Has protesting lost it's purpose?

[jackfaire]

I didn't want to hijack the other thread and I felt like my comments were kind of veering into another direction and I had this thought and kind of wondered about it.

In my adult life there have been many protests so far but they all seem...trendy.

In high school in history class I would read about these protests and marches with a goal. They had something they wanted to accomplish. They wanted equal rights being the most famous. They didn't just want to scream and shout that they didn't have any they wanted to get them.

Fast forward to the most famous one that I actually was personal witness to, though not a part of, Occupy.

So I first heard about Occupy before it even happened. A few days before it started I was at a coffee shop and in the bathroom there was a flier about a protest. The flier didn't really say what the protest was about merely where and when to be to join the protest.

I have to admit honestly given that I didn't have a lot of free time I thought of attending for a minute because, "hey maybe I could meet people" but it was during a day I worked so I opted not to go.

Fast forward to the first day of protests and I still hadn't heard what it was about. A month later still nothing. A month after that nothing still. Now you would think that this protest couldn't go on this long without me hearing about it.

The thing is no one could agree as to what it was about. "It's about treating the homeless like crap" "No it's about the housing crash," "It's about the 1%" "No it's about (insert any number of issues that concern people)"

And the protesters themselves weren't any clearer I started reading the signs they had posted as I went by and every sign covered a different issue from "Give us health care" to "Legalize Marijuana" None of the causes seemed to be about the same thing. Then it got worse when a reporter working for a free newspaper one with a very liberal bent that was on the side of the Occupiers went to a meeting and found a mess.

Something they found was that at the meetings it was "how do we protest better" nothing about "okay what's next" "we have their attention what's our message" Nothing. Be sure I am not saying this was every city or every group but this group seemed to not only care about the protesting alone but they were actively against trying to affect change.

In their opinion trying to change a broken system wouldn't work. However they also didn't want to overthrow the system either. They were basically yelling to be heard and then not being sure why they yelled in the first place.

I am not to be fair arguing one way or the other for the movement. That's not what this is about it's merely about if protesting has lost it's purpose and for this I want us to move onto the next major protest Cecil the Lion. I don't remember the hunter's name or a lot of specific details but I do remember and know this. People protested that this man could kill the lion. A lion they swore was a national treasure...to people they had never met. One this dentist destroyed. This Dentist needed to be destroyed. He was protested so hard that his practice closed and the country in which the lion was killed changed their laws...for two weeks.

After realizing no one was even looking at them with the dentist domestically to protest they changed the laws back. And those locals who felt the lion was so sacred people were angry on their behalf had never even really heard much about the lion before a bunch of Americans screamed out "We are so angry for you"

So after the protest no changes were made in the government and none of the people we were protesting for cared. Hey but at least we showed that Dentist a thing or two.

Well no eventually the protesters feeling they had accomplished their goal gave up protesting the man. He reopened his practice and everything went back to exactly the way it was before they got mad with absolutely nothing changed via protesting.

And now we come to Brock Turner who yes is a piece of shit of a human being but neither passed sentence nor set the laws that allowed such a lenient sentence.

Protesting him like protesting the Dentist, like protesting a bunch of low to mid income level commuters (seriously the area they chose was more frequented by people struggling to make ends meet than the 1%ers they were supposedly there to yell at.)

It feels good and I guess it feels productive in this case because he escaped what is considered serious punishment and that's not fair. And it's not fair but people will get bored and will let him off the hook eventually.

But where are the protests on the Judge who passed the light sentence? The judge who will still be on the bench passing out lighter sentences or has for the same crime.

Why aren't people in his district passing out leaflets reminding the people who vote for the judge that maybe next time it will be their daughter getting no justice for the crimes committed against them or even them having to watch as the judge decides a proper punishment is too harsh for an "Innocent Mistake" or whatever the hell he was thinking.

How about contacting the state legislature or protesting the capital building?

Why isn't anyone trying to take action?

This is why I wonder no matter which side you are on in any issue whether you agree with the protesters or not why has protesting become prey to the bystander effect?

That's what it feels like it feels like someone's fallen into the train tracks and rather than telling the engineer, jumping after the person, pulling them clear or anything we are all just screaming at the person who fell screaming 'HEY BUDDY YOU FELL DID YOU NOT KNOW YOU FELL YOU'RE ON THE TRACKS YOU....SPLAT. Well we told him that he fell so we are amazing people'

I think this apathy extends beyond that too. I know there are still people creating action and maybe the apathy isn't just my generation maybe every generation has most of it's protesters not caring.

But I think that every person who posts, "We are Orlando," a French flag or any other symbol that shows "we are with you and support you" should have to actually do at least one thing to actually show they support. Even if it's as small as giving blood. Donating money if you can or hell even something unrelated.

Something bad happens in the world balance it out by doing something good. Volunteer your time and energy.

