Do you understand the difference in size between these countries and the US? How exceedingly difficult it would be to stage one singular mass protest in DC compared to the majority of Europe in their capital cities.
I will however concede that there’s probably a greater percentage of the country protesting than there are/ would be in the US. Probably because they get better education and workers rights to be able to devote the time, and more walkable cities with better public transport to get there.
They are being suppressed in media coverage, but there are people protesting. Media coverage paints a false picture that no one in the US is fighting back
Here’s one from today with 1000 people in Boise, Idaho
Here’s a super incomplete timeline with just a handful of the nationwide protests. I’m missing a lot, I’m just showing your the photos I had from recent memory
8 days ago there were national protest for science funding cuts. Here’s the main one in DC
11 days ago there were nationwide protests in all 50 US state capitols + DC + Many cities within those states. This was part of the 50501 movement
Portland, Oregon
Monroe, Wisconsin
San Fransisco, California
Albany, New York
Raleigh, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia
Austin, Texas
Protests Outside Fox News in New York City
16 days ago there were large protest in the Iowa Statehouse
19 days ago, a protest in Cherry Hill, New Jersy outside Tesla Showroom as part of a nationwide movement protesting Telsas. There have been tons more than just this one and these happen basically every day
21 days ago, large protests in DC for Ukraine aid
And so on. There’s a lot more going on than just this
That’s… kind of sad. There’s like dozens of people in those pictures. Honestly, no surprise media doesn’t report it, I’ve seen barbecues with higher attendance. Americans need to do a lot better.
I think so, but look at the protests in Serbia (or south Korea recently, or France every other month since the invention of the baguette), or basically any other country… and look at the pictures of protests in the US. The difference is remarkable.
Non Americans only viewing American politics from the lens of a democracy that cares about what the people say or think is surprising ignorant.
Sorry Americans don’t want to suicide by cop or make their families homeless to make your feel better. Californians can’t just take a week off work to trek to the capital to hold up a meaningless sign so you feel a little better. If our government was ever worried about a protest everyone would leave in a bodybag or to a black site. There is no chance of it accomplishing anything and your sheer ignorance of American geography is ironically very American.
And yet, look at any major city after a sports team win. The harsh truth is the protest turnout here in the states is pathetic. It’s low to the point of being embarrassing. It’s so low, that right wingers can use it as evidence of support for Trump; because clearly, if people were actually upset, there would be more than just a handful of people showing up and peacefully standing around.
Again, look at the streets after a sports team wins a game. Don’t tell me people can’t show up. Don’t tell me people can’t do more than hold signs. They do it all the fucking time because their group of guys moved a ball better than another group of guys.
The fact is, Americans don’t protest because we’ve mostly become disillusioned and have given up. There hasn’t been a single protest that accomplished anything since the Occupy Wall Street movement, and all that accomplished was getting media companies to circle the wagons and ensure they never, ever talk about class war again.
Any major city after sports win? I wasn’t aware the whole US was Philadelphia. You literally only see what happens after major events where there’s already a fuck ton of people not from that city ready to leave the stadium with nothing better going on. What an awful comparison.
Yes, any major city. You think people only fill the streets in Philly? Look at literally any city after they have a major football or baseball win. Streets are packed. There’s not always violence, but good luck trying to drive through downtown that evening. And guess what? The people filling the streets AREN’T just from the stadium. People pour out of their homes, bars, EVERYWHERE. Using your Philly example, look at this crowd. You think those are all just people from the stadium? That was a Sunday night. It was cold out, those people had jobs they had to be at the next day, but it didn’t matter because they felt it was “important” to be out there. And that’s just the spur of the moment post-game celebration. The scheduled parade that Friday had over a million people show up. Over a million.
Now look at any picture or video from the recent “protests” and tell me it’s not pathetic in comparison. And what happened in Philly is not the exception. Similar turnouts happen in any major US city following a Super Bowl win, most cities following a World Series win, and some cities following a Stanley Cup win. Its so expected, cops will pre-section off areas of the cities because they know people are going to be out on the streets not giving a fuck.
