your edit is perfect. Inconvenience those in power that can do something about it now, not someone who can really only do something when voting.
I feel bad for the people in traffic but the protestors only get to this state because of repeatedly being ignored by the government. If normal protests aren’t cutting it anymore and you don’t want to be violent then what options do you really have? They (gov) just don’t listen.
Protest where it is effective, not where it gets you the most social media clout. Blocking traffic is the protesting equivalent of a selfie. Make some noise near an elected official, and often. See how quickly they change their attitude when they are the ones being fucked with.
Convenient protests don’t do shit. They get ignored, and often not reported on at all.
People said exactly the same thing you’re saying about the civil rights movement. Which was much more disruptive than the schoolbooks teach.
Yeah. I saw some of the posts across Lemmy trying to organize this.
There it was presented as blocking shipping ports. I thought that was odd. Wasn't sure how that was going to affect Israel, but whatever.
Then the day comes and they're doing this low effort reposting-of-a-meme-everyone-has-seen-already version of protest and I just rolled my eyes.
"Innocent people are being murdered in Palestine, so I'm going to go prevent someone that also hates what is happening from visiting their dying grandmother! That'll show 'em!"
🙄
This comment is so meta. You're literally engaging in the conversation about it right now. This means it worked... How does no one understand this? The fact of the matter is it makes the issue relevant so that it shows up on people's screens and they're forced to confront the issue and debate the protest and it becomes topical. No one wants to be stuck in traffic. I sympathize with those who were affected. But I'll give you one guess who I sympathize with more right now.
Protesters were blocking ships that were sending weapons to Israel. You wouldn't like any form of protest because YOU DON'T CARE
/agree
I fully support the cause, but this just ain't the way to effectively protest the system. I feel the same way about the climate activists throwing soup on art instalation (yes I know they are all protected, but to the average person you still look like an ignorant fucking asshole).
If you want to spur change, then you need to make it uncomfortable for your representatives to take a public position than conflicts with your ethics. Do so peacefully, but forcefully and as often as is feasible. You are much more likely to garner public support that way, and normies generally love anything that make politicians look bad.
The paintings were an amazing protest. Also love the protests interrupting plays. Meet complacent liberals at their stomping grounds.
Those poor schmucks also have a voice and have political power. And you can't deny the optics of the Golden Gate Bridge being closed, it's an iconic throughway. I'm not sure if there are any instantly recognizable parking garages.
So, some single mother in the Midwest is now going to do something about Gaza now? That's what we needed? Optics? Fuck. We should put up some billboards along the interstate next, that'll bring all this kids back from the dead
You all are missing then ENTIRE FUCKING POINT of a protest. It isn't to block traffic, it's to force action to be taken where none is, and no one capable of taking that action gives two squirts of chipotle if some people stood on a bridge yesterday. Fuck with the establishment, make some cunt in his comfortable office sweat.
I see you don't understand the point of protesting.