this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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[–] Saff@lemmy.ml 39 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Well…over a million marched in London to put a stop to Brexit and it didn’t do anything. Considering this conflict is even less so under the control of the British government I’m not sure what this march will do a damn thing.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if nothing comes of it, even if no policy is changed, it's still important for people to (peacefully) express their opposition to something they disagree with, rather than meekly accept whatever their government does.

This applies to any such protest, not just today's.

It's also important that they get out and vote for change when they have a chance.

[–] NAXLAB@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hijacking this comment to say:

The point of protest is to (peacefully) coerce the government by means of disruption. I'm making a huge boiling down of MLKs philosophy, but he was very clear: if you don't use methods of coercion, the government has no reason to pay attention.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Also very important to remember, the changes MLK fought for only came about after he was murdered by the CIA and there were massive riots, extremely violent in some cases.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But not The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Presumably you mean The Civil Rights Act of 1968?

I'd like to point out that while some things about the assassination of MLK don't add up, conspiracy theories don't agree about exactly who was behind the assassination. A civil case in 1999 pointed to the Mafia and Nashville law enforcement, for example.

Although there isn't sufficient evidence, I think, to draw a solid conclusion about any of these theories, I don't think they are outside the realm of plausibility.

After all, the FBI had expended quite a bit of effort to discredit MLK. They had mailed alleged sex tapes to King with a letter urging him to kill himself. And we now know that the FBI had put together a dossier of unverified claims. It's also well known King was wiretapped on the word of J E Hoover since 1963 and surveilled since 1956.

As threatened as racists in power were by MLK, it isn't a huge stretch to imagine one of the more corrupt ones going farther than simply attempting to discredit him or push him to suicide, since those tactics didn't work.

[–] MattsAlt@hexbear.net 30 points 1 year ago

So tired of "protests are useless" posting. There are good ways to make a critique of a movements but this is not it.

The past decade around the globe protest movements exploded into radical restructuring of various countries' way of governing. This particular protest doesn't seem like it will evolve into that, but no one ever predicted the outcome of past eruptions.

A protest isn't a reliable or advisable way to create a revolution, but they are still great organizing opportunities and solidarity building events.

Please stop with the nihilism

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

I was there. Well worth it just to see that good people do exist.

[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The people are not part of it anymore. They haven’t been listened to in a very long time.