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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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For posting all the anonymous reactionary bullshit that you can't post anywhere else.
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Saying this is a pretty strong indicator of Not Paying Attention Syndrome. What "potential leftism" was derailed by these protests?
The way people on Hexbear have been talking about 50501 and No Kings and stuff couldn't make it more obvious that they've simply never bothered to engage with them to any extent. It's a bunch of fart-sniffing online "leftists" who are too cool to go to where literally millions of people are in political motion because you imagine that their politics are gross and irredeemably bad.
I'm gonna write up a separate post admonishing all you losers instead of just you in this one comment.
yeah how dare dirt_owl not hop a 15 hour flight to go be among their community in a city they've never been to in a country they don't live in to protest a government that isn't theirs
why talk shit about it then
The anti-deportation protests that were crushed by the military had the potential to become another summer of uprisings.
Although of course the uprisings in 2020 weren't really "leftist" and were just an outpouring of outrage from the masses, and of course there is no organized left to lead the masses towards productive action, but the purpose of No Kings was certainly to help Trump prevent unrest.
Exactly this. Spontaneous, locally focused restistance to not just ICE raids but any militarised law enforcement was popping off organically with an increasing move towards organising local defense.
Then the libs come in with their Walmart & Democratic party sponsorship, turn it into a cop-friendly teaparty while actively harrassing actual organisers for things like Black Panther merch, wearing masks, or displaying keffiyehs (two of the organisers are dedicated zionists), drawing people away from the actual neighbourhoods that are in need of defense to their Instagram oppurtunities in city centres instead, before commiting to a coverup with the help of police after their armed designated 'peacekeepers' killed a protestor and tried to murder another before conspiring with law enforcement to smear him as a mass shooter and terrorist and pinning a murder charge on him.
No Kings had absolutely no part in derailing that and 50501 was a useful vehicle for solidarity protests across the country. And I'm sorry, do you think the struggle over deportation is already over?
What seems to have happened is No Kings sucked all the oxygen out of the room and the confrontation in LA has calmed down. Yesterday there were no overnight arrests for the first time since the protests began. The struggle isn't over, but it seems to have been pacified in LA.
Spontaneous community self-defense violence by its very nature doesn't last and comes in fits and starts. To look at the first wave of it in the current moment and say it was already defeated assumes that the rage has subsided and been subsumed. I don't think the No Kings protest had nearly as much to do with it as the work week taking everybody's time away. The violence in the streets was over days before the protest happened.
The work week took everyone's time away, sure, and No Kings took the weekend away - the nail in the coffin.
I think we'll see more outbursts from the masses in the future (a single weekend of counterrevolution can't actually pacify the masses forever) but I think they bought themselves time with this stunt.
0/10 as analysis
7/10 as a bit. Seriously. If you're active on Hexbear - I can paraphrase you for my own jokes.
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I don't like ELI5 because I want to be 15 not 5 to learn stuff. So ELI15 - what did the 50501, No Kings, etc. accomplish? As far as I know...
Am I wrong somehow about those points?
Also I don't think getting people to gather together - even in their millions - actually accomplished anything. In fact - I think the lib mindset that No Kings was a "win" against Trump is a mirage. You don't defeat the fascists by holding up signs of their leader as a baby crawling who is crying that his crown fell off and broke.
Yes, because there are many more people involved than just the libs online.
Many protests had a very clear list of demands related to ICE, Iran and Palestine, education cuts, etc.
I know people across the country who put in tons of effort at capturing people into actual organizations and succeeded.
Yes, obviously. These sorts of protests will never accomplish anything directly. That doesn't make them a waste. They are an opportunity to escalate those attendees to greater levels of political action. You need to meet people where they are to move them further along.
Which lib protests and/or organizers made demands?
Those people are libs?
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It's standard operating procedure for libs to derail spontaneous protests for their own ends. And I think it's pretty clear that the libs are going to be highly active doing that for the next few years. To be pedantic - one of their ever-present goals of the libs is crushing the left. At Bluesky the lib version of solidarity is "building coalitions". And - of course - leftists get nothing. Building coalitions means that leftists need to get on the lib train because that's the only path forward that's "realistic". Any leftist demands need to be jettisoned because they are entirely "unrealistic".
Why do I get the sense you're going to keep arguing with at least five of us that we're wrong about all this stuff?
None! But there were not only lib protests, and that's my point. And even if there were, you still need to show up and contest the political space.
