🚫👑 No Kings In America - Huge Nationwide Protest Being Planned For June 14th

[DocWatts]

If you happen to live in the United States and you're looking for something tangible you can do to push back against Trump's authoritarian regime, a huge nationwide protest in being planned for Sat, June 14th.

On June 14th (which also happens to be Flag Day), Trump will be spending $90 million of our taxpayer dollars on a lavish North Korean-style military parade for his birthday, where tanks will be rolling down the streets of Washington DC. 

Indivisible and 50501, along with a broad network of grassroots pro-democracy groups, will be hosting nationwide protests throughout every part of the country - except for Washington DC.

The aim is to draw the media and the public's attention away from Trump's gaudy dictatorial parade and towards the growing pro-democracy movement in the United States - and put the screws to the Big Lie that Trump has a mandate with the American people. The only way that our politicians and organizations like colleges are going to stand-up to Trump's destruction of our Constitution and the Rule of Law is if there's a sustained public pressure campaign for them to do so.

In the April 5th and April 19th 'Hands Off Protests', 9 million people took to the streets in nonviolent protest against Trump's fascist agenda, with across thousands of demonstrations taking place in every state. These protests will be a great way to dip your toes into the pro-democracy movement - and they'll be happening literally everywhere in the country, from big cities like Las Vegas to small towns in ruby red districts.

You can find more information on the No Kings protests here:
https://www.nokings.org/  
https://indivisible.org/
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/

 

 

Edited May 9 by DocWatts

[Mannyb]

@DocWatts

Thank you for sharing this—it’s a crucial moment.

 

Whether one sees this as a political battle or a moral one, what matters now is showing up—with clarity, with peace, and with resolve. Protests like these are more than symbolic; they’re a reminder that democracy isn’t inherited, it’s enacted—by people who care enough to stand for it.

 

If June 14th becomes a day of presence, not just parade, it could mark a powerful shift in the narrative: one that says the soul of a nation isn’t for sale, no matter how loud the spectacle.

 

Stay safe. Stay grounded. Stay awake.

 

[Hardkill]

I feel like everybody at the protests need to arm themselves with a weapon protect themselves in case the federal government tries to arrest the protestors. I used to be against the idea of civilians having the right to bear arms, but I am now making an exception to that given the serious looming threat of government tyranny we are facing now.

[BlessedLion]

I will join. 
 

After binging documentaries on WW2 and Hitler, i don’t think people realize how quickly and easily the masses can slip into a deluded psychosis 

[BlessedLion]

Is he really doing a fucking birthday parade? You know who also notoriously did this? Hitler! 

[DocWatts]

6 hours ago, Hardkill said:

I feel like everybody at the protests need to arm themselves with a weapon protect themselves in case the federal government tries to arrest the protestors. I used to be against the idea of civilians having the right to bear arms, but I am now making an exception to that given the serious looming threat of government tyranny we are facing now.

Please DO NOT bring weapons to the protests. Don't give law enforcement or the feds an excuse to crack down. 

The primary thing that's protecting us is safety in numbers and goodwill with the public, and that vanishes if the protests are perceived as violent.

Trump's gestapo isn't arresting people at large public protests. ICE prefers to catch people when they're unaware and isolated, who they think they can get away with disappearing. 

If you want to purchase a firearm, keep it in your home or personal vehicle. Don't bring it to a nonviolent protest - you'd be endangering everyone around you.

(Note: I'm pro second amendment, just be strategic about when are where you bring a firearm.

The problem isn't an ethical one, it's strategic. In theory, I have no ethical issues with someone using deadly force to protect themselves from being abducted by ICE - gestapo lives don't matter. In practice, the regime would like nothing more than for the resistance to turn violent. Don't give Trump his Riechstag Fire Decree.)

Edited May 10 by DocWatts

[integral]

@DocWatts why is violence always wrong?

14 hours ago, DocWatts said:

The problem isn't an ethical one, it's strategic. In theory, I have no ethical issues with someone using deadly force to protect themselves from being abducted by ICE - gestapo lives don't matter. In practice, the regime would like nothing more than for the resistance to turn violent. Don't give Trump his Riechstag Fire Decree.)

