Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/02/it-takes-3-5-of-a-population.html
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It takes 3.5% of a population
Then I ask you, what’s the USA’s problem?
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I was next to people having a discussion about ponies yesterday. 14.2 hands is a pony 14.2 and 1/4 inch is a horse. So I have this vision of 3.499999999 % achieving nothing until someone walks out of a coffee shop and turns the wrong way and walks into the protest by mistake.
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That face you make when you’ve been saying this, with the same cite, on the BBS forever.
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Because we are complacent in our comfort and afraid of losing whatever we’ve managed to scrape together and call security?
Because we are cowards?
Because most people are demoralized and the rest never did give a fuck?
I don’t know, we’re assholes.
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Thanks for your honesty, Sir or Madam.
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Erica Chenoweth, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, says “nonviolent resistance has actually been the quickest, least costly, and safest way to struggle” effectively against dictatorships.
What way is quickest, least costly, and safest if I want to defeat dictatorships instead of just, y’know, struggle?
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is that all? are they busy, say, tomorrow night? can the come over here to the U.S. and help us?
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It is none of that victim blaming shit.
Its because enough people don’t
- Know how few people it actually takes
- Know how genuinely unpopular Trump is
Don’t get lost in our bubble here. There is a reason Trump is constantly going on about how popular he is, it isn’t just about his fragile ego, its also about bullshitting the rest of the country into doubting themselves. If they think everybody else is OK with trump then they end up doubting themselves. Its human nature, we are social creatures.
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Jesus Christ. GET OUT AND PROTEST!
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/local-action-groups
https://popularresistance.org/calendar/
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We had something like 1% of the population out in the streets for the Women’s march. So I guess each of us just need to bring 2 or 3 additional friends next time?
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A friends and family version of the Women’s March only waaaaay bigger.
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It’s better than that- it says “engaged,” not "present."
So, much like in the armed forces, you run one group on the front lines at the protests, but you also engaged another group that can’t/won’t protest but want to be involved with other aspects of support- fund raising, organization, other behind-the-scenes work.
In the case of the Women’s March: how many additional people supported that cause by watching the kids, or driving people, or funding people? I’d imagine the “engaged” number was easily 3.5% of the population when viewed that way.
So we’re there in terms of numbers.
What we need now is to sustain this thing- to keep this flame burning for as long as it needs to get the job done.
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Sorry, nonviolence only works on governments that give a shit what anyone thinks. Nonviolence against Hitler, Stalin, Deng or Pol Pot only got you dead. I bet Gandhi and his followers would have been killed by a century younger Britain, never mind a really repressive regime.
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I don’t think this is necessarily true, the protests in East Germany were nonviolent and successful*
* and the only revolution in Germany with a positive result…
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I didn’t say it never works, only that the gov’t needs to care about it’s image. Without the USSR breathing down it’s neck, the GDR just didn’t care enough about keeping power. Had there been a real strongman, it would have failed, or at least been bloody like Romania.
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Roger That!
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The problem is that everyone bringing this idea up forgets that peaceful marches are ankle deep in the blood spilled by the people who came before them. That blood hasnt been spilled yet.
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Yup - read up on the Velvet Revolution. About 500k people peacefully forced the fold of communist party.
Here are our demands.
Trump out. As in one way ticket to Russia. Say hi to your mutha for us.
Any Congressmen that supported Trump. You can have a ticket, or prison for treason.
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You do realize that Trumps supporters, who are only outnumbered by a couple million, have far, far more guns than his detractors? If they thought our funny little marches were actually a threat to his rule they would not hesitate to use force, and I would not depend on Trump-symp police or military to stop them. Krystalnacht USA.
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