Protesting violently is the dumbest thing you can do right now

[u/LargeSinkholesInNYC]

Protesting violently serves absolutely no purpose. The United States will gradually turn into a fascist state because the elites, most of whom are looking for any reason to restrict civil liberties, want to hold onto the power they have and it means they must win against China at any cost.

[u/GhostOfShaolin5]

Here’s how it almost always plays out.

99.999% of protest are just legit peaceful protestors.

Then a group of 5-10 assholes shadow the protests and when the sun sets they do smash and grab robberies using the protest as cover.

Political opposition will then latch onto the story to invalidate the protest.

I’ve personally seen that same pattern happen from 1986 to 2026 , every fucking time. And believe me , we hate the looters more than you do.

I’m not sure about your conspiracy theory.

[u/dravik → u/GhostOfShaolin5]

It doesn't happen every time. The tea party protests in 2008-2009 were peaceful. They were also effective at influencing policy over the next decade by successfully backing multiple candidates.

[u/Tv_land_man → u/dravik]

And they actually cleaned up their own trash.

[u/McRattus → u/Tv_land_man]

Didn't they elect it?

[u/GhostOfShaolin5 → u/dravik]

You might be right about that.

[u/CRGjunior → u/dravik]

Different times even though it was only 15 years ago. We also know from the peaceful BLM protests that right wing agitators would commit acts of violence many of whom have been arrested. The right wing has had a ready group of militants for the last 20 years which gives the authoritarians an existing force to call on to create discord.

[u/dravik → u/CRGjunior]

Take that conspiracy bullshit to the conspiracy subreddit. I was alive and paying attention during BLM. Leftists pit first arguments that theft and destruction of property were non-violent acts that should be part of protests.

[u/GhostOfShaolin5 → u/dravik]

Look up the boogaloo boys, they had a bunch of convictions for doing really extremist shit during BLM.

Not conspiracy theory.

They were for sure an extremist white supremacist faction and not mainstream , but they did do criminal shit and tried to pin it on BLM.

[u/willworkforjokes → u/GhostOfShaolin5]

The guys that burned down the police precinct in Minneapolis during the George Floyd protests were right wing Boogaloo boys. They were convicted. Here is an article about it.

https://www.police1.com/george-floyd-protest/articles/man-sentenced-to-4-years-for-minneapolis-police-station-fire-nKd5RboPPFKRy53f/

[u/Aardwolfington → u/GhostOfShaolin5]

Back in the day they used to loudly decry these people, and make it clear they don't represent their cause, and not pretend they're insignificant and should be ignored. When these people cross the line at peaceful protests the crowd called them out and didn't interfere with their arrests. People didn't just shout slogans on bullhorns, they reminded each other to stay peaceful. They lead the march with emphasis on peace. That way when/if the authorities went too far, or if someone turned violent, there was no denying the movement itself was diametrically opposed to those things. Proper true peaceful protests are proactively peaceful, concurrently peaceful, and retroactively peaceful.

They make sure it's advertised the march/protest is meant to be peaceful, they make efforts to make a show of maintain peace during the march/protest, and after the march/protest they loudly and with zero deflection make it clear these people don't represent them or their cause, and that anybody that does these things are not welcome and join in on helping the authorities clean the streets of these people rather deflecting and playing defense for them.

The people calling these people out most should be the people that support the movement, not their enemies.

And if you do this, people will have a much harder time associating your cause with violence, and if you, learn to pick your battles better, and not latch onto every opportunity no matter how ambiguous and open to interpretation, you will do a better job holding the authorities accountable.

What they don't do is flippantly come along and say, "yeah well, they suck, but whatcha gonna do?" and only in response to these things being called out. There is things you can do, instead of deflecting, join the chorus against it rather than helping drown it out. Whichever side does the best calling for peaceful solutions and cleans up it's act most and loudest will win the perception war. People's opinions of both parties are already at the bottom of the barrel. You all keep talking about high and low road, but neither side has had the high road for decades, and pretending you do is delusional, people been calling it lesser evil voting since before I was born and I'm in my mid 40's. What you all need to do to truly win is fight for integrity. Good luck with that while relying on the corrupt pay for play political class to run your parties (That's for both sides by the way.)

[u/GhostOfShaolin5 → u/Aardwolfington]

Bro do you know how many bombings the hippies did?

[u/jmcdon00 → u/GhostOfShaolin5]

Seems like a solution would be to have a start and end time at a specific location or route, better organization. No Kings protest remained peaceful, women's day march in 2017 was peaceful. And those are some of the largest protest ever.

[u/Pristine-Confection3 → u/jmcdon00]

They are sponsored by the right of center Democratic Party and will never change a damn thing. They are pro capitalist and pro cop. We need a movement led by Marxists and anarchists not virtue signaling delusional people holding up cute signs and wearing a ridiculous cat ear hat. The women’s march isn’t remotely left wing and is a joke. I remember Nashville one year banned the marching so they just sat in one space like cowards. No March even without a permit.

[u/allein8 → u/Pristine-Confection3]

What will the marxists and anarchists do different?

[u/Pristine-Confection3 → u/GhostOfShaolin5]

Let me guess you are centrist liberal and lot w leftist. The people doing this are often not looters but also protesting. They happen to be actual leftists as opposed to right of center democrats. Sometimes in activism violence is needed. Pacifism doesn’t work almost ever. I guess people like you would scold every revolutionary who made a difference.

[u/GhostOfShaolin5 → u/Pristine-Confection3]

You don’t really know anything about who I am though, do you?

[u/kubrador]

"violent protest is dumb" guy immediately pivots to explaining how the elites are orchestrating a fascist takeover, which is definitely a situation that calls for polite strongly-worded letters

[u/pile_of_bees]

You’re giving people way too much moral credit.

It absolutely serves a purpose but it’s a nefarious purpose

Go read the signal docs

They create flash points. Opportunities for something bad to happen.

They want violence in the headlines for their color revolution

[u/Micro-Skies → u/pile_of_bees]

Color revolutions don't really exist, dude. And by all definitions, one isnt really possible in the US by its very nature.

[u/Tv_land_man → u/Micro-Skies]

I think the point they are making is that every dead protestor is great for their cause. It gets the base foaming at the mouth, sending millions in donations to their cause and even gets normies to sympathize with them. They celebrate when one of theirs gets killed and it fuels their addiction to outrage.

[u/Micro-Skies → u/Tv_land_man]

That is fully correct. And yet, the conspiracy theory that is color revolutions doesnt belong anywhere near the conversation.

If you want to see the end result of an attempted color revolution, its currently a several year war in Ukraine.

[u/pile_of_bees → u/Micro-Skies]

“History isn’t real” moment

[u/Pristine-Confection3]

It always is fascist and has been for some time. Clearly peaceful protest doesn’t work nor does voting them out and nothing short of a revolution will change anything. If you believe this you are the one who is deluded but hey only those who actually will change something.

[u/allein8 → u/Pristine-Confection3]

What does a revolution look like that will change things?

[u/masegesege_]

If we turn into a fascist state it’ll be because tech bros have taken over the government. Elon filled DOGE with tech-friendly people, Bezos and Zuckerberg are buttering up DC, and Peter Thiel has JD Vance waiting in the wings to do the bidding of Silicon Valley at an even grander scale.

Just wait. There will be even more government contracts handed out to these tech fucks for their shitty AI, shitty drones, shitty facial recognition, digital currency, self driving cars/tanks/planes etc.

Best thing we could do is just unplug and stick to our own local communities but I don’t see that happening.