It's easy to rationalize an act of violence like this as "self-defense". I'm defending myself against a dictator Robbing, corrupting, deteriorating everything of value.

Before the justice system you had to use violence to protect your land your children your stuff whatever it took. That's now largely unnecessary because we have police and a Court system. But when the justice system fails because a dictator owns the whole system now circumstances change again. How do we defend ourselves against robbery through Mass corruption?

Edited May 10 by integral

[Emerald]

@Hardkill @integral From a strategic standpoint, it's a very foolish idea to bring weapons to a non-violent protest, as it is counterproductive to the desired result of the protest.

The point of a protest is to make yourself visible in a positive way so that relatively disengaged normies want to join your cause.... and you can do this most effectively through non-violent protest.

AND EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY... if law enforcement or other combative groups enact violence onto peaceful protesters, the public will have sympathy towards the non-violent protestors and wake up the injustices from the power that be. And in these cases where the state cracks down, it can really turn the people against the powers that be and towards the cause of the peaceful protestors.

If the protests are violent (or even if they are just perceived as violent), then the protest will do the opposite of its intended result.

And the protests will get much more easily smeared by the media as riots full of violent criminals... and it will drive people away from your cause.

Edited May 11 by Emerald

[Hardkill]

@Emerald @DocWatts I didn’t say that protests or protestors should incite or start any violence. However, every American has the right to bear arms and defend themselves against an intrusive, tyrannical government. Right now, we’re living in extraordinarily frightening times—times in which your rights and freedoms could be taken away with alarming ease.

I wouldn’t count on the courts or the legal system to check Trump’s reign for long. Too many law firms have already capitulated to him, and if enough of them across the country bend the knee, there may be nothing stopping Trump from arresting protestors at his whim. Furthermore, Trump and his administration continue to ignore or slow-walk court rulings made against them, and it’s still unclear to me how—even the U.S. Supreme Court—will be able to enforce compliance if Trump refuses to follow their orders. 

If law enforcement or other aggressive groups start using violence against peaceful protesters, it could send a chilling message across the country—intimidating Americans into silence and killing protest culture altogether, just like in authoritarian regimes such as Russia. I am very concerned about this.

Edited May 11 by Hardkill

[Yimpa]

4 hours ago, Beans said:

 

 

Edited May 11 by Yimpa

[Emerald]

2 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

@Emerald @DocWatts I didn’t say that protests or protestors should incite or start any violence. However, every American has the right to bear arms and defend themselves against an intrusive, tyrannical government. Right now, we’re living in extraordinarily frightening times—times in which your rights and freedoms could be taken away with alarming ease. I wouldn’t count on the courts or the legal system to check Trump’s reign for long. Too many law firms have already capitulated to him, and if enough of them across the country bend the knee, there may be nothing stopping Trump from arresting protestors at his whim. Furthermore, Trump and his administration continue to ignore or slow-walk court rulings made against them, and it’s still unclear to me how—even the U.S. Supreme Court—will be able to enforce compliance if Trump refuses to follow their orders. 

Again, that negates the point of the peaceful protest if said violence does occur.

Now, most peaceful protests don't have state-sanctioned violence happening at them. And in this case, the point of the peaceful protest is to show strength in numbers... and to give social proof about the popularity of the movement.

But in the less common cases, where state or extremists groups enact violence on peaceful unarmed protestors... that is the very thing that wakes average people up.

Peaceful protest that meets state sanctioned violence, should be a show of a violent police state thugs stepping on the innocent and unarmed with jackboots.

That must be the optics in order for peaceful protests to work... in the rarer instances where state-sanctioned violence does occur.

For example, in the Civil Rights Movement, it was police hosing down peaceful protesters with powerful fire-hoses... and people peacefully sitting in the pool while the owner of the hotel poured beach in.

It is these images that wake people up and sway people towards supporting your cause.

