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   josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:22:13 JST josef

   in the last 5ish years i've seen a pivot from "Terrorism is the reason we need people with automatic rifles at airports and cameras everywhere spying on you" to "Terrorism is a word that means doing anything for political reasons other than voting. in a democracy, you vote. politics is voting. everything else, like protesting or direct action or even publishing the wrong thing, is Terrorism. you must only vote, that is all that is allowed"

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     L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ (mabande@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:26:43 JST L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ

     in reply to

     • James Widman

     @JamesWidman @jk Unfortunately, sheer numbers won't cut it.
     Just last week there was one of the largest protests of the last 50 years here, but since it was for the climate and peaceful, the media coverage was around one paragraph and the politicos has yet to comment.
     So, sure, numbers will stop the cops from rioting, but if the crowd's peaceful enough, they won't need to. The protest will just be ignored as it's not perceived as a threat.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:26:43 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ
     • James Widman

     @Mabande @JamesWidman @jk

     One of my refrains is that protests that are •rallies• (i.e. people gathering en masse to express their views) are primarily for the benefit of the people who participate. The message: “you are not alone, you are not the only one who feels this way, you have the capacity to take action.”

     But what capacity, for what action? That's a question that you answer when, for example, ICE invades your city.

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     James Widman (jameswidman@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:26:44 JST James Widman

     in reply to

     @jk the thing is, it becomes most effective not with a threat of violence, but instead with sheer numbers.

     when the numbers are so large that the cops know that they have family & friends in the protesting crowd, that's when cops lose their usual desire to start a riot.

     (and also it's a lot easier to build up those numbers in the first place if potential participants know they won't be fighting.)

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     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:26:45 JST josef

     in reply to

     part of the reason that old people will line up to get arrested at protests is they're retired so they don't fear a criminal record. but i think maybe another part of it is like, once you're old, authority is no longer a bunch of grownups who have power over you, most if not all of the people arresting you, trying you, sentencing you, and so on, are younger than you are. so, if you're old, you can look down your nose at them, perhaps rightly, as a bunch of stupid babies who don't know anything

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     josef (jk@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:26:45 JST josef

     in reply to

     something it took me a very long time to figure out, like, embarrassingly long, since the way they teach you about it at school avoids this uncomfortable part, is that 'peaceful protest' is fundamentally a threat of violence. people out in the streets holding objects, currently placards, imply later they might be holding something else. it is called a 'demonstration', in the same way that testing a nuclear weapon is a demonstration, it is deterrence through communication of capability and intent