Very well answered, thanks.

I think there’s generally poor discourse around protests. I appreciate the long form opinions that you and others have put together, but a lot of commentary is very reductive.

I get the “net negative” sentiment, but the only thing worse than feeling like you didn’t make an impact is feeling that while being berated as naive. For something as low stakes as a one day boycott, not much is lost if you use it as a case study to teach from. Here’s why it didn’t work and what we can do better. The important part of the discussion should be on building goals and organizing, and detaching those from the endorphins of political action.

I’m of the opinion that the only truly performative and useless protests are digital. If you went somewhere or did something (or changed plans to avoid either) you’re infinitely closer to making a change than putting a hashtag into the digital void.

The truth is we’re in uncharted territory. What does or doesn’t work may be unintuitive. Protests haven’t really happened:

• in the 21st century western world
• & against the massively expanded tools of surveillance
• & the highest wealth disparity in history
• & most communication channels and social spaces replaced by digital corporate platforms
• & the rapid fascist takeover of a government looking for their Reichstag Fire

The George Floyd protests in 2020 were the closest thing we’ve seen but today is different beast.

As an example, I get the feeling that organizing at your workplace won’t work for long. The administration would smash your legal right to unionize without hesitation. Similarly, signing up with the DSA might have been effective political action 4 years ago but put you on the no-fly list today. Maybe clandestine but highly visible protests (vandalism, sabotage, etc…) will have more impact than marching on Washington DC out of the gate? Time will tell…