Protesting (in general)

andyrightcoast

andyrightcoast

Active member
I was talking to a man that came into my work today, he was the organizer of a huge Anti-War walkout at a local college. It was my break, so I sat down to talk to him about it. I stuck up a friendly argument about the Iraq situation, making valid points back and forth, and realized that the guy really didn't have the SLIGHTEST idea what he was talking about. For every point I made, he responded with a generic answer such as 'the evil Bush administration is doing this' or 'big oil companies are doing that' to the most inane questions. When it really got down to it, the guy had organized the whole protest just for the sake of protesting something. It got me to thinking about most protests about anything. How many of the people protesting actually know about/care about whats being protested? I know that the kids that walked out of my school the other day did so because they got out of class, not because they cared the SLIGHTEST bit about anti-war. I think that sadly, a good percentage of the people protesting at these rallys are doing so due to peer pressure, or the need to protest against SOMETHING. What are other peoples takes on this. Now I DONT care about your opinion on Bush, or America, or Iraq, or whatever, I just want to know what people feel about protesting in general.

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
you have a good point i have seen this happen before to. it is a waste of fucking time for people just to protest just for the sake of protesting.

AMA-RIP
 
i dont know about others but i know a huge group of protesters that believe in what we are protesting and actually have valid points not just 'evil bushians'......you know what pisses me off? when people find out that u are pro-peace ( i dont like being anti anything) they automatically think u are antti-military.. which is completely untrue

Paxie=odd name huh?? but i'm still a ski goddess.

'oh for sure. mon petiti chou-chou'-candide thovex.
 
I agree that a lot of people want to protest for the sake of protesting. It's a hip thing to do. But then again, it goes the other way too. At a rally here on campus last week, the davis college republicans were doing their best to have an anti-rally. They held up signs like 'Go back to France you cowards.' They didn't really bring anything productive to the table; they just wanted to scream and yell and make sure people know they exist.

 
they protest going to war when it was going to war that actually gave them the right to protest. Protesting doesn't do anything anyway.

When you think about it we arn't really going to war with iraq, when you go to war it usually means that the other country can hurt you back. And, lets be realistic, there arn't going to be iraqi tanks running down my street. What we are doing is preparing to jump Iraq, not go to war with.

Offical NS asshole

googoo271 - ''Hey phrosty! i'm gay! you're right!!!! i'm gayer than elton john!!! look at me phrosty! look at me!!!!''
 
Does it matter? Any great idea spawns a following; some follow because they truly believe in it, and some follow because they are just followers. As long as the idea is a truth, does it matter?

KAMIKAZE: MAKING NS MORE CORRUPT ONE THREAD AT A TIME

*Proud member of Newschoolers for Peace*
 
'Any great idea spawns a following'.

The problem with that statement is that it pre-supposes that not going to war (in this case) is a great idea, or conversely, that going to war is a bad idea, or that free trade is bad (since people protest against that as well). In these specific cases would not view these anti-war or anti-free trade ideas as great, or even correct. If people are to follow an idea blindly, I would hope that it is something that is at least universally acknowledged as a 'great idea'. Since I don't think that there are many ideas that people can universally rally against, I would like to see more people actually research their opinions, and then decide one way or the other, at least then they truly understand what they are protesting against.

 
what Kamikazee said...

____________________

'it would be funny if someone went up to a skier and broke their skis over their knee,'

-my snowboarder friend who shortly afterwards got his ass kicked.
 
reminds me of lagwagon

does anyone else besides me have fantasies about being in a back while it gets robbed and then getting dragged into the vault, getting raped and then getting locked in there to die? - alpentalik

do everynight alpentalik,but when they rape me,im lying face down in a pile of crisp 50's and 100's – lateralis

hey you guys are kinda creepy, but my english isnt so great so i might be missing something - ridelesdiablerets

no... youre not missing anything... - anewmorning
 
hey phrosty, good point but what about my friends who are going to the war from High School. I can be sure that loosing them in this 'war' will hurt me. It will devistate there families. So to say that the war won't impact you is impractical. It's hard to realize the gravity of what will happen over the next couple days.

 
well your friends are going to war under their own free will. Noone made them sign up.

Offical NS asshole

googoo271 - ''Hey phrosty! i'm gay! you're right!!!! i'm gayer than elton john!!! look at me phrosty! look at me!!!!''
 
*sigh*...why do we continue to talk about this. No-one is ever persuaded one way or the other, and nothing is resolved.

___________________

-JefF-

Dave Likes Kittens.

*Viva La Vagina*
 
phrosty you prick, I can't believe you have no compassion for the men and women in the armed forces and the people who care for them. You're comments are just thoughtless ramblings from who knows where. I can't believe you said that just because they decided to defend our country that was your argument against there death having an impact on me. Grow up

 
quote from original post 'I DONT care about your opinion on Bush, or America, or Iraq, or whatever'

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
Well, if the States goes ahead with their ultimatum, they will join the club of nations that have invaded other countries without international consensus. Germany invaded France and Russia twice, Iraq invaded Kuwait, Japan attacked the U.S. - basically, the U.S. has stooped to the level of every other backward, tyranical regime in history. There is only one country besides the U.S. where a majority of the general population supports the U.S. position - Israel. Talk about going it alone. That is some full-on arrogance.

------------

'Dude, check out this nasty gouge.'

'Your mom has a nasty gouge.'

I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy.
 
youthinasia, I didnt fucking ask for your worthless opinion about the US. I asked about protesting. Shut the fuck up and get out of my thread.