So, while it's unlikely for people at a protest to be the recipient of actual violence... it is the power imbalance of being an innocent unarmed target of violence that opens the hearts and minds of the populace.

If you fight back against violence at these protests, it will read as a more "Both sides are equal and violent. That's why I'm a moderate and stay out of politics" type-thing... and it will turn off the normie politically disengaged people who are meant to be persuaded.

They'll just be like "See, both sides equally violent."

[DocWatts]

@Hardkill @integral 

To clarify, I'm not a pacifist. Simply put, nonviolent tactics are much more strategically effective at challenging authoritarian regimes than violent insurrection.

The long term aim with the nonviolent pro-democracy campaign is to separate the regime from its pillars of support, by engaging a large and ideologically diverse cross section of the public. Nonviolent resistance has an enormous participation advantage here, owing to its lower physical, moral, and commitment barriers relative to violent resistance.

Basically, the eventual aim is for the pro-democracy movement to snowball into something too big to suppress or contain. The threshold for this is smaller than you might think - when just %3.5 of a country's population is actively participating in the resistance is when this starts to happen. There's safety in numbers, but this only works if we maintain nonviolent discipline.

Violent tactics on the other hand tend to produce a rally around the flag effect. This is to be avoided at all costs, since it makes a regime's supporters much more likely to perceive the conflict as a zero sum game, pushing them to fight on to the bitter end.

In addition to all that, nonviolent campaigns produce much more democratic outcomes afterwards. Violent conflict is anathema to maintaining a stable democracy afterwards, which is why civil wars - whether in Russia or China or Yemen - produce autocracies, not stable democratic regimes. In the 20th and 21st century almost every successful transition from an autocracy to a democracy happened through nonviolent resistance rather than armed conflict.

Edited May 11 by DocWatts

[Hardkill]

@DocWatts @Emerald 

And what are protestors supposed to do if the police start arresting and imprisoning them without due process—just because Trump says so—and the legal system fails to stop it, like what happens in Russia?

What if Trump declares martial law nationwide? He controls the most powerful military in the history of the world.

Edited May 11 by Hardkill

[Twentyfirst]

What is it about kings that you don't like. Is it that they have full power and say without anyone being able to interrupt them or is it that they are in power for a lifetime and then their kids? Would you like kings if it was only one of those two aspects? Like for example full and total power but for only 20 years or a lifetime king with some checks and balances?

[Emerald]

Just now, Hardkill said:

And what are protestors supposed to do if the police start arresting and imprisoning them without due process—just because Trump says so—and the legal system fails to stop it, like what happens in Russia?

Be the recipients of the state-sanctioned violence and authoritarianism... like Civil Right activists were... and like Nelson Mandela was... and like Ghandi was.

It is rare that someone who participates in peaceful protest would be the recipient of violence, so it's relatively low risk.

But in the cases, when a peaceful protester is the recipient of violence... those are the situations that wake average people up the very most and starve the regime of support from the populace.

Consider the impact of people who have been wrongly imprisoned... like Kilmar Abrego Garcia. His story alone is a wake-up call to many people as it shows the monstrousness and authoritarianism of the state.

[Hardkill]

3 minutes ago, Emerald said:

Be the recipients of the state-sanctioned violence and authoritarianism... like Civil Right activists were... and like Nelson Mandela was... and like Ghandi was.

It is rare that someone who participates in peaceful protest would be the recipient of violence, so it's relatively low risk.

But in the cases, when a peaceful protester is the recipient of violence... those are the situations that wake average people up the very most and starve the regime of support from the populace.

Consider the impact of people who have been wrongly imprisoned... like Kilmar Abrego Garcia. His story alone is a wake-up call to many people as it shows the monstrousness and authoritarianism of the state.

So then, why haven’t the arrests of protestors in Russia led the majority of the population to withdraw their support for Putin’s regime?

[Apparition of Jack]

1 hour ago, Hardkill said:

So then, why haven’t the arrests of protestors in Russia led the majority of the population to withdraw their support for Putin’s regime?