No, they are communists. I'm saying that your characterization of this entire thing as "libs" is wrong because they just represent one segment vying for leadership of the whole thing and they have absolutely not secured it.
Don't let them do this to you! They have tried to do exactly that to me and my comrades. They wanted us to buckle and get on board with their demands while dropping ours. What did we do? We held an entirely separate competing protest that was very successful and drew as many people as theirs did. We laid out the communist line. We were uncompromisingly anti-imperialist. And those politics were well-received because the people are primed for anti-systemic politics
because you're wrong
“They” absolutely will. They being ex political staffers who will seek money from donors they already have connections with to explicitly quell any revolutionary message. Distinctly happened with Extinction Rebellion where they ended up having an impenetrable controlled upper management of said people.
By making sure the protests become a US patriotism parade with a focus on nonviolence and cooperation with the right-wing state. It tames any real escalation and just turns it into another Occupy Wall Street.
You seem to think I'm telling people to do nothing? Why? Is the only alternative to nothing to dress up like a slave owner and kiss US army ass?
ok
I've been out there with these people since they started coming to the local protests my comrades and I started back in February. They absolutely have been deescalating any actual potential leftism because they give people the idea that the neolibs will swoop in and save the day rather than looking for a better solution to our billionaire beholden, two party farce of a democracy. I've been able to reach quite a few people by being a consistent, reliable person there but when indivisible rolls up trying to get people to vote for them rather than organizing their local communities, it's redirecting people's energy towards the wrong thing.
Saying we're a bunch of keyboard warriors that aren't out there hitting the pavement is almost the same as saying the 2A conservatives are the only ones with guns.
damn, you better give up and just let indivisble have the movement
if you don't want democrats to take over, you need to get out there and take over
Could you give me some advice on how to instantaneously win over millions of hearts and minds? Or are you saying I should just roll over and let the neolibs do their thing?
Oh, I'm sorry, is doing revolutionary organizing gonna take time and work and dealing with annoying people? Is the struggle a struggle?
You need to actually put in some fucking work, learn, build skills, build an organization, and deploy that organization to these protests to win people over. I'm doing it every single fucking day and it has been productive. It has moved large numbers of people closer to the politics we need. Your belief that we need to invent a Convince the Masses of Communism button and press it or lose is exactly why I'm calling you a loser. You're gonna need to talk to people who might not already agree with you, and who might not even agree with you after you talk to them!
I get your criticisms, but if you go back and read @calidris@hexbear.net"s comment, he says he's doing exactly what you're advocating and is expressing some frustration with people who are tugging on the other end of the rope.
If you're engaging with people in real life the same way you are on here, I'm surprised you're able to make any progress. And if you don't, why do you have more patience with them than you do with us?
Frankly because you all should know better. Instead the site is filled with politically demobilizing idealistic takes. My audience right now is the self-righteous strain of political disengagement from a bunch of people who supposedly want to build communism on a website known for crude and blunt communication.
Okay but you're getting multiple replies from people doing the thing you want them to do and expressing some frustration over the experience and your response has been to continue to do your best R. Lee Ermey impression at them.
i'm mad red and nude and there's nothing you can do about it
ok but yes I concede that @calidris@hexbear.net is doing the right thing and I apologize for lumping them in with the rest of the people on here who are very much not. Sorry calidris, you do not deserve to be a target of my scorn.
I wholeheartedly accept your apology. We need leftist unity in all things.
Sometimes we just need a kick in the ass, just tryna point out that there's also been what looks to me like good faith engagement.
I would imagine crude and blunt is a multiple times a day encounter IRL, too. At least where I am. Don't get me wrong, so are ill intentions couched in polite wordcraft, so skill when conversing with either is necessary. Online is practice.
I went to an indivisible protest. They're completely worthless
100%, the indivisible protest organizers are our enemies and we should see them as such. But they aren't the same as the masses of attendees, who are what we need to be contesting for. Call your own 50501 protest, organize it, put it out there, and advance a radical line. It works. That's how you defeat our enemies.
Stick to that line then instead of calling everyone idiots and assholes. It's nice that you got liberals to clap at communism,mow try to apply those same skills of persuasion to communists and maybe you'd have a shred of credibility here
Protesting trump does fuck all. It just feeds his ego that the left are mad at him. Unless you're prepared to get violent, you're just wasting your time.