Why Young People Don't Protest - Broke, Bummed, and Tazed

[RadiationTherapy]

IT's hard to protest when you are part of a 2 income family with dead wages for 30 years and in debt from school and trying to keep up. It's hard to protest when it is clear that money runs DC more effectively that marches. It's hard to protest when a person is tazed and arrested, not for civil disobedience, but for asking a question.

It's easy to compare it to the civil rights marches of the 60s, but that cause was more obvious and just leading many to embrace it. What is ourt cause today? Get money out of Washington? I have no idea.

We are all close to having nothing more to lose, so I expect some action soon, but let's not pretend it is 1970, California public universities have little to no tuition, or that a $7/hour dishwashing job does more than cover a couple semesters worth of books.


Here is the "HILARIOUS" Don't Taze Me Bro video that I often hear jokes about. Fuck that shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE

[KansDem]

1. The police are fast becoming a foil to stand between the elites and the masses

It's not about "law enforcement" anymore. It's about protecting the plutocrats...

[WingDinger]

8. And I expect a keystone cop overtake of CSI. Soon. People are thru giving up their rights.

[hifiguy]

16. That militarization of the police for the past 25 years

was designed to do one thing - keep the masses in their place and off the street unless they want to run the risk of grievous injury and prison.

[Pithlet]

22. Cop bashing! Cop bashing!

We don't have the whole story! :sarcasm:

[UTUSN]

2. Left out of the list: No draft. n/t

[frazzled]

3. And texting on their iPhones

Or sexting. Or Tweeting. Or Facebooking.

[reggie the dog]

4. lots of people text and post politicial things on facebook

[tabbycat31]

18. I use my facebook mostly for politics

I even have in my profile that I work in politics and if you don't like my political posts, remove me from your friends.

[Lorien]

5. Actually it's easier to protest for those very reasons.

There's a lot to be pissed about and little left to lose at this point. What we need is leadership, and there's precious little of that on the Left.

[RadiationTherapy]

7. And what is the goal of our protests?

Ending a war and changing incredibly discriminatory voting laws are "easy" to get behind. What would our cause be?

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. That's part of the problem - there are so MANY things wrong, which

need to be addressed, that it is all but impossible to make any one a focus point.

[socialist_n_TN]

27. But there IS one focus point..........

It's called capitalism. EVERY ONE of the socio-political ills that are now destroying us are rooted in the capitalist system. You've just got to connect the dots.

[RandomKoolzip]

6. Also, young people - and people of all ages - don't protest in America because

they assume "someone else" will do it for them.

Plus which, it's not "cool" to be politically active. Anyone remember that scene in "The Breakfast Club" where the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall) brags about getting a fake ID so he can vote? And the rest of the group look at him like he's a hopeless dork? Yeah. We're still dealing with that.

[RadiationTherapy]

9. While I understand what you mean

I am unsure of what cause we 'assume' will be 'done' for us?

[RandomKoolzip]

11. That's the point. "Insert Cause Here" applies in this case.

No matter what cause people are concerned about: the environment, poverty, union-busting, war, etc., many people simply sit on the sidelines because they assume there's someone somewhere much more passionate and with much more time on their hands actually getting their hands dirty doing the protesting.

[RadiationTherapy]

12. Maybe. I think protesting rarely occurs to anyone.

I think many people are so busy trying to keep their heads above water that there is very little thought given to protest. I don't think there is much sentiment of what you describe. I have never heard someone speaking hopefully about some organization or protest that may improve their life. It just doesn't come up at all.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. Well, again, that's sort of the point. EVeryone is living their life, observing it getting

more and more difficult, and sort of hoping that someone out there is an advocate for them, whether that advocate takes the form of a politician or the form of a protestor or an activist. It may not come up because it's mainly an unconscious wish, but undoubtedly it's there. Why else do we hold elections?

In any case, my point is that many people in general do not get involved in protests or organizations that benefit them because - and though this may never be said out loud - they figure someone else has it covered.

[RadiationTherapy]

21. I see what you're saying now.

I guess there is something to it. I certainly don't find it to be the case. If I protest in DC, I risk my job (unless I take a vacation? but that limits my protest ability) and thus my house, stability, wife's education, kid's education.

[Shandris]

13. A vast group -- and I would say majority, but anecdotally -- are simple...

...disgusted with the lies and half-truths from both sides.

Politics is all about lying -- it always has been. Or rather, how close you can come to lying while still telling the technical truth but still sending a different message than reality would dictate. Like calling a vote where 215 of one side and 3 of the other vote for it 'bipartisan'.

These people know, for instance, that corporations are fucking them over every chance they get...and that there's nothing anyone is going to do about it. They can dissect any single thing spouted in politics in a half-second flat with Google, which they've known most of their lives. They have a 'why should I bother' attitude, and unless they're simply particularly caring individuals, it's a question few can answer.