Have some damn faith in the system, man. The US - even under Trump - isn’t Russia. There are countless judges, activists, politicians, assistants, aides, regular people, etc all resisting this insanity. Even if you do get arrested at a protest (and that’s a huge if), there are countless things that need to go wrong before you end up with life behind bars. 
 

Yes, this requires a degree of faith and courage. But no great moment in history was won without these. I’ve said it before but ultimately our fight isn’t just a political one, but a moral and philosophical one at that. By resisting non-violently we’re showing that humanity is fundamentally better than the corrupt kleptocrats the Trump admin portrays us as. And like the others pointed out - there’s safety in numbers. Is not just you vs the riot police. It’s millions upon millions of furious, rational Americans, activated through a common sense of humanity, truth and kindness, working together to take down this regime. We’re in this together.

[Emerald]

1 hour ago, Hardkill said:

So then, why haven’t the arrests of protestors in Russia led the majority of the population to withdraw their support for Putin’s regime?

I don't know very much about the political situation in Russia.

But my guess would be that most of the Russian population probably already doesn't support Putin enthusiastically... but people have grown accustomed to the authoritarianism and might not feel like they can protest because of anti-protesting laws and the threat of state violence.

And the authoritarianism might have arisen post Soviet Union as a true frog in boiling water situation where things remained fairly stable over the course of the slower onset of authoritarianism. (Luckily the same is not true for the Trump regime)

And often times, if there is relative stability and homeostasis, the authoritarian regime is tolerated as the status quo... like Mussolini making the trains run on time. (Also... luckily the same is not true for the Trump regime)

There could also be a more unilateral degree of media control where the state can more easily seize and doctor the narrative fed to the masses to paint themselves as the good guys and protesters as the bad guys.

These are just guesses though, as I do not know much about Putin's Russia or how much people do or do not protest against him.

 

[DocWatts]

13 hours ago, Hardkill said:

So then, why haven’t the arrests of protestors in Russia led the majority of the population to withdraw their support for Putin’s regime?

Putin has maintained a relatively high approval in Russia despite being an autocrat, because his regime is credited with the country's economic recovery. Russia's transition to capitalism was disastrous for ordinary people, producing a decade of Great Depression-like conditions following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Economic shock doctrine was traumatically ruinous for ordinary people.

Despite being a brutal dictator, Russia's economic situation stabilized under Putin's regime. Conditions for most ordinary Russian citizens improved. While Putin was gutting democracy he was replacing it with a mafia-like patronage system. Millions of pensioners in Russia literally depend on Putin's regime for their survival, since state subsidies are the only thing keeping them destitution. 

Trump's approval rating on the other hand is hovering around %40. The first 100 days is the honeymoon period where presidents are usually at their most popular, and Trump's approval ratings are already in the toilet in a historically unprecedented way. His economic 'policy' is little more than an idiotic extortion scheme that will make life much worse for most ordinary Americans -off  exactly the opposite of how Putin was able to stay in power.

Americans are about to go from disliking Trump to truly hating him once we're no longer shielded from the collapse of our supply chains from his idiotic tariffs. Economists are predicting empty store shelves by the summer, the domino effects of which will almost surely spark a major recession.

When I say that Trump's regime is weak and unpopular, what I'm referring to is that Trump sucks at being an autocrat. The smart play would have been to move quietly and take credit for Biden's economy. Instead he started a trade war with the world while bragging about how he's taking away out due process rights. It's almost the perfect conditions for galvanizing a large, ideologically diverse resistance to his cruel, idiotic regime.

The democracy that Putin dismantled was in its infancy, within a country that was autocratic for the vast majority of its history. Trump is trying to dismantle a 250 year old democracy with the oldest written constitution in the world. Putin has had 15 years to consolidate his power before launching the disastrous invasion of Ukraine, while Trump is much earlier on in that process in a country with a much more democratic civil society.

Edited May 11 by DocWatts

[Hardkill]

@Emerald @DocWatts Alright, well you both have made valid points. Let’s hope enough people in America still care about their rights, despite the intense cynicism surrounding our country’s system.

Edited May 11 by Hardkill