So yes, when the protests can’t even muster up even 1% of the crowds that naturally occur after a fucking ball game, it can be safely called a depressingly low turnout.
I’m so sick of sanctimonious Europeans condescending on situations they have little understanding over. Sorry I’m not going to die bum rushing the oval office and leave my son homeless and hungry to make some ignorant European feel better.
Fuck you. You’ve all been cheering on my suffering while I worked to fix this place. Fuck you guys. Fuck the Fascists. This is between you two now. Neither of you were ever on my side. I’m never lifting my finger for a European/Canadian again. You assholes can handle it yourself. I wish the Jews you guys committed a genocide against had just protested a bit harder, huh?
Buddy, I am American. This shit is pathetic. I’m tired of pretending that less than 1000 people standing on a street corner is a good protest. The turnout has been embarrassingly bad, and the internet’s take that it’s because working Americans don’t want to risk their jobs completely discounts the feeling of utter defeat many are feeling. There is just no motivation to protest anymore, it’s been shown to be as ineffective as calling or writing to your senator. You know they aren’t going to see it, and if you receive anything back, it will be a canned, generic response that doesn’t even acknowledge your message.
I’m not upset with people for not turning out. I fully understand why they don’t. I just wish we’d stop pretending these protests are the start of some new movement, when all signs point to them being the last gasps of a dying resistance. Think that’s too doom and gloom? Well, unfortunately, that is our reality.
Just look at the stadiums on Sundays. Full to capacity in every major city. Broadcast live for everyone to see. Forget about your lives we give you modern gladiators. Now rejoice and pay us money!
There were more people at the protests you all are removeding about than “the stadium” on Sunday. Lol. You will complain about anything to make yourself feel bigger.
See to me America is a slang word. It’s used to mock and degrade. Fucking 'murica. It does not get the power you all seem to have given it. That’s been lost long ago and only propped for the last several decades by the constant barrage of American exceptionalism from your ever present media telling us all what to think. America is like a curse word here. It’s used with vitriol now though it used to be used with mocking humor.
Now please go fight your elected fascist dictator before we all have to.
One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I’m not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren’t big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.
It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can’t just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.
I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars “meet up” in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won’t even have any recourse, there aren’t enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.
Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.
This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.
From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can’t be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven’t noticed they’re full on into it for decades already.
I’m not losing my job to accomplish absolutely nothing other than making an ignorant Canadian feel a little better. Go take some action yourself unless you can’t be bothered to take a day off. Lol.
I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can’t afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can’t make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don’t care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he’s doing and the result is much smaller protests.
It’s also worth mentioning that there WERE mass protests when Trump was elected the first time, and people have been standing up against MAGA for a decade at this point. And none of it has kept MAGAts from continuing to put him into power. I think Americans are pretty justified in thinking the protests won’t accomplish anything.
I think places you can look for American resistance at the moment are in the courts, boycotts, and in the townhalls yelling at their representative. There are some people protesting, but most liberals are giving a lot of thought to what is strategically effective at this point.
I mean I think even the mass protests we did have are nothing compared to the size of protests in Europe. I think that’s a mix of general American attitudes both with people’s general apathy and the extremely individualistic ideals that Americans tend to have pushed on them from a young age. As well as a mix of the lack of worker protections like I mentioned before. I think if we could pull off the kind of numbers we see in Europe in even a couple of big American cities they would be very effective. Protests are the kinds of thing that can help build community since while you’re there you can talk to people and find groups to join to push for what you believe in. And I mean compared to the other forms of resistance you mentioned two of those, courts and town halls, effectively are protests as you’re going to a town hall to protest your representatives or you’re going out and protesting to tell the court to do more to stop this. That’s why I think we need to focus on building up communities to help breakthrough the apathy and the intensely individualistic attitude people here tend to have, as well as setting up things like mutual aid to provide more of those safety nets that the government is abdicating on right now to help those who normally can’t afford to come out and participate. So that when there’s a push against something it doesn’t just take the form of hundreds of people showing up at something but is thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people showing up like what you’ve seen in Europe. Of course that will take time and at least from what Ive seen the number of people being involved in community groups has gone up but definitely not as fast as the number of people angry at Trump and I think trying to funnel those people into groups to help organize is gonna be the big thing that actually lets us fight back and oppose what’s going on right now.
Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I’m 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who’s own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because…oh my god…they have to go to work.
This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don’t have money for that but here I am…doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn’t have to ever learn and they’re doing it while missing out on lots of things they’re accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won’t or can’t.
Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.
I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I’m not making excuses, I’m just explaining why it’s hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.
So I am preparing my kids for no dad, even though I and my family had no say in the outcome of your citizens decisions and they get away with it cause they’re poor and no one wants to help organize or teach them because you all couldn’t be bothered. Gotcha.
The apologists are as bad if not worse than the instigators. Find a way.
You drive? Take a bus? Use gasoline or petroleum in any way? I’ve lifted a finger for you. Now fuck off with your rhetoric. Funny you can be pissed at us but not your own citizens and government. What a waste of space. No wonder your country is so fucked.
That’s bullshit though. You don’t have to protest at Washington DC. You don’t think the people in Serbia didn’t drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?
I hate to break it to you, but Americans are cowardly crabs in a bucket. More content with stepping on each other in a sad attempt to get ahead of the rest.
Since you’re drawing parallels to Serbia - yes, you do want to protest as close to the centre of power as possible, and that’s what Serbs did.
You don’t think the people in Serbia didn’t drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?
I don’t. The driving distance between Belgrade and Novi Sad, the second largest Serbian city, is ~1 h. And Belgrade by itself already has more than enough population for massive protests, because it has four times the population of Novi Sad and around 1/4 of the population of the entire country. This degree of centralisation and physical proximity is completely incomparable to US. US geography significantly diffuses the power of protests.
Also the Serbian protests have been initiated and are led by students who in general do not drive around much, it’s safe to assume most don’t have their own cars, etc. IIRC, some of those who participated in the yesterday protest were brought by buses to Belgrade, which was organised ahead of time by the protesters.
There are people protesting, you’re just not seeing it because the media is suppressing coverage of it
Here’s a protest yesterday in DC
Here’s another for Ukraine aid the other day in DC
I also think you underestimate how big the US is. 2-3 hours would be if you’re close by DC. People on the other side of the country in California, Washington State, Oregon, etc. are 5 hour plane rides away or 40+ hours of driving
Protest movements take time to grow. Especially when most within the US don’t have any idea they’re going on. Because the media coverage of protests is limited (though not zero, yes)
I know Indivisible is trying to get a larger DC specific group together on April 5th if you’re looking for larger in one place. Though there will also be protests in all 50 states that day too
People are protesting locally in tons city not just every state capitol. It’s helped get local news coverage when national news orgs have limited converage. It helps the average person be more likely to run into them and learn about it as well
To be honest, that doesn’t fly. Our conservatives voted with the right wing party in parliament once on a proposition and on a law that didn’t even pass a couple of weeks ago. That was announced on Tuesday, voted on on Wednesday and Friday. Over a million were on the streets by Sunday, distributed over the whole country with some protests exceeding 300.000 people.
While in the US, things are a lot worse and it’s been weeks and it’s been known to be coming for months. I would have expected millions on the streets by now, hell, I would have expected there to be huge protests on day one.
Of course, that’s not on those who try their best to get things organized. But it’s shocking to me, that there are so many people still remaining passive, and that’s not only on the media, other groups are dropping the ball here, too. First and foremost of course the Democrats but also local businesses, sport clubs, charities, unions, churches, they all join in when big protests like that are organized in Europe.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU’s actions. That large protest wasn’t the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024
The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It’s a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump’s strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it’s hard for anything to break through the noise. It’s designed to make people so numb they don’t think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can
Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like “we’re cooked”, “why is no one doing anything”, “where are the people protesting”, etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think
I think you’re the one looking at things on way too short of time scale.
You’re looking at the current protests as if they are the start of the movement.
But protests have been going on against the rise of fascism and Trump since his first term. Almost a full decade of protests. Less and less people turning out each time as they realize it changes nothing. This isn’t the beginning, it’s the end.
but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
Am I? Democracy died within months in Germany when the Nazis took over.
