Gaza war protesters shut down Golden Gate Bridge, block traffic in other cities
Gaza war protesters shut down Golden Gate Bridge, block traffic in other cities
ITT- You're allowed your first amendment right to protest war crimes, just not where I can see or be inconvenienced. Because all of the civil rights and anti war protests in the past 70 years that were truly successful were very polite and inconvenienced no one.
MLK Jr. literally wrote about this exact same thing in his Letter from Birmingham jail.
that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ ”
Maybe I'm just fedposting, but I think probably my only objection to this protest is that it wasn't extreme enough, and I don't think it accomplished as much as it probably could've considering all the people protesting got arrested anyways. Probably a good amount of caltrops on the bridge and a bunch of cards or spray paint could've accomplished about the same goal, and I dunno if anyone would've even been arrested that way. Probably would take less in resources, too.
That's if you even looking at the same target, I dunno if shutting down the golden gate bridge is a great thing to hit up if you're looking to protest gaza. I would probably think one of many even local politician's domiciles, city halls, or lockheed martin manufacturing plants, offices, infrastructure, etc. would be better things to hit. I dunno of the economic or social impact or protesting at the golden gate bridge for what is basically an afternoon is going to put anyone under duress. Maybe the most you could say of it is that it's a mild social escalation, which, granted, isn't nothing, but is less direct and is harder to quantify the impact of.
They arrest them to clear the bridge. They tried to charge the ones in 2023 with ridiculous stuff but they eventually dropped all the charges in exchange for 5 hours community service. Don't give them the ammo they need to actually lock up protestors.
I know lets destroy random peoples cars?? wth
I mean, the people they're irritating aren't the ones that can do anything about it. All you're doing is pissing everyone off. Go to your state's capitol and fuck that place up instead.
Pissing people off is irrelevant. You're irrelevant. You will not be swayed. You have demonstrated that after 6 months of innocent deaths. Even if 100,000 children die. 1 million children die. You're selfish and lazy.
This is direct action, it's about adding a financial cost to the government's direction. They've decided supporting a genocide is more financially beneficial than pursuing justice. If we shut it all down, they'll change their tune.
I mean, it sucks to get inconvenienced by stuff like this. But the goal is to make nations hurt economically for supporting the Palestinian genocide.
Most of the other options available would probably injure or kill innocent people. Like, you're not gonna make a difference without some casualties. Better that casualty be an afternoon instead of your life.
Interrupting labor is the most peaceful way to threaten the capitalist class. If you object to this, you advocate for more extreme measures. Be careful what you wish for.
If you want the inconvenient protests to stop, fucking join them so that the change happens quicker.
Yes I agree. A coordinated approach at all state capitals and Washington, DC would probably have more impact. This is where the people who care about reelected live and work.
Nah, it's random people who are at fault. How dare they have jobs or other things to do
Sure we can do something about it. We can vote against anyone who supports the genocide.
The state level goverment doesn't have as much impact on foreign policy as federal does.
Legislatures are persuaded by polls and bribes, not by reason or empathy.
Did they have a permit to protest on a public road? Freedom of assembly comes with some perfectly rational stipulations.
Nice.
If Americans want the protests to stop, they should stop supporting genocide.
Mm and how has the average San Franciscan contributed to a war on the other side of the planet?
The same way the average American contributed to black oppression. By being silent observers to your government's actions.
In the same way we all do. Those weapons can't be built without a reliable economy. Interruptions in labor produce ripple effects which disrupt the atrocities of the capitalist class.
It is easy to condemn obvious wrongdoers, but what about the supporting cast of complicitors: business partners, employees, investors, news organizations, and others? Whether we’re aware of it or not, almost all of us have been complicit in the unethical behavior of others and have not always used ethical decision-making skills.
With a portion of their taxes.
Well, many of them voted for Biden and plan to do it again, for one thing.
If all these losers love palestine so much, they should go live there, and see for themselves what a beacon of western liberal values it is.
The Hamas genocide of 1200 civilians in Israel? Or using their populace as human shields in Gaza?
So you solve school shooting by bombing the school?
You clearly don't know what the word 'genocide' means.
You missed your turn…
Ah yes collective justice. Punish the population for what their government did. Hmm this feels familiar, is something like that happening somewhere else in world right now?
Be wary of fighting monsters, lest you become a monster.
yes bro. Your morning or afternoon commute becoming an hour longer is equivilant to having your people wiped off the face of the earth. Truly they can't see this hypocrisy for what it is!!
This is so ignorant and entitled. I watched so many videos of kids watching their parents die in front of their eyes in gaza. It's horrible to even imagine. How can you be so heartless?
[Looking at protesters blocking traffic] is this genocide?
Unfortunately any protest in the US is at best constrained to stopping future weapons shipments to Israel. But as Netanyahu has already shown he doesn’t care what Biden has to say, the US is unlikely to be able to stop them from continuing to use the weapons they already have.
Bibi doesnt care what Biden says because Biden will never actually cut off the arm shipments.
The US could also do more like actually sanction Israel for committing genocide.
Direct action is super based.
