I live in Austin TX and just saw this. Heading downtown now, cya there. Thanks OP
Ugh, I really need to order some glasses. I’m blind as a bat without contacts but I’m also not trying to end up literally blind if the cops break out the tear gas (and Denver PD is still settling lawsuits from the 2020 protests, so I have zero faith in them to not escalate). Didn’t have “buy glasses to protest the rise of fascism” on my 2025 bingo card but I probably should’ve.
Online glasses places are pretty cheap and good quality, if you know your pupillary distance and your prescription isn’t complicated. ⭐Encouragement⭐
Unfortunately, I don’t, but I can get an exam pretty quickly, I think. My friend/coworker really needs glasses in general and I’ve been bugging her to go, so maybe this is a good way to get her to finally do it, too.
Fake news, not american
Awful short notice. My state capital is 3 hours away and I have work.
There’s a protest at your work today.
Not true, I don’t live in the US lol
This is way too obscure. Most people would need more time than this to plan I imagine. I’m only hearing about this today after being tuned into politics for months and id only realisticly be able to participate if I heard about this 2 weeks ago.
Yeah, I only found out two days ago. Unions usually get the word out weeks in advance for a strike, and that’s for people that are necessarily engaged in protesting those in power and (currently) have the protections to do so.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t try to go, but the expectation for turnout should be tempered accordingly.
Hopefully the next one gives people a lot more advanced notice.
Yeah, true that. I’ve been hearing about a lot of things like this more or less the day of, which isn’t too convenient most of the time.
If it makes a difference, it seems likely to me that the protests in DC will keep happening on an ongoing basis until something happens to disperse them.
Why is this post a link?
Wholeheartedly support all the people who will join the movement, but seriously doubt it’ll lead to anything. The people, whose help needed we needed, to remove these clowns from the government, have twiddled their thumbs long enough to fail to prevent another around. Who’s gonna do it this time around? They won’t just evict themselves, granted they have all branches of the government held
It will show that people aren’t alone, Trump wants to pretend they have an overwhelming mandate to do whatever he wants, having upset people together shows that actually there are a lot of people that feel similarly. Organizing and coming together is the first step. The next is the strategic plan.
You have to start somewhere.
The people of this country have been, for the most part, just sitting back and letting the politicians run everything, and that definitely isn’t working. If people are going to do something about it, the first step is getting off the couch and going and meeting some other people who want to do something about it.
It probably won’t directly change anything but it will and can change public perception and what lawmakers see. It at least shows them “look at all these people who won’t stand by and take it.”
I wish I’d known about this like 2 weeks ago instead of 30 minutes before I go into work. I’d call out if it didn’t mean financial ruin for my family
This was Colorado. I agree that the timing sucks for people with regular jobs, but we also need to get the attention of our representatives and disrupt the peace.
Anyone have streams?
I was going to go but after spending almost an entire evening trying to find organizing information, I gave up and decided to sit this out.
There was no information on who was organizing this, who is backing it, and most importantly, who to contact. From an OPSEC standpoint, without a clear contact on who was organizing, it read like a false flag.
- website had no information outside of the event
- all POCs were “to be announced”
- website for my area was on carrd with only the image of the flyer
- all social media accounts are on techbro websites with no presence on mastodon or lemmy. Their bluesky account never directly answered the question of who was behind the account
I hope to God I’m wrong and hope that organizers are well intentioned but given our current political climate, I need to know who is putting this out there. I’m not the only one worried. Many others on Bluesky, reddit, Facebook, etc all raised concerns. One reply I read was “contact us on discord”.
Fuck. That.
There wasn’t even a link to their discord!!!
Which upcoming protests would your friends recommend going to instead? Assuming that someone can’t travel to DC.
I hope to God I’m wrong and hope that organizers are well intentioned but given our current political climate, I need to know who is putting this out there
What might happen to someone who attended a not “well intentioned” protest, that wouldn’t happen to someone who attended a normal one?
Which upcoming protests would your friends recommend going to instead? Assuming that someone can’t travel to DC.
One that:
- organized by people you know or by organizations you trust
- organized by people who have “skin in the game” (i… people of color, LGBTQ+)
- organized by someone with a name that is searchable
- promoted by organizations within the opposition (e.g. Democrats, DNC, etc.)
As many of the above that can apply.
What might happen to someone who attended a not “well intentioned” protest, that wouldn’t happen to someone who attended a normal one?
If you end up going to a protest because “I want to do something” without doing any due diligence, you are placing your faith and trust to someone you do not know. If you arrive there, they may pretend to be a part of a leftist organization. You may end up trusting them more than you should, giving them more information than you should. If they are running the protest as a false flag and in bad faith, then you’ve given your private information to someone who intends you harm.
Best case scenario, the organizers don’t know what they are doing and are running the protest in good faith, but it also means they are new to this and don’t have good operational security.
Which upcoming protests would your friends recommend going to instead? Assuming that someone can’t travel to DC.
One that:
- organized by people you know or by organizations you trust
- organized by people who have “skin in the game” (i… people of color, LGBTQ+)
- organized by someone with a name that is searchable
- promoted by organizations within the opposition (e.g. Democrats, DNC, etc.)
As many of the above that can apply.
Such as? I’ve actually been looking for information on protests that are coming up, so that I can publicize them here, and have more than one day’s notice. What are some that are upcoming that I could spread the word about, that are good and trusted ones?