I get that building up a movement takes time, but it’s not like Trump or Project 2025 are new things. Nothing he does is surprising, is it? And still, it seems the opposition is rather unprepared and unorganized. I really hope this changes quickly. Defeatism or doomerism don’t help, that’s true, but I also don’t see the sense of urgency necessary to build up an effective opposition. Then again, I’m also an ocean away, so maybe I don’t have all the insights.
But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.
I think a lot of people are unhappy but don’t know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn’t seem like enough. And there’s no obvious leader to the opposition.
This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That’s not a very motivating message, but that’s where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:
Search the other replies on this thread and you’ll see plenty of protests.
Stop believing everything you see (or don’t see) on the news. You’re making the same mistake brainwashed conservatives are making here in the US, and they are the core of the Trump problem.
There are huge protests in NYC practically daily. Most protests around the nation are at major cities or state capitals, so the numbers are far smaller.
Where’s the picture of the protests in America?
…Oh yea…
I will however concede that there’s probably a greater percentage of the country protesting than there are/ would be in the US. Probably because they get better education and workers rights to be able to devote the time, and more walkable cities with better public transport to get there.
They are being suppressed in media coverage, but there are people protesting. Media coverage paints a false picture that no one in the US is fighting back
Here’s one from today with 1000 people in Boise, Idaho
Here’s a super incomplete timeline with just a handful of the nationwide protests. I’m missing a lot, I’m just showing your the photos I had from recent memory
8 days ago there were national protest for science funding cuts. Here’s the main one in DC
11 days ago there were nationwide protests in all 50 US state capitols + DC + Many cities within those states. This was part of the 50501 movement
Portland, Oregon
Monroe, Wisconsin
San Fransisco, California
Albany, New York
Raleigh, North Carolina
Richmond, Virginia
Austin, Texas
Protests Outside Fox News in New York City
16 days ago there were large protest in the Iowa Statehouse
19 days ago, a protest in Cherry Hill, New Jersy outside Tesla Showroom as part of a nationwide movement protesting Telsas. There have been tons more than just this one and these happen basically every day
21 days ago, large protests in DC for Ukraine aid
And so on. There’s a lot more going on than just this
The revolution will not be televised.
Thank you for posting this. I’m so sick of ignorant people outside my country (US) spouting nonsense about nothing happening here.
These people are almost as bad as the US conservatives when it comes to believing only what they see on their news.
That’s… kind of sad. There’s like dozens of people in those pictures. Honestly, no surprise media doesn’t report it, I’ve seen barbecues with higher attendance. Americans need to do a lot better.
I feel like we are all on the same side here? Perhaps not
I think so, but look at the protests in Serbia (or south Korea recently, or France every other month since the invention of the baguette), or basically any other country… and look at the pictures of protests in the US. The difference is remarkable.
Non Americans only viewing American politics from the lens of a democracy that cares about what the people say or think is surprising ignorant.
Sorry Americans don’t want to suicide by cop or make their families homeless to make your feel better. Californians can’t just take a week off work to trek to the capital to hold up a meaningless sign so you feel a little better. If our government was ever worried about a protest everyone would leave in a bodybag or to a black site. There is no chance of it accomplishing anything and your sheer ignorance of American geography is ironically very American.
And yet, look at any major city after a sports team win. The harsh truth is the protest turnout here in the states is pathetic. It’s low to the point of being embarrassing. It’s so low, that right wingers can use it as evidence of support for Trump; because clearly, if people were actually upset, there would be more than just a handful of people showing up and peacefully standing around.
Again, look at the streets after a sports team wins a game. Don’t tell me people can’t show up. Don’t tell me people can’t do more than hold signs. They do it all the fucking time because their group of guys moved a ball better than another group of guys.
The fact is, Americans don’t protest because we’ve mostly become disillusioned and have given up. There hasn’t been a single protest that accomplished anything since the Occupy Wall Street movement, and all that accomplished was getting media companies to circle the wagons and ensure they never, ever talk about class war again.
