Because a half dozen people don’t get politicians attention. Don’t get me wrong, I love that this was pulled off at all, but protests are a numbers game.
Honestly, it doesn’t sound like many were protesting. Germany has had more than a million people on the streets in the last couple of days in comparison. Munich alone had 300,000 people protesting.
It’s not a competition but the US also has 4 times the population allowing for much larger protests if there is sufficient public support.
The US has a larger population, but its also massively larger. There were thousands in LA - tens of? No idea. But into the thousands across multiple protests.
That said, it usually takes a bit for momentum. The Great American Boycott (aka a day without an immigrant) had about a million people 20 years ago, but had large scale planning and coordination in other countries as well. The Floyd protests were in the tens of millions of participants, but that was also over a few years of protesting during the pandemic.
Then add in the short timeframe provided on this one (less than 2 weeks if you knew about it early, mostly the day or two before for many more) and its a solid turnout.
This is more like everyone getting to Berlin and protesting, but without good public transportation infrastructure and super short notice. So let’s take that Oklahoma example from earlier - hundreds were there. The population of OK is about 4 million people for the whole state. In terms of population, its about the middle most populous of all states. So this is like the population of Berlin, spread across a state about half the size of Germany.
You’re right, but you also have cities like NYC with decent public transit and a higher population density than any German city.
To be fair, the protests were held at state capitals but NYC is the far more nationally and internationally relevant city in that state. A protest with public backing would have little problem getting 100,000 people on the streets there, wouldn’t it?
Even Oklahoma City has 680,000 inhabitants and is larger than all but 5 German cities. If we assume 680 people protested then that’s 0.1% of the city… which isn’t a lot really?
The German protest series also had a somewhat short, though longer notice of around two weeks. Plus large protests are held on the weekend by design, to allow as many people as possible to join in. No clue what the turnout would’ve been on a regular Wednesday.
But in all honesty, the US reaction to open fascism has been rather apathetic so far from what I can tell an ocean away. Which should be particularly concerning because apathy does not defeat fascism, ever.
NYC is not where the protests were - not for this one at least. It was in Albany, about 3 hours from NYC by car, bus, or train. On a random Tuesday with short notice most aren’t going to be able to go.
There are other protests that have happened in NYC, just like with LA. That said - yes, youre going to have trouble getting people out in general despite public support. You’ve got people with families who need someone to watch their kids. You have people who literally can’t afford to miss a day of work. You have people who will get fired for taking a day off unexpectedly.
You’ve got all kinds of protections in the EU that dont exist in the US, and many places intentionally so to prevent exactly this.
The two situations aren’t comparable, as I’ve said.
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Because a half dozen people don’t get politicians attention. Don’t get me wrong, I love that this was pulled off at all, but protests are a numbers game.
More populous states tended to have more people there for obvious reasons. There were hundreds in Oklahoma as a reference.
Has any protest actually exceeded 10,000 people?
Honestly, it doesn’t sound like many were protesting. Germany has had more than a million people on the streets in the last couple of days in comparison. Munich alone had 300,000 people protesting.
It’s not a competition but the US also has 4 times the population allowing for much larger protests if there is sufficient public support.
The US has a larger population, but its also massively larger. There were thousands in LA - tens of? No idea. But into the thousands across multiple protests.
That said, it usually takes a bit for momentum. The Great American Boycott (aka a day without an immigrant) had about a million people 20 years ago, but had large scale planning and coordination in other countries as well. The Floyd protests were in the tens of millions of participants, but that was also over a few years of protesting during the pandemic.
Then add in the short timeframe provided on this one (less than 2 weeks if you knew about it early, mostly the day or two before for many more) and its a solid turnout.
This is more like everyone getting to Berlin and protesting, but without good public transportation infrastructure and super short notice. So let’s take that Oklahoma example from earlier - hundreds were there. The population of OK is about 4 million people for the whole state. In terms of population, its about the middle most populous of all states. So this is like the population of Berlin, spread across a state about half the size of Germany.
Its not really a good comparison regardless.
You’re right, but you also have cities like NYC with decent public transit and a higher population density than any German city.
To be fair, the protests were held at state capitals but NYC is the far more nationally and internationally relevant city in that state. A protest with public backing would have little problem getting 100,000 people on the streets there, wouldn’t it?
Even Oklahoma City has 680,000 inhabitants and is larger than all but 5 German cities. If we assume 680 people protested then that’s 0.1% of the city… which isn’t a lot really?
The German protest series also had a somewhat short, though longer notice of around two weeks. Plus large protests are held on the weekend by design, to allow as many people as possible to join in. No clue what the turnout would’ve been on a regular Wednesday.
But in all honesty, the US reaction to open fascism has been rather apathetic so far from what I can tell an ocean away. Which should be particularly concerning because apathy does not defeat fascism, ever.
NYC is not where the protests were - not for this one at least. It was in Albany, about 3 hours from NYC by car, bus, or train. On a random Tuesday with short notice most aren’t going to be able to go.
There are other protests that have happened in NYC, just like with LA. That said - yes, youre going to have trouble getting people out in general despite public support. You’ve got people with families who need someone to watch their kids. You have people who literally can’t afford to miss a day of work. You have people who will get fired for taking a day off unexpectedly.
You’ve got all kinds of protections in the EU that dont exist in the US, and many places intentionally so to prevent exactly this.
The two situations aren’t comparable, as I’ve said.
Nice, that makes me smile. I respect everyone that got out there.
Exactly
I doubt a politician would care if 200 people protested divided over 50 states.
We’d need millions to actually make a change.
The fact they said “simultanious protest in every state” and not the amount makes me suspicious that it actually wern’t that many.