I’m skeptical of this one. On one hand, I am glad that this is going to be visible and let other people know that they aren’t alone and a resistance is there. However, this is unorganized as hell. You’re going to have a lot of first time protestors who don’t know the basics of protesting against an active police state. I think this protest is a net positive, but not a massive one. The best we can hope for is for organizers to make use of this enthusiasm in the future or we get very visible tension escalation.
People have to get started somewhere. Very few people in America are used to organizing and demonstrating; things have been so good in America for so long that we’ve become coddled. Seeing some new faces energized to get out there and start making some noise is definitely a win imo.
Yeah, that’s a good point. European countries have that protest game down strong because there’s such an enshrined culture of collective action. We don’t have that here. Yet.
Today, we start!
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Everyone gets their start somewhere.
And you can be sure that the old hats are making sure to record and broadcast everything. So when the jackboots inevitably see a black person and start unloading with “rubber bullets” and tear gas, people will see.
Well you are wrong I’m not from the US
Sounds like someone needs to start an anti-Trump protest in their country. It’s not like it’s not going to impact you, or like your local government is yet doing enough to adapt to what’s going to come.
Did you check?
GET OUT THERE, STOP MAKING EXCUSES.
(For your protection read the EFF websites protest guide to keep yourself safe).
Ugh, I really need to order some glasses. I’m blind as a bat without contacts but I’m also not trying to end up literally blind if the cops break out the tear gas (and Denver PD is still settling lawsuits from the 2020 protests, so I have zero faith in them to not escalate). Didn’t have “buy glasses to protest the rise of fascism” on my 2025 bingo card but I probably should’ve.
Awful short notice. My state capital is 3 hours away and I have work.
This was Colorado. I agree that the timing sucks for people with regular jobs, but we also need to get the attention of our representatives and disrupt the peace.
The instant anything is posted on here it’s already been scraped. Know this. Act accordingly.
Some tips to help you out
- don’t take your phones to the protest
- if you take a burner, don’t take it home. buy it, and trash it at the protest.
- don’t take anything that could identify you as you
- superglue and baking soda on your fingerprints. don’t go crazy, just enough to make printing you impossible/difficult
- write any important phone numbers on your arm or ankle in permanent marker if you can’t remember them
- stuff a couple hundred dollars for bail in your shoe
- don’t give ANYONE your real name. don’t care how hot they are or how impassioned they are, just fucking don’t
- designate one trusted individual to come get you from jail. they are not to bring their phone, they should park at least 1/4 mile away and walk to get you(long enough to realize you’re being tailed by police).
Pay attention to your surroundings, specifically the movement of officers/agents. if they’re running you should be too. if there’s a large group marching or a wall marching, leave immediately and regroup.
ICE will be there. they will be picking people up. many of them not illegal. if you’re not white, wear makeup if you can get away with it. paint your face with state colors if need be. not a mask, so it shouldn’t be covered by “no-mask” states.
Know your rights. Bring the proof of your rights. Force them to acknowledge your rights.
Stream everything.
If you are picked up you will;
- go on a list
- be unlawfully monitored
- become a link in a larger web to ensnare organizers
You will now go dark for at least a month. No social media posts about the protests, no discussions about the protests, nothing. After that, it should be difficult to pair your online activity with your real world activities.
If you can’t make it to the protests, record the streams, share them online, pressure the public to demand answers for the crimes committed by the officers/agents.
One last thing.
There will undoubtedly be people there to provoke the protests. do not let them. once one incident of violence is determined all bets off and the police will become physically involved.
Trust no one, question everything, power to the people. 🫵
This message from a colleague will live here until the death of Lemmy
For further research here’s a great video on mutual aid.
This is way too obscure. Most people would need more time than this to plan I imagine. I’m only hearing about this today after being tuned into politics for months and id only realisticly be able to participate if I heard about this 2 weeks ago.
Yeah, true that. I’ve been hearing about a lot of things like this more or less the day of, which isn’t too convenient most of the time.
If it makes a difference, it seems likely to me that the protests in DC will keep happening on an ongoing basis until something happens to disperse them.
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It probably won’t directly change anything but it will and can change public perception and what lawmakers see. It at least shows them “look at all these people who won’t stand by and take it.”
You have to start somewhere.
The people of this country have been, for the most part, just sitting back and letting the politicians run everything, and that definitely isn’t working. If people are going to do something about it, the first step is getting off the couch and going and meeting some other people who want to do something about it.
It will show that people aren’t alone, Trump wants to pretend they have an overwhelming mandate to do whatever he wants, having upset people together shows that actually there are a lot of people that feel similarly. Organizing and coming together is the first step. The next is the strategic plan.
I’ve heard from some of my more active friends that none of the usual leaders or orgs they know of were a part of founding this and there’s some suspicion it was created by right wingers to collect data; can anyone speak to this?
What do you mean “to collect data”?
Attending a protest opens you up to people knowing you attended a protest. That’s pretty unfortunate yes, but why would this specific protest be different from any other one in that regard?
https://ssd.eff.org/module/attending-protest
Edit: Phrasing
I’m just echoing some suspicions I’ve heard from more knowledgeable friends and was asking, I don’t really know enough detail to have any opinion myself; sorry if it’s a silly question.
I’ve just heard that organizers coming out of it/ the Reddit accounts that originally elevated it seemed astroturfeyand there’s concern there, and I’ve seen some more paranoid ideas thrown around about it but idk
it seemed astroturfey
Fascinating. Can you ask your friends for more details? Surely for such an urgent concern, they’d be happy to share with you so you can pass on an important warning about it.
My suspicion of these “data collecting” / honey pot claims are that the claims themselves are suppression tactics
Anyone have streams?
