Why US citizens are no longer willing to

[Seansky]

go to the streets in mass to demand and/or protect their rights?

Just a simple comparison:
Election fraud in Mexico: people, very poor people, virtually take over the capital for days-all MSM is all over this as a HUGH news
Election fraud in the US: Most of us go to blogs vs. joining the few thousands that protested in DC-MSM? What protests?

Just a few decades ago, our citizens defined what civil rights were, and our generation can't even describe them, much less defend them...We are giving up our freedom little by little, and in countries, where rights are a luxury, the struggle to get just freedom of speech is endless.

My explanation for our fear to go to the streets and protect our rights and people in Mexico does it like it is an everyday thing? We have too much to loose, they don't have much. We are too attached with our lifestyle, even the poor in the US seem not to be aware of their power if collectively were to go to the streets.

Risking our rich comfort by collectively going to the streets and use our collective power might mean being branded, risking the gov. marking us, and worst, ending in jail. Instead, just in this blog, here we are 80,000+ of us, b**tching about realities, and safely believing it is accomplishing something...

We are ripping what we are sowing by our safe way of handling how our civil rights are being taken away and with that, our so comfortable lifestyle, the same reason for our apathy, might be taken away as well...

I'm as guilty of this fear as the majority of US citizen, and guess what, I was in the streets of Panama as a student leader when we were entice by this gov. to protect ourselves from Noriega. Very scary, how a comfortable life changes our actions....

[Karenca]

1. I 've never been afraid to protest

And I don't think most people are afraid.

What I think is that most pf us don't know that these protests even
occur.

After all, we had a protest of 600,000 in NYC
and the only air time we received was on one
CSpan channel, and then a few snips
on MSM relating to the arrests only.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. There is also the issue of the media just flat out refusing to cover it

Remember the protests at the RNC? Hundreds of thousands of protesters, it was an ocean of humanity, but you would have never known it unless you watched C-Span and even that didn't show enough of the scope of it. The media also did not cover the abuses made to peaceful protesters and people who were also arrested just for being in the vicinity.

[Karenca]

3. Yes.....

Check out post #1.

[AndyA]

4. I agree with what you're saying, but I think the time for taking to the

streets is coming. Americans have become very complacent, and don't get involved until they - personally - are impacted. And that day is coming, make no mistake about it, it's coming.

When gas hits $4-5/gallon, and people can no longer afford to drive to work.

When they try to sell their home and realize it's only worth about 75% of what they owe on it.

When they start doing without the perks just to pay the bills that have to be paid.

When yet another GOP lie or scandal is revealed - each time this happens, more people realize they've been duped.

The tolerance threshold is different for everyone, for some it will be a long time coming before they've had enough, for many others, they're teetering right on the edge, waiting for that one final straw to unleash the fury within. We're on the brink of a recession, gas will go higher and oil companies will announce even higher profits, there's more to come from Abramoff, and who knows what else lurking around the next corner.

It's coming, there's a growing frustration in our country, and when it's unleashed, it will make the Boston Tea Party and Civil War look like play time at Romper Room.

[Sinti]

5. Most people don't know about/believe in the election fraud here

The difference is not indifference, it's television IMO. The corporate media does not inform people - it is simply a propaganda outlet for the corporate government. Case in point: there was a huge protest in DC - it went from 15th St. to the National Mall - it extended on that day to other cities, and to other countries. It was probably the biggest anti-war protest ever -- the MSM said it was "a couple thousand"

[elocs]

6. Perhaps most people do not want to know

because then they might have to do something or make a decision and ignorance is so bliss to so many fat and comfortable Americans. Perhaps too many are afraid. The possibility is there and maybe it just needs the right spark to set it off. It doesn't take a majority to start a revolution as we have clearly seen demonstrated by the neocons. I do believe there is merit to the idea of the lack of media coverage of what they consider to be the "wrong" kind of protests. To many Americans, if it is not extensively covered by the media, then it is not really important and if there is no media coverage, then it never happened--like a tree falling in the forest when there is nobody there to witness its end. Did a tree really fall?

[stillcool]

7. I think we've been trained from birth...

..to accept a general belief about who we are as a nation which is false. The massive amount of money poured into 'think-tanks', PR, and advertising attempts to reinforce those false beliefs continuously through our daily lives. It wasn't until I got off the hamster wheel, and had some 'thinking moments' that I realized my assumptions about the world I live in were totally off base. It's not an easy realization to come to or accept. There have been many times when I've had to close my eyes to the outside reality in order to maintain sanity.