Any major city after sports win? I wasn’t aware the whole US was Philadelphia. You literally only see what happens after major events where there’s already a fuck ton of people not from that city ready to leave the stadium with nothing better going on. What an awful comparison.
Yes, any major city. You think people only fill the streets in Philly? Look at literally any city after they have a major football or baseball win. Streets are packed. There’s not always violence, but good luck trying to drive through downtown that evening. And guess what? The people filling the streets AREN’T just from the stadium. People pour out of their homes, bars, EVERYWHERE. Using your Philly example, look at this crowd. You think those are all just people from the stadium? That was a Sunday night. It was cold out, those people had jobs they had to be at the next day, but it didn’t matter because they felt it was “important” to be out there. And that’s just the spur of the moment post-game celebration. The scheduled parade that Friday had over a million people show up. Over a million.
Now look at any picture or video from the recent “protests” and tell me it’s not pathetic in comparison. And what happened in Philly is not the exception. Similar turnouts happen in any major US city following a Super Bowl win, most cities following a World Series win, and some cities following a Stanley Cup win. Its so expected, cops will pre-section off areas of the cities because they know people are going to be out on the streets not giving a fuck.
So yes, when the protests can’t even muster up even 1% of the crowds that naturally occur after a fucking ball game, it can be safely called a depressingly low turnout.
Oh blow it out your ass.
I’m so sick of sanctimonious Europeans condescending on situations they have little understanding over. Sorry I’m not going to die bum rushing the oval office and leave my son homeless and hungry to make some ignorant European feel better.
Fuck you. You’ve all been cheering on my suffering while I worked to fix this place. Fuck you guys. Fuck the Fascists. This is between you two now. Neither of you were ever on my side. I’m never lifting my finger for a European/Canadian again. You assholes can handle it yourself. I wish the Jews you guys committed a genocide against had just protested a bit harder, huh?
Buddy, I am American. This shit is pathetic. I’m tired of pretending that less than 1000 people standing on a street corner is a good protest. The turnout has been embarrassingly bad, and the internet’s take that it’s because working Americans don’t want to risk their jobs completely discounts the feeling of utter defeat many are feeling. There is just no motivation to protest anymore, it’s been shown to be as ineffective as calling or writing to your senator. You know they aren’t going to see it, and if you receive anything back, it will be a canned, generic response that doesn’t even acknowledge your message.
I’m not upset with people for not turning out. I fully understand why they don’t. I just wish we’d stop pretending these protests are the start of some new movement, when all signs point to them being the last gasps of a dying resistance. Think that’s too doom and gloom? Well, unfortunately, that is our reality.
Just look at the stadiums on Sundays. Full to capacity in every major city. Broadcast live for everyone to see. Forget about your lives we give you modern gladiators. Now rejoice and pay us money!
There were more people at the protests you all are removeding about than “the stadium” on Sunday. Lol. You will complain about anything to make yourself feel bigger.
Those are great excuses. Enjoy trump.
Lol. Sounds like you’ll be enjoying him more.
For comedic value he’s not bad, specially knowing he won’t take away my Healthcare or my rights.
Actual bravo.
If we had shitty rewards, I’d give you a Lemmy Latinum.
deleted by creator
Being censored.
You mean the USA?
Better to simply call them “the states”, because unity evaporated a while ago.
As a Canadian, No I definitely mean 'murica.
Don’t let them arrogantly misuse the name of the continent for their country my Canadian friend.
Only one problem…America is not a continent. Though they may try to make you believe it is.
North and South America are both continents. As a USian, seriously, don’t let us keep the term American as our own. We don’t deserve it.
See to me America is a slang word. It’s used to mock and degrade. Fucking 'murica. It does not get the power you all seem to have given it. That’s been lost long ago and only propped for the last several decades by the constant barrage of American exceptionalism from your ever present media telling us all what to think. America is like a curse word here. It’s used with vitriol now though it used to be used with mocking humor.
Now please go fight your elected fascist dictator before we all have to.
I’m calling my representatives, senators, and organizing as much as I can. Believe me some of us are terrified of him, and those that support him.
One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I’m not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren’t big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.
It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can’t just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.
