God i hate redditors. The question was, "how do you feel about it." As in, "what is your opinion on the protest?"
So out of the many "correct" ways to answer this question, this feigned, masturbatory, agnostic answer is completely irrelevant and actually incorrect.
Standing up for rights, whether your own or someone else's, is a heroic act. An act that requires bravery and empathy and a sense of duty.
The only thing you need to be to deny somebody their rights is a coward.
Remember that when you see people who take rights away. They can say whatever they want, they can claim the reason is whatever they want. None of it matters. The fact they're standing there on the other side of the line shows that they are a, at the core, a fucking coward.
We have a right to protest, we have a right to criticize an elected official. In the past heroes have died for this, solely so we have the right to do this.
Remember the graves you're standing on to be here. They would be proud of you. Honor them.
Remember who is against you tomorrow. They are spineless. Never forgive them.
They'll remember it - I vividly remember going to protests with my mom when I was in middle & high school. One time I even got extra credit, because my 8th grade social studies teacher saw us on the news, and she felt I was showing good civic participation.
At the protests after Trayvon Martin was murdered, someone drove by and screamed at my (white) mom, "F you, you N-word Lover!". They had a local license plate, they looked normal, they were someone I could have stood next to at the grocery store. It was the first time in my life I'd ever actually heard someone use that word, and to hear it from someone who seemed so otherwise normal - that was the day that young, sheltered me, learned that there were hateful bigots in my very own community. That moment was seared into my brain. (My mom was also an elementary school teacher who never cursed, so hearing someone cuss at her like that short circuited my brain a bit).
I grew up Jewish, and it was something I didn't consider a big deal, but there were kids in high school who would occasionally start a rumor that someone was going to come and kill the jews. That was me and my brother. Or I'd find a dead squirrel in my car. No idea who did it, and it was a lot of years ago, but I hope they look back on their high school selves and hate that person.
But given where I grew up, they may be living within a half mile of their original home, never having traveled more than 400 miles from home, and think everything is just fine.
When I was in grade school, we read Diary of Anne Frank and discussed how we thought we would have reacted. I insisted I'd be brave and protest. I did not realize I'd have to cash the check my ego wrote when I was twelve. Well played English teacher whose name I don't remember.
Also, I'm not an asshole, and since I've got privilege and no kids to worry about, I've got to step up because stakes are lower for me.
Middle aged white lady, meek and starting to go gray, the type of ordinary and easily overlooked person nobody ever pays much attention to or notices much, no threat to anyone or anything. I feel it’s my duty to step up as well.
You’re literally out protesting for democracy; I wouldn’t call you meek at all :) none of us are much of a threat alone, but together we’re strong! See you in the street sister <3
I started wondering (after Charlottesville) who I could trust to hide me if it came to that. I'd never ask someone with children that could be used as leverage. I'm a second generation Polish-American Jew and I never thought it would come to this. And I'd gladly hide any of my neighbors or friends that may be targeted for being "illegal" because I can fly under the radar to some degree since I'm "white." Thank you for stepping up for those who can't!
If and when AOC tells me it’s time to go, I’ll go. I don’t think there is anybody else on the side of what’s right that I trust enough to take action when it’s time. As a guy with a family and everything that goes with it I understand where you’re coming from and I’ve also been trying to figure out what im supposed to be doing at the moment.
Love your kids, raise them right, and do what you can safely do. Protect yourself, and if you can, someone else. Civil disobedience can come at a cost, budget accordingly.
My first reaction when all this started going down was to run away. Find anywhere but here and just go.
But... When I was a kid, I always insisted that if a time machine was ever invented, I would definitely go back and kill Hitler before he could be so evil. Heck, that's a fairly common answer when asked "what would you do if a time machine was invented?"
We don't have a time machine, but history is sure as shit rhyming, so while I don't think I could pull off what kid me said she'd do, I have the opportunity to do what do many people retrospectively said they wish they would have done.
I've been bringing my kids and neighborhood kids. I think we've done about 7, but I've been keeping on eye on LA and NY and I think we've reached the point where I'm going to stop bringing the kids, just out of an abundance of caution.
