By now, I'm sure many of us have heard the news: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are hosting rival rallies on the D.C. national mall next month. (For those who haven't heard, see here: <a class="postlink" href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2010/09/-watch-the-jon-stewart.html?hpid=artslot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tvblog ... id=artslot</a>.) I think that while most will agree that this will be hilarious, Stewart's rally also acknowledges the fact that most people, while they may feel strongly about a certain topic, do not necessarily have the time and money to fly out to yell and scream for a day. On the other hand, protests and protesters, from Ghandi to Martin Luther King Jr., have played an important part in the development of the US and the world. FOCUS: Has anyone ever attended a truly amazing rally, protest, picket line, etc. that really seemed to make a difference or did you go and it was a waste? Are there any rallies that you wish you could have attended (not just limited to your lifetime or your home country)? Sub-Focus: Share your experiences with annoying or inspiring protesters. Not sure if it's possible, but try to keep politics at a minimum, obnoxious/impressive protesters come from all across the political spectrum.
I think protests are more for the protesters than the cause, but maybe I'm wrong. Let's hear your stories.
There's a very good chance a bunch of friends and I will be going to this armed with multiple recording devices, in order to capture the potential awesomeness of this whole ordeal. Anyone know a good way to forge press passes?
Personally whenever I see a group of protesters I imagine how awesome it would be to hose them with a Vietnam War era flame thrower. The smell of burning corduroy and dreadlocks would be a satisfactory end to 90% of all protests.
Protesting meant something in up until about 1974. Now, it's for useless unclean tits that usually do it simply because they have nothing better to do with their time. Whether they're dreadlock-sporting tree huggers like CO-Motion or RUKUS, or simply destructive, strength-in-numbers masked pussies like the Black Bloc, they many different ways of demonstrating their for uselessness. I used to work as a strike buster (scab bodyguard) and Union protests are ugly in many kinds of ways. In places like Sudbury where there are mines, the picketers would probably literally kill the temps if we weren't there. We had to wear bulletproof vests while on duty because of the dangers involved. Then, you have the Tea Baggers. Now, don't get me wrong. I love my neighbours to the south. They have a great country and great people, but the Tea Party is a fucking disgrace to the United States. They protest taxes even though taxes actually dropped for 90% of U.S. citizens last year. They yearn for a peaceful, more simpler and traditional America that never actually existed. Lead by Zen genius Glen Beck, he actually bragged last week about how a flock of Geese flew over his latest Tea Party rally just as it began "like symbolic poetry". Except, of course, they were Canadian geese. For the billionth time, swing and a miss. I thought it was funny and inspirational when my wife was thrown out of a conference for telling Bobby Seale (founder of the Black Panthers) that he was a hypocrite and a rascist.
I don't have much actual experience with protesters, because you find that 90% of the crowd are obnoxious mouthbreathers who would turn up anything that smelled of incense and dissent. They're really good at chanting slogans, but if you ask them anything indepth about what they're protesting beyond the rhetoric you get get "uhmm... it's just bad, okay?" Accordingly, I tend to move away as fast as possible lest their stupidity is infectious. But I love watching environmental protests. I was watching a documentary the other week about the uranium mine protests in Northern Australia years ago. It was done from the protesters' point of view, and they had the typical stuff like sneaking onto mining land, chaining themselves to heavy equipment, linking arms and crossing barriers, swinging on chain link fences. A group of them had even managed to stop a truck hauling in a heavy bulldozer and chained themselves to the undercarriage of the truck. The same tactics get used today for anything they don't like. If I was on the other side of them, I wouldn't stand for that shit. As far as I'd be concerned, I have the lawful right to be doing what I'm doing. Don't like it, go talk to your duly elected government representative. Until they decide otherwise, I'm going ahead with it. But these companies let them get away with shit, and give them a ton of warnings, then the police gently arrest them and they're back in a few hours. Time is money people. I'd be fair. Whatever they're doing, I'd arrive and give them a clear, precise warning of the consequences. Trespass on my land? I will respond with the full force I'm entitled to, immediately. Destroy fences and equipment? Same thing. Let's see how fast you leave. Stupidly chain yourself to something? Too bad, I'm using it; with you attached or not. The idiots chaining themselves underneath the truck would have got 30 seconds warning before taking a ride to road rash city. People get away with too much shit.
