Stop attacking people not doing what you think they should be doing, Binghamton, NY protest

[frogstar0]

Went to my local protest. Several hundred people with signs on the sidewalk on a busy six lane road in front of the mall, and Wegmans. Stretched out for about 500 feet. A group of around ten people got it the turn lane and using a couple bullhorns yelled at the crowd. They made cars go around them to turn into the mall. They seemed to think we were not doing enough. However, I am not sure what they thought should be done. First of all, no one could not understand what they were saying. Traffic noise, the crowd spread out etc made it impossible to even understand and their bullhorn made whatever they said unintelligible. In short they were being jerks. Look at me! If you are not doing exactly what I think you should you are wrong.

I did engage a couple of them. I understand they are hurt, angry etc. So were the other several hundred people protesting. I told the, they were dividing people and that winning politics requires addition not subtraction. I asked how many times had someone being a jerk convinced them of anything? I still do not know what exactly they thought people should be doing. People left because of them. All they accomplished was making their allies made at them.

We are facing people who want and are willing to kill us. We cannot afford to do things that divide us. We have to welcome people who we disagree with on many issues. And insisting that others do exactly what we want is not helping. Rant over.

[Sanity Claws]

1. How many young people were there?

I know SUNY has a 4-year college in Binghamton and am wondering if many of the college students turned out.

I went to a group in the Bronx (I didn't have time in my schedule to go to the big one in Manhattan) and it was mostly older folks, 55+. There were some people in their 40s but I don't think anyone in their 20s showed up. Maybe they went to the Manhattan march.

[frogstar0]

9. Some younger, mostly over 50

Not a lot of younger folks and, many with parents…at least it looked like that.

[Hellbound Hellhound]

11. I drove to that one!

40 here, but you're right, I only saw... Maybe a few dozen young folk. The vast majority were older than me or retirement age. Honestly, while I feel good about doing SOMETHING that was a hell of a commute and my legs are still aching.

[Walleye]

2. I don't think you ever accomplish anything with bullhorns

I know I can’t understand what they’re saying, and I don’t like being yelled at. I’m tired of it.

[LisaM]

3. Yes, there does seem to be a lack of shared purpose sometimes.

I have encountered this in Seattle. And it's the goofiest or loudest people who get the coverage. During the Iraq invasion, I attended a number of protests. About 97% of the crowds were normally-dressed people marching with signs and en bloc. The TV cameras would pick out the Portland anarchist contingent (always a problem in Seattle marches) and the people dressed as Sea Turtles.

I do remember when I was in the Women's March, the women joined elbows and prevented people who were there with other agendas from joining in.

[blubunyip]

4. maybe disrupters

not in sync with the protestors? Just there to make people leave. I question their alliances.

[frogstar0]

10. No, they were anti TACO

But helping TACO by their tactics.

[JI7]

5. There are some people that make it more about them

I said before that just because someone is not on the ground does not mean they support what is going on. It's like they think people should suffer or some shit . Many are openly public about where they stand by posting online about it. That's how things are these days.

[Timeflyer]

6. Thank you for getting out there and resisting. It's hard work, frustrating at times, but we must.

[Blue Full Moon]

7. Hold feet to the fire.

[jfz9580m]

8. Yasha Levine made this exact point a while back

https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/we-all-live-in-the-vampire-castle?utm_source=publication-search

It has been almost twelve years now since he wrote this essay — which was about a toxic and destructive political culture that had appeared in left-liberal circles on the back of social media technologies. One of the core traits of this new formation was to viciously attack people inside your own camp — to strip down and cancel people for some perceived transgression…for saying the wrong thing, for not being pure enough, for having too much privilege. As Fisher pointed out, the people engaged in this new politics were usually atomized and lacked any connections to each other in the real world. Instead, their in-group identity was built around virtue signaling and online gang-stalking mobs and spectacle. It was all about tearing people down — a kind of macabre entertainment in the ignorant and malicious mob justice against people who were or could have been comrades, people who were on “your side.” Fisher was deeply depressed by the emergence of this toxic culture and that he considered exiting politics altogether. To him this wasn’t politics; it was anti-politics. Two years later, he killed himself.

Speaking of Yasha, I have to log off and go focus. I have been cut off from my real world colleagues and friends thanks to horrible crap from these lousy tech cos’ coup of everything with bloatware.
Yasha has become a sort of guide in this chaos the absence of a formal group..