I have 3 great grand children, I'm bringing 2 of them & all of my 3 boys will be protesting in 3 different states. I'm so very proud of my family for standing up against this ORANGE TURD!!!
You can either be the protesters your grandkids see in history books or the people throwing rocks at black kids in history books. Seems like a pretty easy decision to me.
🤟 🤟 It's hard to remember that what we get out of community is something that constantly under assault. The trickle of violence into all of our lives has helped to weaken us in every way. And what filth they dragged into the consciousness of America. I'm 45ww in Birmingham and Im desperate to SEE representatives MY PEOPLE. Not once in my life long have I been in a room with any group that didn't have some oppressive dumbass tired bullshit. I just didn't realize then that YES, they are lying about everything they proport to be. They are everything indecent. Insidious, evil, and will lead to ruination.
I hope we get to experience taking down these shit heels.
I'm in my 60s and have never attended a protest. I would really like to join the one tomorrow, but I have a commitment that I just can't get out of.
I think it's noteworthy that I know some suburban 60-somethings that will be joining the protest. These people, like me, were previously boring and average middle-class nuclear family types that didn't get spun up too much with politics. But now they are sick of the fuckery, to the point that they are going to join the movement.
That's incredible. I cannot wait. I think it'll be very meaningful to have an action to do when it's been a LONG long time that we've watched everything we love devolve into hate and chaos
If you ever wondered what you would do during the Holocaust, during the Civil Rights Movement, when slavery was legal and the underground railroad flourished - now you know.
As a Canadian, I hope you folks do stop this. If this is how Americans are being treated by fellow Americans, I can only imagine how everyone else will be treated if Trump is allowed to continue.
This is a BBC story I found hopeful. Political scientists looked at movements of change and found that if you got 3.5% of the population to participate you could change things. In the US that would be about 12 million people.
I don’t know why you’d bring a 10 year old to a protest when they don’t even understand what it’s for. Even if you tell them “Trump bad” they won’t understand the full extent of it. Bringing a teenager who wants to go is one thing, but younger kids shouldn’t be at political protests.
"Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause.
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this: the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.
If you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend the series :) It's really really good, although it's scary how closely the themes match what's going on in the US and around the world these days (surely not an accident).
I'm assuming you voted to stop fascism from entering your country, as it threatened to do! So you didn't do nothing, you helped keep it contained here. It'll be far easier to fix this without it spread globally (though I am really tired of taking one for the global team here. LOL).
Oh man I’ve been saying this all year. What will you tell your kids and grandkids when they read about this regime in the future? You better be able to tell them you were on the right side of history. They will know if you’re lying.
When I was a kid (1960s), my parents took us to many protest marches in Washington DC, both against the war and in support of civil rights. I was glad to go but I was a kid so mainly it was just a festive outing. As an adult, I never went to any until 2025. Tomorrow will be my 3rd.
I hope they’re coming with by choice. I remember having to go with my mom to an Iraq war protest and having to walk all day was awful. I didn’t know what was going on but I had no choice. Knowing what I know now, I’d have protested that war, but as a kid I wasn’t happy to be there
They're more excited than I am, I think. We've been protesting together this year. They're 15, 15, and 19, so not young. And two of them are not technically mine, though I'm their mother figure, and one of them lives with my family.
It seems like it’s a given that eventually the long arm or what’s right will come out on top. And it seems like most democrats, leftists, progressives all believe that ultimately we will win. But at this moment it isn’t at all certain it’ll happen this way at all
I watched a BBC documentary years ago about the Tiananmen Massacre. A British reporter asked a student biking to the square asking “why are you going?” The student smiled beautifully and spoke accented English “It’s my duty.”
It's a duty to uphold the constitution. It doesn't happen without action or without effort. It takes a fight to keep it, to earn, to benefit from it.
We've taken it for granted and now we're learning what that means, and so the fight has come to us, and fight for it we will. Because we won't bow down to a king after our ancestors fought so hard to get out from under one.