Only one experience with protesters to speak of. Coming back from classes during the summer, I pop up on one of Penn State's quads and am surprised to find a moderately populated protest going on. I inquire as to what the fuck is going on, and it's a rally against Bush. Apparently he was giving a speech in an auditorium 400 yards up the hill, and I had no idea it was going to happen. Despite being filled with foaming at the mouth liberals, everyone seemed to distance themselves from a group of people handing out 9/11 Truth packets. My favorite memory is a couple people from the Architectural Engineering Department (my major) showing up and absolutely embarrassing these fools. I'll never forget the stuttering these assholes did as they tried to argue engineering with people that helped design and upgrade the Pentagon.
Okay, lets say that you're mining or foresting company X. A bunch of tree huggers break onto your land, demand all sorts of shit and chain themselves to the trees/tractors/work-people. Company X looks at the protesters and says "Well, shit, I guess we can't do any work until the demands of [idiots] are met", two months later, after so much pain and suffering on the protesters side, Company X works out a deal. Company X, being the sneaky people that they are, then goes tot he press and says "Look how environmental/people friendly/community driven we are, a valid point has been brought up by [protesters]! We're going to take immediate action right this instance!". Then, for the next three to six months, Company X dumps a small amount of money into some advertising and campaigning to make their public image a little better, using the protest as a crutch, and makes the amount of money they lost back in half the time and double their profits. While this might not be the case for everything, there are very few violent protest groups running around blowing up bull dozers. The amount of money these guys lose on some of the protests can be high (like oil companies) but it's easy to turn everything around and make your image look better. You know why? It's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission and free advertising is the best advertising. Frankly, if I was an logging company, I would love for people to chain themselves to my chainsaws.
I don't think I said anything about anybody blowing up anything. You are right, and it can be spun that way. But by the same token, two months of downtime can add up to serious money. This is especially so in the mining industry. You start telling people that the product you promised them is going to be several months late and you will get screamed at. Also, there's no guarantee the annoying little bastards won't come back next time. Or to someone else's site. Because they know now that all they've got to do is hang in there for a couple of months and they'll get what they ask for. Problem is, also, sometimes what they ask for is the whole operation to be shut down forever. But run over a few people and see if they come back. I realise that sounds harsh, but fuck it. Have some self responsibility. As far as I'm concerned, if you're in the act of breaking the law you can kiss your 'civil rights' goodbye.
Alt-Focus While doing strike security, I've taken my licks: - Hit in the chest with a snowball that had a small ball-peen hammer head in it. It was only lobbed but still was one of the worst things I could possibly think of that's happened to me. I couldn't breathe right for days. - Picketer tried to stab me through my foot with sharpened picket sign, thank the fuck Christ for steel toed boots. - Had my static car nearly rolled after being surrounded by picketers following me. They were not strong enough to lift it, so I was cracking up laughing inside the car at them while the P.I. that was with me was ghost white. - Called bad names. - Punched square in the face keeping a group violent picketers away from temps at shift change. - Dozen and dozens of attempted blindings with laser pointers and 10,000,000+ candlewatt lights. - Had a circular saw blade thrown at me frisbee-style. It missed widely.
I know there's a not-small military presence on this board, so a lot of you might remember the Black Beret controversy from 2000-2001, when Eric Shinseki decided to make that beret (formerly for 75th Rgt Rangers exclusively) the official headgear for everyone. Two former Rangers (Dave Scott, David Nielsen) marched in protest, from Ft. Benning to Washington, DC. I knew Nielsen personally, so I figured I'd meet up with them in DC to lend support, as did a lot of people actually. Nothing loud or violent, just a gathering at the Pentagon, then marching to the Lincoln Memorial for the rally itself. Some good speeches from Nielsen, Sandee Rouse ("Gold Star Mother") and Bob Black, historian. All in all, a great show of brotherhood from Rangers, regular Army, and even the other branches. The march took one month, the rally a few hours, and CNN covered it for precisely 2 minutes. And at the end of it all, Shinseki stuck with his decision, and the Army got the morale boost it desperately needed (?).
I lived in Boulder, CO for 4 years so I've seen people protest everything under the sun. The best was in 2006 a bunch of anti-war people organized a "funeral protest" where they decided to make a fake coffin then a have a column of people with signs quietly follow, I think they even had a drummer. Then when they were crossing a street a Desert Camo 2 1/2 ton truck decided to drive right through (really slow, kinda just wedged himself in). The driver was dressed up as swamp thing from Con Air, in the back a bunch of frat kids were playing rock music and drinking beer. Then they went around the block, got in front of the column and started throwing beer cans. It was funny as hell. I later found out that the driver was an Iraq Vet who lost a bunch of friends and was pissed about the protesters staging a funeral to further their agenda, when most didn't even know anybody who served and in a town that routinely throws rocks at Joes in uniform.
