If --->"A riot is the language of the unheard." peaceful protests are the warning that "we the people do not consent" to the choices our governments are making.
no where in time has a government actually, realistically, significantly listened to peaceful protestors.if you go back in time and look at the big stuff
boston tea dunking
suffragettes
anti-war
LGBT pride
governments didnt change their stance due to seeing people waving flags or doing parades on the streets. what you actually find is things started moving when people organised petitions to get the conversation moving within the head of governments chambers
i know "indivisible" is a business, selling merch. taking donations. but if they actually cared about a certain cause, their energy would be utilised better getting petitions wrote to force government representatives to start talking about certain causes in parliaments, senate, congress halls
so next time you see a social media advert of "indivisible" trying to recruit protesters to certain events, just have a little check to see if they are also asking all attendees pledging to come to also sign a petition, OR be directed to their merch store to buy some flags, banners, placards, t-shirts and other protest material
You don't know enough history to speak on that.
And you're only pulling on 1 scrawny little thread there.
There are many different organizations coming together right now,
finally getting a glimpse of understanding intersectionality.
Not all of the current events look or feel the same but you will find the petitioners and antifascists - young kids and people who need help walking. Politicians and homeless.
There are many things going on at the same time right now that will affect how the future looks: protest is one, rolling and full economic blackouts, political change because there is no going back to the way it used to be: as it should be.
"The revolution will not be televised" but it may end up as a live stream.
You mistake protest for 1 thing when it is actually too many things to list and it can always evolve in the moment.
Non-Violent resistance takes many different forms:
Crypto and decentralized networks. Off grid living. Mutual Aid networks. Art. Music. Poetry. Comedians. How you dress. Nelson Mandela in a cell. Mother Teresa's vow of service. Street Art. A man on the mountain. A man walking town to town with 12 disciples. Quiet women. Millions of people no one will ever hear of.
Maybe one person thinks sabotage is spreading misinformation or blowing something up and, another thinks that being stupid and functionally distracting is their strength.
Who knows? Maybe the monks who meditate on peace and loving kindness are holding back war and hate.
MLK's focus was on nonviolent action but there can be no discounting the effect it had on everyday people when it was met with violence. There were also entire coalitions that were armed and willing to defend themselves.
Trump
has exposed the system for what it has always strained to be but the main point for him was that
he wasn't getting enough of
his entitlement.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” --- Carl Sagan The Demon Haunted World
I might be the bamboozled one who believes in the fiction of human equality since equal protection under the law does not actually exist.