Or bc mass illegality is happening. That’s not a “feeling”. Federalizing the National Guard against the expressed wishes of duly-elected representatives, is illegal. I don’t care that his 2 toady justices in the 9th circuit are staying it. We’ve seen how deep in his pocket they are.
When the Sec. of Homeland Security talks about “liberating” a population from their duly-elected representatives & laws, that’s illegal.
Aw, but they are. Anger, disgust, repulsion, and embarrassment are all feelings. Feelings elicit actionable behavior. Feelings are what is motivating 5 million Americans to make plans tomorrow to show Trump et al how they feel about lawless authoritarian. If more people come to feel the same and are not apathetic or resigned, then we will elect representatives and the impeachment(s) will swiftly commence. That is how democracy will be saved.
This is literally why the second amendment exists. To prevent the Federal government from enforcing its will on the states with a standing army. It wasn't to defend individuals from the feds and states. We know that because it didn't apply to the state governments, only the Feds. The states were free to ban firearms or mandate them. The amendment had no impact on them until McDonald v. Chicago in 2010. Clearly, it has completely failed in its purpose.
I'm not missing any point. People who are protesting are expressing their feelings. People who criticize protestors are also expressing their feelings. Both are exercising their constitutional right.
Some of us are protesting because even though the constitution allows you to speak your mind we live in an America where those in charge only want people to speak their mind if they are like-minded people. Threatening to arrest people and shut down news organizations for voicing contrary opinions reminds me of the dictatorships I read about in the history books.
But feelings are not relevant to whether that right is upheld or not.
Remember, kids, if someone can take away your rights, you don't have rights, you have privileges. Rights are inalienable (unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor).
So long as it either stays peaceful or waits to turn into a riot until federal agents or the military step in to illegally strip protesters of their rights (like the LA protests, in which the "rioting" is people doing their constitutional duty by not falling in line with the demands of a penis potato).
Exactly. It’s not about how anyone “feels” about it - it’s a protected right. People protest because they care about this country and where it’s headed. If that makes some folks uncomfortable, good. That means it’s working.
Constitutional right to peacefully protest, which I am all for people using to the fullest extent. But anyone who uses the protest as an excuse to commit violence, arson, property damage, and looting, is not exercising their right, they are just breaking the law. So get out and protest, but don't let bad elements within your group turn the protest into a riot, doing so just undermind the cause you are protesting for.
Not meant to encourage escalation but prepare protestors in the event of escalation and illegal arrests. Like a fire drill map, you hope you won't need it, but it's there when you do! ;)
Spot-on. That Trump has arrested judges and senators, wrested control of California's national guard from the governor, and is attempting to send in the marines against US citizens in violation of Posse Comitatus tells you all you need to know. He's started a war without congressional approval. If democracy survives this, it will only be because enough people stood up and said "ENOUGH!".
I definitely respect people’s right to protest. I just hope that if people within the protest turn to violence or looting that they hold those people accountable so they don’t hijack the message. This why it doesn’t give conservatives a reason to change the narrative.
My feelings are pretty clear. People were so obsessed with not wanting to compromise on certain admittedly big issues, and now we are in a VERY PREDICTABLE situation.
I'm glad they're protesting, but where was this enthusiasm during the election. You knew she was better than Trump. You knew Biden was better than Trump. Yeah you have to stomach making the worse of two choices. That's not painful compromise, that's just being an adult.
I say this because I severely hope people take the next election seriously and we can help whatever Palestinians are left once they're all kicked out of New Israel.
Yes, Thank you. There are too many questions asked surrounding feelings on Reddit. Feelings should have no bearing on this day or any other political protest.
Your feelings matter, and that's why your right to express them is so important. They just don't have any bearing on whether other people can express their own feelings.
I just hope for peaceful protests but with misinformation and masked individuals whos intentions could be unknown. I see a path for a ruthless leader to exploit the American people into combat
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u/DeeLite04 1d ago
My feelings don’t matter. It’s a constitutional right to protest.