Sorry stepping off my soap box now but what do you think? Has protesting become a "Look at how cool I am" has it always been that? Do they actually do any good or are they simply masturbatory efforts to make us feel like we are part of the solution.

P.S. In my state if you get enough signatures you can put initiatives on the Ballot to be voted on by the citizens seriously congress doesn't get to stop them or approve them they go straight on the ballot. When I met a guy who admitted proudly to having been arrested at the protests when I asked him about the article he kept on his desk what he was hoping to change he shrugged and told me he didn't figure anything would as the system was so corrupt. We went round and round but his only reason for protesting was "the 1% suck and the system's corrupt"

But he didn't just not know how to fix the system he had no interest in trying because you can't change what's broken.

So again thoughts?

[Gravekeeper]

But where are the protests on the Judge who passed the light sentence? The judge who will still be on the bench passing out lighter sentences or has for the same crime.

Um? I think you have some reading to do instead of sitting around passing judgement on a few random protests you don't think accomplished anything. The judge is still being protested even now, has had two movements to recall him, has been removed from one case already, then removed himself from all criminal cases going forward and has a number of politicians and peers still calling for his removal or resignation.

As for Occupy, if you're baffled about what a global protest was about and what it accomplished perhaps you should again, do some reading.

Also, hello, BLM?

No offense, but just because you don't know what happened doesn't mean nothing happened.

[jackfaire]

No offense, but just because you don't know what happened doesn't mean nothing happened.

Damn I apologize okay I guess the issue should be broken news outlets?

Honestly all of the news channels, newspapers etc. I have read, have been reading have made 0 mention of any of these things accomplishing anything like ever. I hadn't seen a single mention of the judge being protested. In fact every news outlet has presented the protests as being all aimed at Brock alone.

Same with the other protests none of them has cited anything as having been attributed to Occupy. And in my city the local Occupy movement didn't seem to accomplish anything except for trashing a city park so badly that it took thousands of dollars and months to make them useable again. (Again I was only talking about the local protest not the global one. And the fact that even people involved in the local protest that I had spoken to said "we accomplished nothing")

I didn't realize anything had ever come of these things because every newspaper I read even the ones on the side of the protesters were saying "but nothing has been accomplished"

So what newspaper/newstation covers the changes?

[Kheldarson]

So what newspaper/newstation covers the changes?

Usually local ones. Although I saw stuff about Persky on Slate.

But here's a recent article with related links: http://abc7news.com/news/protest-hel...lease/1496134/

[jackfaire]

Usually local ones. Although I saw stuff about Persky on Slate.

But here's a recent article with related links: http://abc7news.com/news/protest-hel...lease/1496134/

Thanks that's really helpful. As for the occupy movement I am still not even sure what it was about. I thought it was a direct response to the 2008 housing crisis.

Except now I still can't make a living wage as 15 minimum wage (the lowest you can make and still live on your own) continually gets voted down in my state. And the auto retail industry is doing the exact same subprime lending that the housing market was doing pre-2008.

So sometimes I figure coming to here and saying "This is what I see "protests don't do anything"" can and should lead to people like Kheldarson going "oh here (insert thing I have never seen and might not have seen had someone not pointed it out to me)" Which allows me to refine and change my POV. I kind of figured that was the point of Fratching you know we don't just argue everything going on in the world we educate each other about it too spread knowledge and helps us see where we might be mistaken.

So thanks Khel *smiles*

[Gravekeeper]

Honestly all of the news channels, newspapers etc. I have read, have been reading have made 0 mention of any of these things accomplishing anything like ever. I hadn't seen a single mention of the judge being protested. In fact every news outlet has presented the protests as being all aimed at Brock alone.

Well, US media. So Ratings > Everything for the most part. >.>

A good chunk of the main stream US media wasn't terribly fond of Occupy ( didn't gel well with the corporate overlords I guess ). BLM is getting similar treatment in some circles. Protesting social issues in general doesn't seem to get the best coverage in the big US news outlets. But Occupy and BLM got particularly bad treatment. With certain news outlets shrugging and pretending they have idea what all these people are mad about and no one has told them.

I always get far better information from ground level sources when stuff like this is happening. Twitter, blogs, etc. Which is a supremely sad reflection on the state of journalism in America.

I have had an irritating amount of arguments over BLM in the last few months since Trump emerged. The common refrain from the right side of the spectrum is always something to the vein of "I don't get what they're so mad about. What do they even want?". Either that or long, racist rants about what they think BLM wants. Coupled with some awful right wing Facebook memes or "statistics" about how brown people are stealing all the money.

You'll have more luck getting concise information by reading independent sources or international sources. I'm Canadian so I can rely on CBC as a main stream source or the BBC. Which is also good. I find the major US news outlets to be appalling though for the most part. Left and right.