Can't wait to watch all the redditors who mostly don't commute or don't drive have a collective aneurysm over this.
Honestly, Bay Area commuters who use that bridge regularly probably couldn't tell the difference
Haha it was definitely noticeable. I was having some some work done on my house. I'm in the peninsula and the contractors were coming from the north bay. They were aiming to get to my place by 8:30AM but they were stuck on the bridge and delayed several hours - I don't think they arrived until 12:30 or 1 PM. They said that all the cars had to back up off the bridge, go north to San Rafael, and take the 580 instead.
it goes nowhere. some wacko billionaire mansion town, some wizards house...
Is this comments section: "fuck shit up, society isn't working," vs "follow the rules when you protest, that's how you make change happen."
This is such a pathetic attempt at both.
You didn't fuck any shit up and if the government, police etc really wanted to, they certainly could've fucked them up. Go hard or go home, blocking a bridge on another country is completely idiotic.
They probably pissed some Israelis off who will purposely go shoot some kids over it.
They were gonna shoot those kids anyway. It's not like they've been holding back until now.
They probably pissed some Israelis off who will purposely go shoot some kids over it.
This feels like a threat. You good?
You didn’t fuck any shit up
Oh really? Then why are the car-brains so incredibly triggered?
Seems like this protest really struck a nerve. There's so much whining going on in this thread precisely because of how successful it was.
There has got to be a way to do this without hurting regular people.
Like I agree with the protestors 100%... but trapping people on a bridge? Blocking traffic? That's dangerous and irresponsible.
Direct action and disruption is necessary, but this is absolutely the wrong way to do it.
But there definitely are though. Why wouldn't you, say, protest the factories where these things are made? Not just hold up some signs outside, but blockade those businesses in.
Maybe find out who their major shareholders are and publicly shame them. Dig up dirt on them. Do anything you can to stop them.
Maybe find the neighbourhoods that those shareholders live in and blockade those.
Protest at the schools that their children go to letting them know their parents are murdering people overseas.
It took me like 3 minutes to think of those and those are far more effective than what is going on in this news story. Are protesters in America really that short-sighted but they can't think of anything better than annoying other normal people and making enemies?
This is like protesting the food in a prison cafeteria by beating the shit out of your cellmate, and then calling him complicit because he ate food yesterday.
They're not targeting the right people, they're simply turning normal people off of their message.
The protests that Google employees are doing right now is the right way.
Protest in front of politicians homes, businesses, etc. Protest in front of companies and businesses that are complicit. Target the people who have clout.
Actions that harm only the general public... how is that supposed to work? What do you think the end result will be?
"Lol, sorry we couldn't get a firetruck to your burning apartment building, the road was blocked."
They actually have a specific procedure for getting emergency vehicles through. These guys aren't blocking firetrucks.
Nothing like exercising your right to protest by infringing on everyone else's right to travel freely.
I'm still curious as to how people think a ceasefire will help, when historically letting terrorists proliferate has the opposite effect and only spreads more islamic terrorism and even more deaths long term. Do people really want to keep this revolving door of teaching palestinian children to murder their neighbors?
ITT: car-brains who think being inconvenienced justifies murder
I thought tankies were all for running over people with large vehicles...
Yeah, and that's why they're evil pieces of shit. What's your point?
First Past The Post voting ensures these people remain unrepresented in the political process. We must pass electoral reform in each of our states so we can have more people represented.
Things like this are merely performative and will only make enemies, not enact change anyway
It seems to empower opposition to the cause as well. Also, in Washington this has happened enough we have legislation to increase the penalty for blocking infrastructure.
Its horrible what's happening to Palestinians why do people keep pretenting the war can't end at any moment if hamas surrenders and releases the hostages. Iran orchestrates this shit but has the far left wrapped around their finger protesting Israel and the US.
I think you meant israel and instead wrote Iran?
Full speed ahead boys 🤣
FOR THE FINAL TIME: This doesn't make people get your message! It just makes you look like an asshole for blocking traffic.
Yet you somehow, despite the yelling, got the message.
This is definitely a far greater inconvenience than having your home destroyed and watching your children starve to death. I get how these protests can be frustrating when you're just trying to go about your day, but nobody is getting fired when they can just explain that they got held up by the protest. Sure some people will fail to see the message and simply be upset with the protestors, but when there's an important cause it's impossible to cause change without some disruption.
I support any protest that blocks car traffic. The fact that the protesters are protesting something important is a nice bonus.
Yeah fuck those people trying to get to work!
exactly
Too bad it also blocks bus traffic. And it’s not like the buses have an alternative route.
Edit: in fact it’s worse for bus passengers as the Golden Gate Transit system relies heavily on timed transfers and many buses run once an hour, so even a 10 minute delay could cause bus passengers to miss their transfer and make them have to wait an hour.
The fact that the us has abysmal public transit is not a reason to oppose protests.
First world problems.
Beats getting crushed by rubble or starving to death, that's for sure.
Me too.
If Americans want the protests to stop, they should stop funding genocide.
