I’d like to add. You also need them to actually be afraid. If they know a few protests is all it’s ever going to become, they won’t give half a shit. The threat, and the reason the government might start acting differently, is from the implecation that these (I suppose in this case 12.5 million) people are ready to hang the government. If they aren’t ready to do that, fuck all is going to change. As it is right now, it seems 99% of the protesters are pacifists. As in, going to do fuck all either way.
They don’t have to think that that many people are going to physically come after them–they have to think that if that many peaceful people are against them, how many not-so-peaceful are also out there? They have to think that those millions of people are going to be on the side of and support those that do come after them and won’t cooperate with the regime. In other words, if something should happen, these millions of pacifists will have seen nothing, heard nothing, have no idea where the “terrorists” are hiding, etc.
They also have to worry that if millions turned out to peaceably protest, millions might also participate in a general strike or other large work stoppages, another means of peaceful protest that scares them more than just large crowds. Even the threat of labor being withheld scares the oligarchs. So ee need to make that happen. The mayor of Chicago has already called for it.
They also have to worry that millions might also take part in the upcoming Black(Out) Friday on Nov. 28th, another form of peaceful protest the day after Thanksgiving (some say it lasts for the whole week) when we refuse to shop at big box stores/big businesses, only buying from small/local businesses. That’s the weekend that most retail companies make the bulk of their annual sales.
And BTW it was very important that there was no violence at the protests–the regime had been putting out a lot of propaganda warning that it would be violent and that participants would be mostly “antifa terrorists”, “illegal immigrants” and “Hamas supporters”. They hoped to get some footage of violence they could spread and tout as proof of their assertions and were denied–everyone could see how ridiculous their claims were. That’s important.
I’d like to add. You also need them to actually be afraid. If they know a few protests is all it’s ever going to become, they won’t give half a shit. The threat, and the reason the government might start acting differently, is from the implecation that these (I suppose in this case 12.5 million) people are ready to hang the government. If they aren’t ready to do that, fuck all is going to change. As it is right now, it seems 99% of the protesters are pacifists. As in, going to do fuck all either way.
They don’t have to think that that many people are going to physically come after them–they have to think that if that many peaceful people are against them, how many not-so-peaceful are also out there? They have to think that those millions of people are going to be on the side of and support those that do come after them and won’t cooperate with the regime. In other words, if something should happen, these millions of pacifists will have seen nothing, heard nothing, have no idea where the “terrorists” are hiding, etc.
They also have to worry that if millions turned out to peaceably protest, millions might also participate in a general strike or other large work stoppages, another means of peaceful protest that scares them more than just large crowds. Even the threat of labor being withheld scares the oligarchs. So ee need to make that happen. The mayor of Chicago has already called for it.
They also have to worry that millions might also take part in the upcoming Black(Out) Friday on Nov. 28th, another form of peaceful protest the day after Thanksgiving (some say it lasts for the whole week) when we refuse to shop at big box stores/big businesses, only buying from small/local businesses. That’s the weekend that most retail companies make the bulk of their annual sales.
And BTW it was very important that there was no violence at the protests–the regime had been putting out a lot of propaganda warning that it would be violent and that participants would be mostly “antifa terrorists”, “illegal immigrants” and “Hamas supporters”. They hoped to get some footage of violence they could spread and tout as proof of their assertions and were denied–everyone could see how ridiculous their claims were. That’s important.