I wish I’d known… it was on my birthday, so I’m sure I could have convinced at least a half dozen people to come protest with me…
I had that many willing to go out with me after work despite being a Sunday so… (which is amazing at almost 40 as a non-social sort)
Hundreds of thousands, if not more
I heard 2.3 million across all the protests.
Yes, millions! Press on!
That’s still quite a bit short of the nearly 12 million 3.5% threshold that correlates with success.
Technically there are no examples of a civic movement successfully engaging 3.5% of the population and failing, but there are examples of movements engaging less than 3.5% of the population and succeeding. The 3.5% rule is a sufficient rather than necessary condition. I’d say that rather than numbers what’s necessary now is to turn the numbers that already exist into real widespread action.
I just don’t care anymore. Think Musk or Trump or any billionaires are sweating this? Until their planes are sabotaged and falling out of the sky, until they’re afraid to show their face in public without a Special Forces detachment, nothing will change.
Don’t be defeatist. This is the shit that begins the rolling momentum that eventually causes stuff like that. Actions like you’re talking about, absent obvious popular agitation, get treated like isolated random criminals, irrelevant and unsympathetic - see Luigi Mangione. And of course too much violence too quickly will result in extremely violent gov’t response.
I understand feeling jaded but we need enthusiasm, support, action. The stuff you’re saying is the opposite of that. But on the whole, I’m with you in the sense that I’d rather see 100 LMs than 1MM protesters. I think we’re threading a tricky needle though.
“Resistance” so far has been more form than function, but there are other routes of resistance than urban guerilla warfare. One general strike is still enough to end all this, and that’s the more likely scenario.