If you end up going to a protest because “I want to do something” without doing any due diligence, you are placing your faith and trust to someone you do not know. If you arrive there, they may pretend to be a part of a leftist organization. You may end up trusting them more than you should, giving them more information than you should. If they are running the protest as a false flag and in bad faith, then you’ve given your private information to someone who intends you harm.
Is it common for you that when you show up to a protest, people to start asking for your name and information about you? I have been to some protests and I have literally never had this happen or heard of this happening. Has it ever happened to you? Are you suggesting that the feds or somebody who doesn’t like protests, is creating new protests, so that they can then collect the information of anybody that shows up, and that they are not collecting the same information (or somehow unable to collect the same information) at real protests that happen, that they don’t like and want to punish people for taking part in?
I feel like the enemy started this so they then say “see nobody cares, nobody showed up” because we saw through their bullshit.
The lack of organizer info after a whole bunch of people have tried to find it is a huge red flag to me.
I’m pretty interested to see how widely upvoted this is.
Definitely, and they can track the people that did show up as highly motivated.
I was wrong. At least for my state. There was a huge protest in Denver yesterday.
We may have just hit the point where enough people are pissed off that a lot of organizing/motivating isn’t needed.
I’ll be at the next one, and I’m already planning how to comply and assist with a general strike in March. I have the teeniest hope that some momentum might be starting to resist these fuckers now in charge.
Most people don’t live in their state capitol, and have no hope of attending something they learned of at the last minute. They should have been informed of this days ago.
I dont even live in that shithole and I have been seeing these posts for days.
The instant anything is posted on here it’s already been scraped. Know this. Act accordingly.
Some tips to help you out
- don’t take your phones to the protest
- if you take a burner, don’t take it home. buy it, and trash it at the protest.
- don’t take anything that could identify you as you
- superglue and baking soda on your fingerprints. don’t go crazy, just enough to make printing you impossible/difficult
- write any important phone numbers on your arm or ankle in permanent marker if you can’t remember them
- stuff a couple hundred dollars for bail in your shoe
- don’t give ANYONE your real name. don’t care how hot they are or how impassioned they are, just fucking don’t
- designate one trusted individual to come get you from jail. they are not to bring their phone, they should park at least 1/4 mile away and walk to get you(long enough to realize you’re being tailed by police).
Pay attention to your surroundings, specifically the movement of officers/agents. if they’re running you should be too. if there’s a large group marching or a wall marching, leave immediately and regroup.
ICE will be there. they will be picking people up. many of them not illegal. if you’re not white, wear makeup if you can get away with it. paint your face with state colors if need be. not a mask, so it shouldn’t be covered by “no-mask” states.
Know your rights. Bring the proof of your rights. Force them to acknowledge your rights.
Stream everything.
If you are picked up you will;
- go on a list
- be unlawfully monitored
- become a link in a larger web to ensnare organizers
You will now go dark for at least a month. No social media posts about the protests, no discussions about the protests, nothing. After that, it should be difficult to pair your online activity with your real world activities.
If you can’t make it to the protests, record the streams, share them online, pressure the public to demand answers for the crimes committed by the officers/agents.
One last thing.
There will undoubtedly be people there to provoke the protests. do not let them. once one incident of violence is determined all bets off and the police will become physically involved.
Trust no one, question everything, power to the people. 🫵
This message from a colleague will live here until the death of Lemmy
For further research here’s a great video on mutual aid.
Damn, this reads like a guide for protesting in Belarus. Hope your situation gets better.
It won’t get better if we sit on our asses. It’s also a guide for Lebanon or Israel or Syria or Russia…
I went to my local capitol protest today and it went peacefully. I was prepared for (and very much expecting) escalation. I wrote the ACLU phone number on my leg, left my phone at my girlfriend’s house, and carried pepper spray in my pocket. My gf and I (and a number of other people) wore medical masks. We also brought clear, full-face shields in our bag too, just in case.
The capitol and the police station were near each other; lots of cops drove by our crowd, but thankfully that’s the only interaction we had with them. But a lot of drivers, bicyclists, and other passers-by made noise in solidarity.
I should also probably note that I live in a blue state. I haven’t heard yet about the experience in red and purple states, but hopefully people will be sharing their stories soon.
One last thing - I’m glad you made the note about phones. Apparently some of the people at the protest reasoned, “I might get arrested, therefore I should bring my phone.” Then they were confused when I used the exact same reason to justify me not bringing my phone. Do people not realize that the police seizes a person’s belongings when they arrest them? Considering the way this administration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they rewrote the law to allow police to break into phones without a warrant. At the very least, they certainly won’t stop cops who do it unlawfully.
Happy you made it. Ours was small and uneventful except one person brought us all a bunch of pizzas which was cool for those that could eat cheese, I brought a big pack of hand warmers and a big caraffe of hot mint tea. It was pretty much just a lunch. None of the state reps came out, and there was no counter protest. Fliers were handed out for another protest soon. Hopefully others are seeing the attendance numbers and planning for more better organized protests.
I handed out the EFF protesting .pdf that I had printed out at work.
https://www.eff.org/files/2017/06/19/protest-one-sheet.pdf
It’s usually enough for most people.
Oh hey, we had someone handing out hand warmers too! She saw me and my girlfriend trading one pair of gloves between us and asked if we wanted a warmer. It was a sweet gesture, the kind of look-out-for-your-neighbor thing we were all there for.
