Tens of millions of Americans can't afford a sudden $400.00 expense without going further into debt.
That means they can't afford to miss a day of work.
And that's by design.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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I think this is a factor of your media echo chamber. I've personally attended protests nearly every week since January. I'm going to one tomorrow. They are all over my news feeds.
Loads of people in this thread saying they're happening but media not covering them...
I don't think that's really what is meant by "mass protests". In the not so distant past I would have thought every american man woman and child would be weeping in the streets at the corruption and despotism.
There are protests, and maybe they're not being covered, but it's not the type of civil unrest I would have expected honestly.
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I'm pretty shocked by this as well.
I always thought that America was on the ready to stand up against fascism and tyranny.
I guess they aren't.
The people who were super vocal about stockpiling guns to “stand up to tyranny” dont think this is tyranny. They are actively cheering for it.
They think tyranny is the government passing laws that amount to “don’t be a dick”. They hate that. To them “freedom” means being selfish, obnoxious, and racist to their hearts content, and Trump has finally given them permission to do so. That’s why they cheer him.
Remember, these are just simple people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know, morons.
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Because the Americans don't know how to protest.
To a Frenchman a protest is storming and taking control of the representation of authority in the country.
To a Greek a protest is filling the streets of many cities throughout the country with hundreds of thousands of people.
To an American a protest involves standing in a square by the few hundreds, holding signs with semi-sarcastic or passive aggressive messages written on them.
Eh, I feel like every day there's a new story of Tesla's being torched. That's a pretty directed and forceful form of protest that gets no credit.
Also, it's not like America never has large scale protests. Hundreds of thousands of people fill the National Mall pretty regularly, skimming Wikipedia I counted 14+ since 1950 of over 200,000.
Just 5 years ago 15m-26m people participated in some especially roudy protests across all 50 states, but no credit for that either.
Large protests that get even slightly out of line in the USA usually end with:
- well armed, paramilitary police violently dispersing everyone
- the CIA assassinating protest leaders
- and/or the 6 media conglomerates suppressing coverage at the behest of the ~15 people that own them
If you're criticizing Americans for anything, it should be for their response to that and not their ability to organize and orchestrate protests.
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Getting sick of Europeans falling for the blatant suppression and propaganda that our corporate-elite overlords are spoon-feeding them and using that to act superior.
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Same reasons people didnt act in germany all those years ago. First apathy and that will transition into fear of reprisal.
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there are pretty significant protests in recent months. Tesla, the federal government, unions etc. It's just that nobody really care about them with all the funny shit happening in the federal government right now.
Realistically, they also won't do much, so you'll have better reach doing more traditional on the ground campaigning anyway.
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We have an extremely effective propaganda system. There are protests. My partner shows me on Instagram videos. But most people are complacent or defeatist (because of the propaganda system since childhood).
To be the most effective we have to be protesting in front of houses of people who actually influence change. I’ve been too far too many protests and it feels like they mean nothing. Only way to make change is to stop taking it to the streets. And taking it to houses of billionaires and politicians who actually are in control of change.
There are.
Trump isn't threatening to charge people with domestic terrorism for leaving Tesla dealerships alone, is he?
There are, The media is own'd by the rich and now so is the government.
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Okay, I'm going to acknowledge that there are protests, yes, but probably what OP is thinking of something more like the BLM protests during COVID where shit started to get real. There's a few things going on here:
First: People don't have the time off like they did during COVID. They also aren't locked up and less able to ignore the news.
Third: Resignation. I think this is the bigger of the three parts. I know for my part, I consider this a complete loss of the federal government. Even if we somehow avoid a dictatorship and get control of the government back, the damage that's been done is so deep and complete that we'll likely never fully recover from it, we'll just have to move on with things as they are. My efforts are now focused on organizing balkanization. If Texas wants to be a fucking stupid theocracy with prosperity gospel televangelists and the antichrist at the top, who am I to get between them and a good time? Maybe without having to hear about what Daniel the terminally addicted Fox News viewer thinks about Critical Race Theory, we can get some shit done, fix healthcare, get some fucking trains and bike lanes put up.
Second: Lack of organization. The federal government has spent the last 100 years stomping any serious leftist movements both here and abroad. There is almost no living memory of what a real leftist movement looks like, or how to get one going, so we're all having to roll them from scratch, and there's still a lot of the old high-roading instincts that were implanted in us over the decades. It's just going to take time.
My wife and I got babysitters went to the science protests. There's often protestors waiving Palestinian flag downtown during the week - small but consistent group near city hall. I don't hear any reporting either but I see them.
There's considerable more happening now than in 2017. They hust aren't getting media attention because the media has been folded in.
You won't see much about protests until we're closer to the next election.
What next election?