Serbia also only has about 20% more inhabitants than Wisconsin. 🙂
I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars “meet up” in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won’t even have any recourse, there aren’t enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.
Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.
This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.
From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.
Serbia has like a quarter population of NYC.
I don’t know why there aren’t any mass protests in the US, but that ain’t it.
One thing to keep in mind is that this never seemed to have been an issue during the WoT or 1% protests.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can’t be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven’t noticed they’re full on into it for decades already.
Blow it out your ass.
I’m not losing my job to accomplish absolutely nothing other than making an ignorant Canadian feel a little better. Go take some action yourself unless you can’t be bothered to take a day off. Lol.
I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can’t afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can’t make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don’t care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he’s doing and the result is much smaller protests.
It’s also worth mentioning that there WERE mass protests when Trump was elected the first time, and people have been standing up against MAGA for a decade at this point. And none of it has kept MAGAts from continuing to put him into power. I think Americans are pretty justified in thinking the protests won’t accomplish anything.
I think places you can look for American resistance at the moment are in the courts, boycotts, and in the townhalls yelling at their representative. There are some people protesting, but most liberals are giving a lot of thought to what is strategically effective at this point.
I mean I think even the mass protests we did have are nothing compared to the size of protests in Europe. I think that’s a mix of general American attitudes both with people’s general apathy and the extremely individualistic ideals that Americans tend to have pushed on them from a young age. As well as a mix of the lack of worker protections like I mentioned before. I think if we could pull off the kind of numbers we see in Europe in even a couple of big American cities they would be very effective. Protests are the kinds of thing that can help build community since while you’re there you can talk to people and find groups to join to push for what you believe in. And I mean compared to the other forms of resistance you mentioned two of those, courts and town halls, effectively are protests as you’re going to a town hall to protest your representatives or you’re going out and protesting to tell the court to do more to stop this. That’s why I think we need to focus on building up communities to help breakthrough the apathy and the intensely individualistic attitude people here tend to have, as well as setting up things like mutual aid to provide more of those safety nets that the government is abdicating on right now to help those who normally can’t afford to come out and participate. So that when there’s a push against something it doesn’t just take the form of hundreds of people showing up at something but is thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people showing up like what you’ve seen in Europe. Of course that will take time and at least from what Ive seen the number of people being involved in community groups has gone up but definitely not as fast as the number of people angry at Trump and I think trying to funnel those people into groups to help organize is gonna be the big thing that actually lets us fight back and oppose what’s going on right now.
Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I’m 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who’s own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because…oh my god…they have to go to work.
This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don’t have money for that but here I am…doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn’t have to ever learn and they’re doing it while missing out on lots of things they’re accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won’t or can’t.
Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.
Are you out protesting every day? Otherwise you’re lazy apparently. Lol.
I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I’m not making excuses, I’m just explaining why it’s hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.
So I am preparing my kids for no dad, even though I and my family had no say in the outcome of your citizens decisions and they get away with it cause they’re poor and no one wants to help organize or teach them because you all couldn’t be bothered. Gotcha.
The apologists are as bad if not worse than the instigators. Find a way.
You find a way. You’ve never lifted a finger for me. Fuck you. Fuck your family. I’m not sacrificing me or mine for you.
Enjoy the boot or whatever. I’m done giving a shit about you guys after all this. There’s no reason for me to be the only person being civil.
You drive? Take a bus? Use gasoline or petroleum in any way? I’ve lifted a finger for you. Now fuck off with your rhetoric. Funny you can be pissed at us but not your own citizens and government. What a waste of space. No wonder your country is so fucked.
It’s really hard dor americans to just take a day or two off work. It’s not like a new iphone dropped where they have to camp in front of a store.
That’s bullshit though. You don’t have to protest at Washington DC. You don’t think the people in Serbia didn’t drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?
I hate to break it to you, but Americans are cowardly crabs in a bucket. More content with stepping on each other in a sad attempt to get ahead of the rest.
Since you’re drawing parallels to Serbia - yes, you do want to protest as close to the centre of power as possible, and that’s what Serbs did.
