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Comment by lazyasciiart | Hacker News Reader

Try literally responding to the comment you are dismissing

> what I was also doing - relentlessly recording and documenting their behavior and addition to protesting.

The other commenter makes an interesting point though that these behaviors really don't do anything but make people engaging with them feel that they are doing something productive against whatever they are protesting. ICE will still do whatever the hell they want as long as the president continues to give them a 500ft leash. And neither the president nor their voter base care about these protests, so what is the point? The lines in the sand in this case are already drawn and there are no fence sitters left to convince. Record all you want, put up as many cops are pigs signs as you want, they don't care. Call me jaded, but it is true. The way protesting is done in this country doesn't effect change.

At least protesting is doing something. What's far worse is the people getting emotionally invested and then just arguing on Facebook or going to bed sad. That'll just make you depressed and does literally nothing.

certainly not true in this case. The constant protests and clashes and deaths caused a significant national backlash, to the point that operations were dialed way down and even the field chief was replaced. Without the actions of protestors in minnesota we would likely still be seeing similar militant takeovers of cities around the country - it actually did change a lot. (in my opinion of course, alternative histories cant be proven)

It only does nothing if you believe physical action is the only means of mattering. Clearly these broadcasted events changed national and global sentiment, had a few top brass discharged, and most importantly have created communities of means to track ICE and have others get out of harm's way where they may otherwise have been next. Not to mention it's been yet another factor in Trump's declinig polling rates, which affects midterm voting.

Is it enough? Not even close. But ultimately (if you're not going to maintain a well-reguated militia yourself) this is going to be a battle of attrition and this bookkeeping is at worst going to be used for history, or at best will be used to eventually hold many of those accountable when the tides change.

I disagree. But if you want to have a conversation about whether specific actions achieve their intended goals, that’s very different to saying “but did you even DO anything because of what you learned???????”

It's not an interesting point at it. It's obviously idiotic.

You do have a choice, you can change things. Getting angry, especially in large numbers, is a prerequisite to change. Because getting angry is the prerequisite for violence.

His statement is "ignore getting fucked in the ass and take it". How exactly is that interesting?

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