50501

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50 States, 50 Protests, 1 Movement. https://fiftyfifty.one/ | #fiftyfiftyone
This is a community related to the 50501 movement. Find the main communities at https://50501.chat/.

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50501 on Reddit temporarily shut down over astroturfing (?); struggling on Facebook (piefed.social)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by cabbage@piefed.social to c/50501@piefed.social

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It seems the 50501 movement is facing some predictable problems on commercial platforms.

On Reddit, the 50501 subreddit has temporarily shut down over abuse. This comes after reports from users that the community is "obviously being astroturfed". No word as to when it will be back online.

It seems things are not much better over at Facebook, where there is apparently frequent calls to stop protesting this and that, with a Reddit user commenting that the group "feels like it's imploding".

This is hardly surprising given how commercial social media has repeatedly shown itself to be easily manipulated, but it's still fascinating that it's bad enough to shut down the whole Reddit community. Although we are certainly in a better place over here we are not immune: Make sure to be vigilant and to report suspicious activity.

If anyone is on Facebook, maybe now is a good time to give people there a few pointers towards Lemmy/PieFed.

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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

It seems to me the bots here have two main topics of focus: 1) Protests don't work. Protests don't work unless they are violent. If you just prance around waving signs they don't listen. 2) Attending a protest is really scary. You need to get a burner phone, wear a mask and glasses, conceal a weapon, beware of the other people at the protest. Don't go if you are black, brown, disabled, trans. Too dangerous.

Are these people really bots? Is this really astroturfing? I wouldn't say point 2, but I've absolutely said something similar to point 1 before and I still believe that we need more than just yelling at buildings. I wouldn't say don't protest at all, but I'm wondering if these people are dismissing real people thinking that they're just bots or something.

I assure you I'm not a bot, I feel and I wish I didn't lol

[–] tehmics@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree, I think most of those points are either entirely valid or only slight hyperbole. Protesting alone isn't enough but it's how you start a movement.

In my opinion, the power of protesting is not in the change it will make by itself, rather it's about showing to each other that we aren't alone, and with enough passionate people banding together, we can take the steps to make the changes needed.

Whether that takes the form of simply voting, or as far as an eventual revolutionary war. How far protests would lead depends on how the government reacts to the movement, and whether nonviolent methods are effective first.

As far as safety goes, I think its importance scales exactly the same way. The police response can absolutely be dangerous to us, and that's one of the many reasons we must protest. To protect our rights.

Call me a bot if you want, but it's bizarre to me not to discuss this. We can look to hundreds of protests across history to see that they aren't all rainbows and butterflies. Even as recent as BLM, many were injured

[–] BaldProphet@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can feel that peaceful protests are useless, but trying to convince other people of that perspective isn't in the scope of this community. We are exclusively peaceful, so if you want more "direct action," consider looking up a different group, such as Antifa or Anonymous. Violence will never be tolerated in 50501.

[–] tehmics@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Sorry, but any protest is a collective. 50501 or any other banner doesn't have exclusive rights to a movement. It will naturally go wherever it needs to, with or without the 50501 moniker

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 6 points 1 week ago

I've seen several people on Lemmy say that they're scared to attend this upcoming protest, it seems like a "false flag" and none of their friends who are plugged into protest movements have "heard of" the organizers and it might be a fake protest which isn't safe. They're going to sit this one out for their safety.

I don't think these people are literal bots necessarily, but I also don't think they are telling the truth about any of that. Why someone might want to spread that message is left as an exercise for the reader.