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I'm an idiot, I just realized what the point of protests is (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 month ago by CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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Protests aren't about sending a message to the government. The government doesn't give a shit and will not listen. Protests are about sending a message to the people, about signaling what should be accepted and what should not. Protests are about spreading an idea, about leading by example, about signalling to others "hey, you're not alone in your discontent!"

I think the very word "protest" is wrong. They aren't protests. They're demonstrations.

The anti-ICE demonstrations will not convince an evil government to stop abducting people. But they do send the message to everyone else that we don't have to and in fact should not let ICE abduct our neighbors. The anti-genocide demonstrations were never going to stop genocidal western governments from helping Israel slaughter civilians, but they did help spread a message around the world that people need to do something to try to stop it.

I feel like I should have known this already.

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[-] Mardoniush@hexbear.net 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Different protests are for different things. Often several at once. Sometimes they are a petition (protests in China often are an appeal to the central government against corrupt local actions)

Some are for awareness as you said. Others to build a movement or test organisational capacity. Some are a threat, if you can get a million people to show up every day for a week you can get 10% to show with a rifle.

Finally some are deliberate attempts at escalation. To force the state to expend moral and physical energy against it, to push it to the point of having to show that it's ultimate justification for existing is violence against the working classes. These are the ones that Andor mentions as "breaking the banks" of the state.

And that's the primary purpose of these protest, to force the state to act against a wide swathe of those it nominally protects. LA will burn, but it will burn very brightly.