4 years ago
On Protesting (and why it's stupid)
I'm gonna be a accurate contrarian here and say protests never work. Period. Think back in the last 100 years
* Egypt
* Iran
* China
* Hong Kong
* Iraq War prevention protests
* Police brutality
* Russia
* Cuba
* Ukraine
* Myanmar
* Thailand
*... I could go on.
None of those have worked. Not one. Because it's too easy for other agendas to co-opt the protests as has happened all throughout history.
That's why I'm never in agreement with protests, and would never attend one. And look in solid disagreement with what is happening now.
The things that work are sometimes elections. Quiet political lobbying and change. But the most powerful thing that always works is individual action:
* Going where you're treated best
* More education
* Financial self-empowerment
* Not following what society dictates.
If you look at any significant change in history, the only time something changed is when some person went against what the rest of society dictated and actually put it into motion. The protests were just a precursor to the action itself that brought the change.
But people always do the easy things. It's easier to get a piece of cardboard, write something on it and march down the street -- rather than change your life.
So I'm not changing my profile to be a black image (that's stupid and disingenuous). I'm not going to be saying "black lives matter" because really, I'm the person that is going to affect my own life - and really, all lives matter and the root cause of this particular protest is 1000x bigger than just black lives.
More importantly, I'm not going to get outraged. Because that never solves anything.
Solid ideas, followed by positive action solves problems. Someone shouting "No justice, no peace" -- never did.
