Shoq 🌿Mar 30

I asked one of my slightly more moderate MAGA neighbors what she thought of #NoKings day.

“If they are so upset with Trump, why do they act like it’s a big festival?”

I have precisely the same question. I have never agreed with that strategy of @invisibleteam’s. They are convinced it works for us, but I’ve seen no evidence of that. Nobody that was present at any of my events was there because it was “fun.” They were there because their patriotism demanded it. And if you need to convince …

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 30

your friends to come out and have a good time, then there’s something wrong with your friends. I don’t see any evidence that massive protests in other countries rely on this “let’s all get together and have fun showing our discontent” narrative, just because they feel that’s a good way of communicating that the movement is not about violence ( as I’ve heard claimed).

And this event was reportedly only a million more than last time (and these numbers are not reliable), so the “let’s party” …

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 30

factor doesn’t seem to be helping the movement reach that critical 3.5% of the population figure that Erica Chenowith insists is needed for any popular uprising’s success. (Which I don’t really think applies to Americans anyway. Our long history of abundant resources and defensible borders has made us very different from other cultures.)

I think this entire #nokings event focus is starting to feel indulgent. What’s moving public opinion is gas prices and war. What drove MAGA’s success was …

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 30

not fuzzy feel-good events every 6 months. It was their consistent expression of rage and discontent at that same rhetorical targets day after day after day and reliably echoed by a complicit media.

Anyway, this is only one criticism of @indivisibleteams’s admirable and important efforts. I have others, but I remain a big fan of what Ezra, Leah, and their team have built.

If I have any overarching criticism it’s that the effort focuses too much on protest events, and not enough on other …

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 30
pressure tactics it has the numbers to implement. And no, I don’t mean primarying Democrats. They should stay way away from internecine party politics. They’re not going to, I fear, but they should.
Show threadThadd Selden

@shoq I was safety team lead our past two No Kings so I'm pretty involved in the planning.

One of the things that might get missed is that NK is a very important tool in getting people involved in activism. We had a bunch of candidates with booths and an entire section devoted to getting people involved.

There are tables for bringing on new canvasers, postcard and phone-bank campaigns for purple districts, direct action events, just to name a few.

NK is an excellent recruiting tool.

Mar 30 at 4:08pmWeb
Show threadReturn of AadmaaMar 30
@thadd @shoq I've been so impressed with the NK/indivisible/et al safety lead process btw. Totally organized; while appropriately deferential to local organizers - no bigfooting by the nat'l orgs... Ty for your own leadership!
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 30
I think my answer to you got lost or swallowed somehow? Did you see it? If not I can recompose it. But not now. Sorry tho.
Show threadThadd SeldenMar 30

@shoq I didn't see it but something is always weird about your replies. They show up in my feed and threaded properly, but not in my notifications (either in Ivory or on the Mastodon web interface). Not sure why it happens.

No rush on replying, just wanted to share my perspective as someone involved in organizing the event in my city.