With the above post we are approaching a slippery slope with this thread going into political world. Don't do it. As for my opinion of what I just watched (and protesters in general), my step brother served 3 tours. I think that about sums it up. I've said many times, if you're so proud of being "for your cause", whatever that may be, so as to be part of a protest then why cover your face?
Bingo. With the exception of very few historical demonstrations (The Great March on Washington), most of these things have been politically impotent circle-jerks engineered to make white people feel good about themselves in one way or another. It's a lukewarm substitute for genuine personal sacrifice, but it packs more of a punch with your average Joe Fuckface because he gets to yell and hold signs and, golly, he might even be on the T.V. news. Rather than spend their time raising money to hire a good lobbyist, which is what anyone who ever gets anything done opts to do, they put in their one afternoon of standing around like jackasses, and go home to nap in a cocoon of smug self-satisfaction. Wake the fuck up. American political activism is dead.
There are so many things wrong with this on so many levels....I Reserve the right to edit later when I am sober and can delicately walk the no politics line.
Slightly altering focus-- before I reverted to type in the suburbs, I've been stuck in this "protest" every last Friday on the Northwest Side of Chicago. For the record-- CRITICAL MASS FUCKING SUCKS For those who don't know, "Critical Mass" is a "protest" of bicycle riders who at the last Friday of each month, all mob together and ride on the streets. By virtue of their "mass" they can just swarm through traffic stops and take up the entire street. It goes on in a number of cities, including Chicago. Because Critical (M)assholes are dirty hipsters, they stick to the North West Side of Chicago, in particular, at the intersection of Milwaukee, North, and Damen, this fucks up traffic beyond belief, mostly for people trying to get home at the end of a long week. Look, I understand the concept of the "protest"-- you want to ride. But here's the rub: (i) you are in the way of people trying to get home from work, (ii) you are middle class white kids who basically are supported by your parents or get by based on your lack of responsibilities and/or ambition in cheap neighborhoods you didn't have to grow up in, and (iii) you're riding a toy. It's a toy. Not a mode of transportation. Not an environmental choice. A toy. No different than a pogo stick, a scooter, shoes with wheels in the heels, or a plastic inflatable ball that you bounce off your ass. And you're IN. THE. FUCKING. WAY. Seriously, nothing instills hatred in me more than Critical Mass. It's completely irrational. I should have thrown batteries or something like that, but I didn't. I know at least a couple times, people in Chicago have plowed their cars through the crowd.
Ok, so you live by the eye-for-an-eye principle? Real mature. I agree with you that if someone is breaking a law in protest, then they deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It doesn't mean, however, that the other side has the right to break the law also in retaliation. One instance where I was witness to a protest was a few years ago when that Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. A lunatic philosophy prof put it up on his door just to be inflammatory and obviously the Muslim students took issue and then the whole academic freedom issue was raised, blah, blah. It was actually pretty awesome because all this prof wanted was press, and the protest blocked all TV cameras and reporters from speaking with said prof so he couldn't tout his blowhard viewpoint complete with signs saying all he was was a media whore for the cameras to capture for the local news. The guy wasn't making a point about academic freedom as that only exists within the classroom, and while his right to exercise free speech was the reason he claimed for doing it, which he obviously does have the right, what were his other reasons? I actually asked him that question personally, and he had no answer. He did illicit a response, but not the one he anticipated, and he ended up looking like an idiot, so in that sense, it was a successful protest.
Did I fucking say that? Show me where I fucking said that? This may seem like an overreaction, but you're the unlucky idiot who broke the camel's back. There's a lot of people on this board who think and communicate well. And there's a lot of people who seem to have a knack for reading something, transposing some bullshit from the ether into it and then arguing the made up shit back to the author. Go back and read what I wrote. I never said anything about an eye for an eye. I never said anything about breaking the law. What I said was, and I quote myself: Get some reading comprehension or shut the fuck up. I did not, and do not, advocate breaking the law. Unlike the protest monkeys who will trample all over laws they don't like, I will abide by them all. I may complain about them, but I will abide by them.