I’ll go

  1. I’m not alone.
  2. Trump:

Declares martial law

Or

Has defied court orders

Or

Has committed violence against government officials

Or

Dissolved all other branches of government

There is probably more but these are ones that come to mind.

Edit:

Deleted my responses. I asked for honest opinions. I’m not here to call balls and strikes.

  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
    182·
    24 hours ago

    Protesting accomplishes very little (I won’t say nothing) so I’m gonna go with… nothing, I’m gonna continue using my time better.

    Speaking as a former longtime activist.

    Go meet people and form communities, working groups, whatever. If going to a protest makes you feel better go nuts.

    But the actual work is done outside the protests. If you want to do something useful, find that.

    • whyrat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      I’ve been to protests; and I’ve volunteered for political campaigns. The second actually flipped a (US House) seat from red to blue (obviously the work of many people; I’m not thinking I was the deciding factor but it was a close election). The first left me with a pink hat and no noticeable change in how elected leaders acted.

      I need to be convinced the protest will achieve measurable changes; otherwise I’ll spend my time looking for the upcoming elections where there are close enough margins to feel my actions make a difference.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Okay okay

        Why were you convinced protesting achieves change? How does that happen?

        What changes did you want to see? How did you expect those to be implemented?

        This sounds to me like “I’ve done a politics once”, not any actual understanding of protests and their history

    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      23 hours ago

      Many years ago, I formed the opinion that protests rarely accomplish anything useful. If the government has decided to pass a particular bill, build a dam, cut costs or whatever, people often respond by protesting. Usually, the bill is passed, the dam is built and costs are cut regardless. The way I see it, protesting gives people a chance to feel like they’ve done their part, while the government does what they wants anyway. From the perspective of the government, it’s useful to allow people to have a channel where they can safely vent their anger. If you make protests illegal, people will form a resistance and start a guerrilla war, and that never ends well.

      There are notable exceptions too, so not all protests end up being useless. It’s just that the probabilities aren’t in our favor. You proposed other forms of political activism, and I totally agree.

      To me, all of this is rather theoretical, because I’ve never actually participated in any of this. Instead, I’ve just observed these events from the outside, while you’ve seen it from the inside. I’m really curious to know if agree or disagree with these thoughts.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        7 hours ago

        I formed the opinion that protests rarely accomplish anything useful.

        Mass Protests in China (which were probably illegal btw) may have contributed in the CCP recinding the “Zero Covid” policy.

        So maybe there were 99 other protests before that did nothing, but even if out of every 100 protests has one that did something, it’s still worth it.

      • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        22 hours ago

        Protests are great for bringing issues to light. They can make people and groups visible to garner support. They also take a long period of time to be effective, because people have to understand and find a way to relate to thr message.

        All of the shit the current administration are doing are blatantly illegal and protests won’t address that because the people who can do something about it are complicit and the morons who voted for this are getting what they wanted. They may eventually regret it, but only when they are personally impacted.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
        81·
        24 hours ago

        Cool. Have fun.

        I’m 38, I’ve been doing this a while. I camped during Occupy. I formed coalitions during the first Trump administration. I’ve helped start chapters of a couple organizations in my region, and people in my community know me. That’s worth more than your comment.