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
yeah this is true some ppl protest only to protest but the big majority protest for an idea

PAG
 
i was watching cspan the other day, and they were televising an anti war event fron washington dc, and they had all these speakers stand up and give the usual shpeel about war is bad and this and that, and it was okay.. nothing ground breaking, but it seemed almost creditable, then they got these bunch of dirty hippies (i say dirty hippies because they were actually dirty looking) up on stage singing some protest song. i was still thinking it might not destroy all creditability of the event, when i noticed that the band consisted of a guy on acoustic guitar playing one or two chords dancing around like he was totally gone, a guy banging away on a bongo drum, and a dirty dreadlocked chick screeching into the microphone, which was on a podium that was about eye level with her. suffice it to say that they were not good. musically i mean. and furthermore i think they destroyed any creditablity that the event may have had... it ended up being a waste of my time. i then turned off the tv.

-all you need are drums to start a dance party-

 
to back up what andy said that people dont know what they are protesting against and have no fucking clue what they are talking about. watch this...its pretty funny. yet almost sad these people are so dumb.

image.jpg'


________________________

.:: P A T ::.

{2002-2003 MCM}

Proud member of the NS ogre, lanky bastards posse.

'im 12''7', 790 pounds. my penis is 23' flacid and from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinkie is 14' even. my pubic hair is longer than the hair on your head, and i wear a size 35 shoe. my testicles resemble two coconuts in a wet paper bag...yes, im an actual giant, but i still dont want to be part of your shitty club.' - mommy

 
http://www.newsfilter.org/da-peace_web.mov

________________________

.:: P A T ::.

{2002-2003 MCM}

Proud member of the NS ogre, lanky bastards posse.

'im 12''7', 790 pounds. my penis is 23' flacid and from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my pinkie is 14' even. my pubic hair is longer than the hair on your head, and i wear a size 35 shoe. my testicles resemble two coconuts in a wet paper bag...yes, im an actual giant, but i still dont want to be part of your shitty club.' - mommy

 
andy, no thread is your thread. you are lucky a stain like you isnt banned from the forum for being such a gearbox. cry a little more.

------------

'Dude, check out this nasty gouge.'

'Your mom has a nasty gouge.'

I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy.
 
gearbox. eh? think up some more names, mabye your vocabulary will increase some.

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
lol, mister member number '11291' thinks he knows his shit about the forum.

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
Andy, I read in the news about a pro-war rally at the University of Michigan last week... members of a university club gathered to sing patriotic songs, and then spit, tromped on, and defaced the flags of the U.N. and France.

Tides flow both ways. I'd say that if more people were informed about the situation... more people would be against war. I think I'll take the liberty of saying that the vast majority of those for war are just as underinformed as some of your peace supporters are.

KAMIKAZE: MAKING NS MORE CORRUPT ONE THREAD AT A TIME

*Proud member of Newschoolers for Peace*
 
damnit kami, I said I wasnt taking any side in the Iraq thing, I was taking about protesting IN GENERAL, and I know it goes both ways, I was just using an example that I knew about personnally.

-Andy

I am God... Please feel free to take a number, I'll be right with you.

 
u know what i hate more than protestors, petitioners, theyre gay and they suck

-----------------

Alex

::Viva la Resistance!::
 
kami... I would have to blatently disagree with you.. if more people knew the WHOLE situation in iraq, they'd be for war. I can see why people don't think the US should do it, but ya, somebody needs to do something.. HELL, the UN has been trying since '91 (minus 2000-mid 2002). it just now it will get done.

-Pat

WBP|films
 
PROTESTING IN GENERAL:

...is kinda a two sided thing. On one hand, the protests during the Vietnam war had some effect, and are remembered as possibly the most famous protests in American history. Majority was behind the protesters in that situation (or at least i think so, im not there yet in my US history class), thus explaining why they are remembered.

Protests now are very different. Protests are a bit less sensible right now because there isnt a draft to incite more people, or mainly the college student activists. Its a different time than the 70's too, and the mentality of the protest has changed much. Protests now simply dont have as much power as they did in the 1970's, or at least they dont in the Unites States. Worldwide might be a different matter, but i live in the US and dont really know what other people in the world are truly feeling (thanks to the US media).

So are protests just an excuse to skip school or incite a riot? In todays world, i think that many people in my area (Seattle WA) are true protesters in the way that most actually go and DO something at the protests instead of milling around. There are about 5 or 6 big protest organizations here, one of which (SNOW) is calling for walkouts and other protests on the day the bombs drop. I believe that the people that skip school and thier jobs HERE are for the most part true in thier protests, as in they are actually protesting instead of skipping school.

So are protests getting enough people to go to them? Now, i dont think that the majority of the people take into consideration the desperation that a protester feels to actually go out there onto the streets with signs to make his or her point. for every protester, there probably is another person who at least in some ways agrees with what they are doing (pro-war too). poloticians in out time really dont give a shit about protesters however. What has changed since the Vietnam War becasue of protests? Abortion protests yeild nothing agains Bush. Neither to enviromental protests or anti war protests apparently. I dont think that the organization and the method of the protest is what makes it effective, but how open and responsive the person(s) in power are to the people showing dissent. I also believe now that protesting in the US yeilds litte.

Ive talked for far too long and i apoligize for anyone who actually read the whole thing for my lack of a strong argument and the waste of your precious 5 minutes.

=========================

^Rowen^

Why?

'You're watching the Family Learning Channel. And now, angry ticks will fire out from my nipples.'

- Excerpt from Rejected, a movie by Don Hertzfeldt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top