[RandomKoolzip]

17. Ah, the false equivalency meme.

Now, let's define our terms, shall we? "Both sides." Do you mean the two political parties, Democrats and Republicans? OR do you mean liberals and conservative people/individuals? Because it is simply untrue that "both sides" are just as bad as one another. The republicans - both as a political class and mass - do far more damage to humanity as a whole in their actions, behaviors, and statements than either liberals or Democrats in power.

[Shandris]

23. What, were you salivating, waiting to drop that False Equivalency shit on someone?

I didn't say both sides are 'just as bad as the other', I said they both INSINUATE HALF-TRUTHS which combine to give a 'who gives a shit' feeling to the people observing the debate.

And you can define 'both sides' as Democrats and Republicans, as 'liberal' and 'conservative' are much more far-reaching in scale and scope, although the 'typical' liberal and conservative are rather 'well-defined' as a particular subset of that array for terms of general discussion not related to exacting measurement and empirical evidence.

Furthermore, unless you have an objective statement defining, exactly and with metrics predetermined and accepted as definitives by the entirety of the populace, the term 'far more damage', you'll have trouble proving that line. Now, I happen to agree with you that as a whole they do what I believe to be much more damage, but that doesn't address either objectivity or defining metrics.

See, I can take a concept and lose it in semantics also, but that wasn't particularly the mood I was in today.

[socialshockwave]

14. When you have to put up with stuff like this..

A facebook status - between myself and a friend.

Me: but since the republicans are now controlled by the extreme right tea party "privatize everything" crowd speaker boehner wants to slash and decimate social programs.

friend: they were elected on that platform people agreed voila republican majority in the house.

friend again: the cuts are wanted by the public.


Having people your age(my friend's 19) being sucked into the hard-right lie machine just...makes me, at least, feel hopeless.

[RadiationTherapy]

19. I'm 37.

That's young, ain't it? hahahaha

[socialshockwave]

20. :P

I mean the "new generation" as some people call us. We're just being made into the Koch generation.

[pitohui]

24. an arrest has long term consequences it didn't have back then

i wouldn't get involved in a protest or march these days, one arrest means a lifelong hassle at unexpected moments

travel to canada? have an arrest, you might get turned aside at the border and lose an expensive trip (or your job, if you're traveling for business) -- eventually this is likely to be the case for western europe as well

even a MINOR arrest these days has consequences

in this tight job market, one arrest might be all that it takes to guarantee your college degree is worthless for you'll never be selected for the desirable jobs

employers can get online and find arrests for even tiny "release on recognizance" stuff

i can't see putting a big torpedo on your whole life, esp. if you're a young person, to get involved in a march that will do nothing

we had the biggest worldwide protest and marches of all time to try to stop the war in iraq, all those millions marching hardly got a mention on the news and did ZIP to stop the regularly scheduled war, so why risk a lowered income and multiple problems for life (which is what could come of an arrest) by getting involved in a protest?

maybe you can march and not get arrested, tazed, etc. plenty of people do but the risk is always there and the reward seems so small that it doesn't seem worthwhile

there are positive steps people can do and try to improve the world but marching around with a sign "protesting" is a total waste of time in my view -- risk vs. reward -- where is the logic?

[socialist_n_TN]

28. Brickbat post #25 applies here too

It's not much of a cause if it's not worth getting arrested for. So you would rather live on your knees than die on your feet?

[RadiationTherapy]

29. Let's not pretend there are loads of jobs or any community support

for ex-cons of any stripe.

[socialist_n_TN]

32. My last sentence applies. When you get to that point

nobody cares if you're an ex-con or not.

[Brickbat]

25. Awwwww, protesting is HARD!

Yes. Yes, it is. But that didn't stop miners and steelworkers. Even when the goons shot and killed their colleagues, and militias burned their children, they didn't stop. So, you know, yeah. It's hard.

[RadiationTherapy]

26. That is a different scenario from what I am talking about.

I appreciate your point.

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Well first of all a dishwasher job in '72 paid

about $1.60 per hour as I recall. :)

I said it in another post above as a response, but IMO, it deserves repeating. There is a cause to fight for. It's not a cause that's going to be achieved tomorrow and probably not next year or even next decade. But ALL of the current societal ills are rooted in the politico-economic system that we live under. Capitalism and the dictatorship of capital is killing us all and will continue to kill us until we smash it and put in a more equitable system for the distribution of wealth.

Now this is MOVEMENT type of work that DOES take years and even decades to work, so the time to get started is when your young. Because if you're young, you MIGHT see it completed. I SERIOUSLY doubt that I will, but I AM still participating. I'm participating FOR the future.

[rucky]

31. Kids these days need better drugs.

and music.

[Odin2005]

33. Planned protests in "free speech zones" are worthless.

Only a spontaneous and truly overwhelming protest everywhere in the country will do anything.