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Posted
3 hours ago, Eskimohorn said:

Just saw this post online…

Zen priest, Peter Coyote, on protest: "I’m watching the Los Angeles reaction to ICE raids with trepidation and regret.

Three years ago I taught a class at Harvard on the “theater of protest”— designed to help people understand why so many protests turn out to be Republican campaign videos working directly against the interests of the original protest.

A protest is an invitation to a better world.

It’s a ceremony.

No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at.

More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is.

The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress,etc.

The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust; who will not embarrass them.

If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change.

Everything else is a waste.

There are a few ways to get there:

1. Let women organize the event. They’re more collaborative. They’re more inclusive, and they don’t generally bring the undertones of violence men do.

2 Appoint monitors, give them yellow, vests and whistles. At the first sign of violence, they blow the whistles and the real protester sit down.

Let the police take out their aggression on the anarchists and the provocateurs trying to discredit the movement.

3. Dress like you’re going to church. It’s hard to be painted as a hoodlum when you’re dressed in clean, presentable clothes.

They don’t have to be fancy they just signal the respect for the occasion that you want to transmit to the audience.

4. Make your protest silent. Demonstrate your discipline to the American people. Let signs do the talking.

5. Go home at night. In the dark, you can’t tell the cops from the killers. Come back at dawn fresh and rested.

I have great fear that Trump’s staging with the National Guard and maybe the Marines is designed to clash with anarchists who are playing into his hands and offering him the opportunity to declare an insurrection.

It’s such a waste and it’s only because we haven’t thought things through strategically.

Nothing I thought of is particularly original.

It was all learned by watching the early civil rights protests in the 50s and 60s.

And it was the discipline and courage of African-Americans that drew such a clear line in the American sand that people were forced to take sides and that produced the civil rights act.

The American people are watching and once again if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in Republican campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this.

Wake up.
Vent at home.
In public practice discipline and self control.

It takes much more courage."
— Peter Coyote
Zen teacher and author/narrator, with Ken Burns

Note: Carry an American flag. As the administration creates a fake emergency to justify a state crackdown, it's important to honor the values and vision of democracy for which we're advocating.

When the Enquirer came for pics back in 2017, I smiled a big toothy grin and held a big flag as it felt so empowering and good to stand with my adult daughter, pastors, Franciscans, nuns, kids, parents, grandparents and some women from our women's groups for the values we tried to pass on.

After the protest, we sang and marched to a church where we heard poignant witness of immigrants trying to build a better life for their families against insurmountable odds.

Many Marines, National Guardsmen and vets are over on Threads and Substack expressinging their disagreement over being used by this lawless administration.

Peace, santi and shalom to all. emoji3522.png

— Leslie Flood Hershberger

It's not that there isn't merit in this, but it's so exhausting that one side has to be damned near "perfect" and the other side gets to be as toxic as possible without repercussion. What are the odds that the protests can all be done with the perfect tone and complete solidarity and absence of violence/destruction from anyone? And regardless of whether it's even near "perfect", it'll be like in an abusive relationship --- "LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

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Posted
30 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

I'm appalled that "Approve" is in the mid-30s.  

why? it used be dreadfully close to 50%. that's an improvement over equally idiotic polls and opinions of the past. celebrate the small victories

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Posted
1 hour ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

I'm appalled that "Approve" is in the mid-30s.  

Let's be honest--there's a lot of stupid in this country and social media has convinced them their opinion is valid and under-represented.   

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Posted
It's not that there isn't merit in this, but it's so exhausting that one side has to be damned near "perfect" and the other side gets to be as toxic as possible without repercussion. What are the odds that the protests can all be done with the perfect tone and complete solidarity and absence of violence/destruction from anyone? And regardless of whether it's even near "perfect", it'll be like in an abusive relationship --- "LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!"

Think it misses the point. Protests against authoritarian powers need to be non-violent using coordination and organization. The goal is not to strenuously object and vent frustration. The goal is to direct action. Unmask hypocrites. Reveal their true nature to as many people as possible. Make their lives uncomfortable.

Once there is violence and destruction, the protest is over. It’s a riot. Then the public wants to hold someone responsible. It gives the authoritarians power and control to do what they must. You see women and children and men dressed in suits get hospitalized, arrested, etc, that makes a bigger difference than anarchists getting bloodied.
Posted
3 minutes ago, Eskimohorn said:


Think it misses the point. Protests against authoritarian powers need to be non-violent using coordination and organization. The goal is not to strenuously object and vent frustration. The goal is to direct action. Unmask hypocrites. Reveal their true nature to as many people as possible. Make their lives uncomfortable.

Once there is violence and destruction, the protest is over. It’s a riot. Then the public wants to hold someone responsible. It gives the authoritarians power and control to do what they must. You see women and children and men dressed in suits get hospitalized, arrested, etc, that makes a bigger difference than anarchists getting bloodied.

Pretty sure you’re the one who’s missing the point. The starting point is that nothing in LA is a “riot” same with all of the George Floyd protests. With every large gathering there will be some bad actors who either support the cause using violence or who don’t care about the cause and see an opportunity to cause trouble. Local police know how to handle this without tear gassing and rubber bulletins the entire crowd (in theory at least). His other point was that anything the left protests get defined by the few while the right gets away with whatever the fuck because we are officially a shithole country. The very fact that we’re still having this conversation is obnoxious because even non troll regular contributors around here seem to be falling for the right’s tactics of defining the group by the acts of a few and more egregiously outright lies with photos of other events and bs stories from lying liars.  At minimum there should be agreement that nothing justifies national guard and fucking marines but here we are still debating what should be an open and shut question. No US military action against people on US soil. Period.

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