This is perfect, I think! The last thing we need is a unified religious front that’s “cleaned up God’s house”. Much better to have traditionalists offended by Machine Gun Jesus and in-fighting.
In fact, maybe replace Jesus’ face with Trump’s. Hit 'em with some blasphemy and see which Xians cheer it and which ones look away in shame and second-hand embarrassment.
I respect whoever who took this picture.
Sacrificed an opportunity to skedaddle and is no doubt now a legend to these guys. “Holy fuck, can’t believe you got that shot!”
I think there’s room for both.
Assembling even a dozen like-minded people for a coordinated protest is out of reach for most folks. What usually ends up happening is that a huge protest happens and everyone goes and then most of them are finished. They did their part.
The big protest ends up being a performative event, for both the protesters and the administration/police. The big protests usually happen on a weekend, so that everyone can attend. Usually in an urban area, where office and government buildings are closed on that day. So you end up with a downtown area packed with police and protesters and nobody else.
And even if you end up with a consistent, long-running, well attended protest, the chances are slim that it impacts anything. We did this for a year in Portland in 2020, and it made no difference. Maybe 25-50 people during the day would hold vigil over the park, watch other people’s belongings and just be present. They’d chat with passers-by and make new signs, etc. But when evening came, things would ramp up as people got off their day jobs and came to join the crowd. The crowd would balloon to 5 or 10 thousand people sometimes, but even if it was only 500 or so people, they still had nightly clashes with police. At least two people died that summer.
It. Meant. Nothing. No meaningful change was affected. The police chief and the DA ended up resigning, and there were a few minor policy changes around how to better handle civil unrest.
I’m wondering, though, if we had been in a wealthy residential neighborhood, would things have been different? Probably. But could we get all those people to a suburb? Being in the city center provided all of the momentum. The foot traffic and downtown rush hour, drawing people’s attention, that sort of thing. I don’t know if that sort of excitement could be generated outside the city?
So…those a bunch of meandering thoughts, thanks for coming to my TED talk. :)
Yes, protests can be inconvenient. Freedom is messy.
The people who view protesting as “anti-social” aren’t ever going to join your cause. They don’t care about freedom, they care about safety and security.
Speaking of horses, did you know that house flies and horse flies can look almost identical, but are different species?
The possum is not the same species as the opossum. A rabbit and a hare are different species. A buzzard and vulture are different species.
It’s all about DNA. If two bugs (or any organism) can mate and produce viable, fertile offspring - that’s a species. If they can’t, then they are different species.
“Did you like that video I sent you?”
“Are you kidding me?! I LOVE that you sent me that video!”
I’d feel the same way. And yet…it’s still effective.
“Why were you late?”
“Protesters.”
“What were they protesting?”
And just like that, the conversation has started.
I think you don’t even have to bump. Just turn on your hazard lights and start slowing down in the middle lane. In medium to heavy traffic, this should cause a standstill.
Proton VPN.
I use the paid version, but I’m pretty sure you can get a free version without data caps.
It lets you set the location of your VPN endpoint, meaning that you can spoof your location to just about any country on the globe. Very easy and intuitive interface, works on mobile, and no I don’t work for these motherfuckers, I’m just excited to share my experience because I only recently decided to start using a VPN.
Other options, according to Google: PrivadoVPN (10GB/month), Windscribe (10GB/month), and Hide.me