I don’t. The driving distance between Belgrade and Novi Sad, the second largest Serbian city, is ~1 h. And Belgrade by itself already has more than enough population for massive protests, because it has four times the population of Novi Sad and around 1/4 of the population of the entire country. This degree of centralisation and physical proximity is completely incomparable to US. US geography significantly diffuses the power of protests.
Also the Serbian protests have been initiated and are led by students who in general do not drive around much, it’s safe to assume most don’t have their own cars, etc. IIRC, some of those who participated in the yesterday protest were brought by buses to Belgrade, which was organised ahead of time by the protesters.
There are people protesting, you’re just not seeing it because the media is suppressing coverage of it
Here’s a protest yesterday in DC
Here’s another for Ukraine aid the other day in DC
I also think you underestimate how big the US is. 2-3 hours would be if you’re close by DC. People on the other side of the country in California, Washington State, Oregon, etc. are 5 hour plane rides away or 40+ hours of driving
YOU DON’T HAVE TON PROTEST WASHINGTON DC
I saw those protests on the news…
Let me know when it’s 100s of thousands at a protest at a state capitol.
Protest movements take time to grow. Especially when most within the US don’t have any idea they’re going on. Because the media coverage of protests is limited (though not zero, yes)
I know Indivisible is trying to get a larger DC specific group together on April 5th if you’re looking for larger in one place. Though there will also be protests in all 50 states that day too
People are protesting locally in tons city not just every state capitol. It’s helped get local news coverage when national news orgs have limited converage. It helps the average person be more likely to run into them and learn about it as well
To be honest, that doesn’t fly. Our conservatives voted with the right wing party in parliament once on a proposition and on a law that didn’t even pass a couple of weeks ago. That was announced on Tuesday, voted on on Wednesday and Friday. Over a million were on the streets by Sunday, distributed over the whole country with some protests exceeding 300.000 people.
While in the US, things are a lot worse and it’s been weeks and it’s been known to be coming for months. I would have expected millions on the streets by now, hell, I would have expected there to be huge protests on day one.
Of course, that’s not on those who try their best to get things organized. But it’s shocking to me, that there are so many people still remaining passive, and that’s not only on the media, other groups are dropping the ball here, too. First and foremost of course the Democrats but also local businesses, sport clubs, charities, unions, churches, they all join in when big protests like that are organized in Europe.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU’s actions. That large protest wasn’t the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024–2025_German_anti-extremism_protests
The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It’s a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump’s strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it’s hard for anything to break through the noise. It’s designed to make people so numb they don’t think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can
Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like “we’re cooked”, “why is no one doing anything”, “where are the people protesting”, etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think
I think you’re the one looking at things on way too short of time scale.
You’re looking at the current protests as if they are the start of the movement.
But protests have been going on against the rise of fascism and Trump since his first term. Almost a full decade of protests. Less and less people turning out each time as they realize it changes nothing. This isn’t the beginning, it’s the end.
Am I? Democracy died within months in Germany when the Nazis took over.
I get that building up a movement takes time, but it’s not like Trump or Project 2025 are new things. Nothing he does is surprising, is it? And still, it seems the opposition is rather unprepared and unorganized. I really hope this changes quickly. Defeatism or doomerism don’t help, that’s true, but I also don’t see the sense of urgency necessary to build up an effective opposition. Then again, I’m also an ocean away, so maybe I don’t have all the insights.
But if people really are just giving up, we need to recognize it.
I think a lot of people are unhappy but don’t know what to do. Just going to a general protest doesn’t seem like enough. And there’s no obvious leader to the opposition.
This is the stage of the conflict where we try to minimize the damage until the next election. That’s not a very motivating message, but that’s where we are. I suggest you pick an organization and do what you can with them. There are others, but personally I picked Indivisible:
They gonna post hundreds of posts about their political problems before they protest.
*instead of protesting.
Search the other replies on this thread and you’ll see plenty of protests.
Stop believing everything you see (or don’t see) on the news. You’re making the same mistake brainwashed conservatives are making here in the US, and they are the core of the Trump problem.
There are huge protests in NYC practically daily. Most protests around the nation are at major cities or state capitals, so the numbers are far smaller.