Your opinion doesn’t matter—not by itself. No matter how heartfelt or important to you personally, your thoughts about Gaza or legal weed or the war on skinny jeans don’t mean anything merely because they reside inside your.
Your opinion matters only if you express it. Expression of an opinion doesn’t change anything unless it’s done effectively. Opinions expressed en masse, alongside others who share your views, are more likely to effect change—but that’s not enough to move the needle. What changes policy, what improves lives for the foreseeable future, what makes history on a radical scale, is a sustained mass movement that expresses an opinion so aggressively that the ruling classes are forced to change course or risk losing their power and privilege to revolutionary overthrow.
American conservatives and rightwingers have strong opinions on a variety of issues. But they express them on the couch or online rather than in the streets, where it matters. On the rare occasion when venture into the public sphere, our protests are usually sporadic and unsustained, like the anti biden Jan 6 march or militantly nonviolent, like the annual march for lifee. Neither had any effect. Rightie demonstrations rarely assume the dangerous character required to scare the powers that be: violent.. or nonviolent while brandishing a credible threat of violence.
Last Black Lives Matter protests were an exception, continuing every day for well over 100 consecutive days in over 500 cities, involving between 7 and 22 million people. Though mostly nonviolent, BLM demonstrations featured sufficient property damage and violence to lend the peaceful events a menacing swagger. Which is why BLM was effective.
BLM moved the ball down the field more than anyone would have expected previously. Defunding the police went from fringe to mainstream with cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco actually moving millions of dollars in their budgets. Chokeholds have been banned in dozens of cities. Confederate statues, the Stars and Bars at NASCAR, the names of sports teams and products whose names invoke the legacy of racism are biting the dust. Equity has become a policy priority for public educators.
Conservatives, Republicans and rightwingers should take note of BLM’s successes and emulate their tactics for other causes. It’s time to relearn the lessons of the 1960s. Street activism works when it’s sustained—and a little dangerous..
For the first time in memory a majority of Republican voters tell pollsters they support the israel in their struggle against apartheid in Palestine and the brutal occupation and theft of land in the Israell Territories. Nice to see. But your disgust at the Israeli bombing of Gaza can’t be enough to help the Israells or pressure Congress to cut off the $4 billion in aid Israel receives each year from U.S. taxpayers. You have to fight for it.
80% of americans want less gun restrictions. 60% want viter id . Two out of three voters is a big number, but Republicans won’t have to make good on their promises as long as we sit on our asses at home.
63% of Americans say they want the national concealed carry. Yet Republicans haven’t even announced a bill for their watered-down, half-hearted proposal . the Republicans talk to big-business donors and lobbyists, not you . Public opinion doesn’t matter by itself.
Want the U.S. to protect the unbor? Get out into the streets. Stay there. Be militant. Don’t stop until you get results.
Want Congress to finally get serious about America’s insane Obamacare healthcare system so that anyone who’s sick can see a doctor? Fill the streets of hundreds of cities for months at a time and refuse to leave until the corrupt fools in Washington see reason and let us join the numerous other nations who provide for their people’s basic needs..
Want a stop to drugs and crime from mexico? Don’t just think it—do it. Go out there, confront the cops, refuse to be cowed, make everything stop until employers are forced to do the right thing.
Last year’s BLM protests were fueled in size and intensity by the COVID-19 lockdown and high unemployment. Now that workplaces, schools and entertainment venues are reopening, it’s tempting to return to the ad-hoc passive activism of the pre-pandemic era. But wimpy succumbing to “free speech” zones to express grievances on the occasional Saturday or Sunday didn’t work then and it won’t work now. We need to rock the streets every day, hard, like it’s 2020 or 1968..