July 4th will see the second “No Kings” protests across the U.S. against Trump and his haughty style of governance. Once again, the soft American Left forgets the lessons of the 1960s and indulges in a performative series of demonstrations with no chance of striking fear in the hearts of the ruling class. Effective protest movements are sustained, happening frequently, even daily, while inconveniencing and terrorizing the rich and powerful with the fear that nonviolence might give way to real disruption. Gathering every few weeks, on a Saturday or national holiday when businesses and government offices are closed, while promising to remain peaceful, is a sad misdirection of organization and energy that ought instead to be directed into building a real Left opposition.
Pas De Roi
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
3 Comments. Leave new
You forgot to mention the effectiveness of those Vance AI images. Some of those are really funny!! Keep up the good work guys!
Happy 4th!
I am reminded of the scene in “Arrested Development” where Lindsay, one of the main characters, walks to a “Freedom Zone” near Camp Pendleton and is locked into a cage by a soldier (played by the often-underappreciated Ethan Phillips) so that she can “protest” in the middle of nowhere.
I’ll point out that Donald Trump’s shiny new bill will eliminate federal taxes on social security. So the democrats now become the party that wanted to keep taxing the boomers’ social security. All Vance needs to do in 2028 is stand at the podium and not pull a Biden.
I am so incredibly sickened by the left’s idiocy, cowardice, and delusions that I literally no longer care HOW they lose 2028. I’m sure they will. And 2026? Hear me now and believe me later; they’ll screw it up somehow.
I’m going to admit my own fault and bias. I’m annoyed when a protest bumps into my life. I work to avoid it. If a group blocks the freeway all I want is to get past them. I don’t care what their message or cause is.
The reason isn’t that their cause is just and I just ignore it. It’s because every single cause uses the same marketing tactics. Once one thing gets an improvement in engagement the tactic spreads like a virus. One ice bucket challenge and 10000 other charitable causes grab hold of the activity to promote themselves and raise money. Passing by the White House on any day and there is a group in Lafayette park at hells corner promoting their cause. Nothing is “not important” and the marketing is a constant hum of importance and justification. And even if there was violence even that has become just another activity.
I don’t mean to throw my nihilism back in someone’s face. Even with acts of protest-treason smashing capitol buildings with giant mobs, these are just another blip taking up time and being gauged for how much advertising revenue the footage and tweets are worth.
And it’s not that this rome will fall: the mediocrity and lurching along is actually the low point. It’s like a tepid ocean with no breeze, no current and dull fish that have barely everythjng they need. You occasionally talk about Rome and other civilizations falling. The survival of this civilization is in the achievement of a stasis that holds it at one boring point forever. Rome was fortunate to be able to fall. This one won’t rise, fall, shrink or collapse. It will just grow and grow slurping up the next resource like a 300 lb diabetic with a huge icee. We whine about climate change and limited resources; not a danger. The sick organism will deploy engineers to overcome that next challenge not out of some noble experiment but just to add profit and advertising and keep the sludge flowing. Begging for revolution is like asking water to form a tidal wave. It’s a lot of work especially if the water is ok sitting around and there isn’t much geological stuff going on. The most powerful forces in the universe aren’t gravity or atomic forces or love or rage or anything you can imagine. stupidity is number one by a mile, foolish optimism is second followed by apathy a close third. Stupidity has laws just like energy does. Stupidity can be created and transferred from one to another. Stupidity grows in a power factor meaning one stupid person plus another doesn’t equal two, it equals more than the sum of two individuals. Stupidity can not add value, like energy it only causes things to become less valuable and less useful. Millions of stupid people are an unstoppable force that changes the world but adds no value. What one must accept is that stupidity can not be stopped and it is not possible to fight the outcome it causes. It’s as ever living as entropy itself. Even if a well meaning group of revolutionists get started, it won’t be an organized violent military of jack booted thugs that stops it; it will be stopped by galactic and organized stupidity, foolish optimism and apathy about things like what time half priced tea is at the local shop. The fear or joy should not be that this great society will end. The fear and resignation should be that there is no end, no change and no opportunity ever for such to occur. It’s an endless blob. We ask what the great filter is for aliens in the universe and the truth is that the filter is mediocrity.