I get it, absolutely. The NSA sucks and should be dismantled yesterday.
But a few hundred people demonstrating isn’t going to do it. Occupy was massive and its primary accomplishment seems to have been to expand police budgets, with a side effect of allowing great swathes of people to dismiss the whole message as fringe because of the behavior or appearance of a few. I and millions of others marched against the invasion of Iraq, to exactly ZERO effect. Legions of protesters turned out for GWBs second nomination convention, and their total effect was to solidify the repressive powers of the police and strengthen the predispositions of those who supported Bush.
If the protests grow the violence of repression will grow with it, and the goals of the powerful will again be served as all who are not participating in protest focus on the violence rather than the message.
We need to fight this stuff, but we need to find a better way. It kills me that I don’t have a better idea, but we have learned, continue to learn, that street protests don’t work. And despite popular imaginings and what the people at the time want to believe about themselves, they didn’t stop Vietnam either.
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