The protesters should stop funding the genocide themselves if they want results
I don't care what you're protesting. But it should be done in a way where I don't have to hear about it or see it.
That's like the opposite of the intent of a protest.
Hillarious.
Great username, I think 🤔
I have a real problem with this, and I've been on both sides of it. It really doesn't do anything to help your cause by having people stuck in traffic. There are many reasons that someone could be in their car at that moment, not just commuting to or from a job. They could be on their way to a court appointment, they could have dinner in the car, they could be going to pick their child up from school, they could be on their way to a doctor's appointment, or any of a million other reasons that make this not just an inconvenience, but a complete shithead thing for someone to put someone else through. Protestors aren't making their case against the war by pissing off every person stuck in traffic, they are just being dickheads. If you want to protest a war, go hang out outside of a government building, or in front of an elected official's house. Make them feel uncomfortable, not some poor schmuck who has somewhere else to be at the moment.
Edit: Ok, I guess I need to give a peaceful example. You want to block traffic? Block the exits to the parking garage where the elected officials park downtown. Do that for a week and see how much of an impact you make. Blocking commuters is a waste of energy.
I don't think the goal is to convince the people stuck in the artificially created traffic about Gaza. I think it's to get news coverage from sites like nbcnews.com so as to raise the profile of the Gaza war so that politicians must address it. You are welcome to argue whether that's an effective strategy, but I think that's the intent.
Also, side note.. Social progress rarely comes from rule following.
Is the profile not high enough? I'm pretty sure everyone knows about it who needs to know about it. Blocking traffic isn't going to make a ceasefire happen across the world. Annoying your fellow citizens and ruining their day isn't getting any politicians to act. It's pointless. Actions must be taken against those in charge if we want to see any forward progress. Blocking traffic to protest a war is like yelling at a frycook because you want the McRib back. The actions are being aimed at the wrong people.
Right... because the global leaders of the world aren't already aware of what's going on. Thanks for raising awareness, guys.
They're not in front of the White House, they're not even in front of city hall, they're hurting their own.
The King loves it when the peasants fight amongst themselves.
Not sure if you are agreeing with me or not, but that is exactly what I'm saying. Right now, blocking traffic is about as easy for the "king" to ignore as anything else.
Yeah. I saw some of the posts across Lemmy trying to organize this.
There it was presented as blocking shipping ports. I thought that was odd. Wasn't sure how that was going to affect Israel, but whatever.
Then the day comes and they're doing this low effort reposting-of-a-meme-everyone-has-seen-already version of protest and I just rolled my eyes.
"Innocent people are being murdered in Palestine, so I'm going to go prevent someone that also hates what is happening from visiting their dying grandmother! That'll show 'em!"
🙄
This comment is so meta. You're literally engaging in the conversation about it right now. This means it worked... How does no one understand this? The fact of the matter is it makes the issue relevant so that it shows up on people's screens and they're forced to confront the issue and debate the protest and it becomes topical. No one wants to be stuck in traffic. I sympathize with those who were affected. But I'll give you one guess who I sympathize with more right now.
Protesters were blocking ships that were sending weapons to Israel. You wouldn't like any form of protest because YOU DON'T CARE
Completely agree. Blocking the average Joe driving home will get attention, but potentially for the wrong reason. I think your edit is perfect. Inconvenience those in power that can do something about it now, not someone who can really only do something when voting.
I feel bad for the people in traffic but the protestors only get to this state because of repeatedly being ignored by the government. If normal protests aren’t cutting it anymore and you don’t want to be violent then what options do you really have? They (gov) just don’t listen.
Protest where it is effective, not where it gets you the most social media clout. Blocking traffic is the protesting equivalent of a selfie. Make some noise near an elected official, and often. See how quickly they change their attitude when they are the ones being fucked with.
It’s not going to get the government to listen by doing this either. It’s completely ineffective and just pisses people off and actively stops them from supporting a cause.
These clowns didn't even try a normal protest at city hall or to bother the government, the first thing they did was screw up the days of working class citizens, as usual, because they only ever take the easy way and not the way that involves any personal risk.
/agree
I fully support the cause, but this just ain't the way to effectively protest the system. I feel the same way about the climate activists throwing soup on art instalation (yes I know they are all protected, but to the average person you still look like an ignorant fucking asshole).
If you want to spur change, then you need to make it uncomfortable for your representatives to take a public position than conflicts with your ethics. Do so peacefully, but forcefully and as often as is feasible. You are much more likely to garner public support that way, and normies generally love anything that make politicians look bad.
Why peacefully? Just today the IDF attacked a playground with an airstrike killing a group of children playing in broad daylight. It would be unbelievable if there wasn't clear footage of it and numerous similar attacks. US supplied weapons, funded by our taxes, cheered on by our political establishment. Stopping traffic isn't going nearly far enough.
The paintings were an amazing protest. Also love the protests interrupting plays. Meet complacent liberals at their stomping grounds.
The objective is to appear in the News, which will result in way more people becoming aware of just how many people are against what Israel is doing in Gaza and the US Administration's support of it, which in turn will lead others to become more open about they themselves being against it since they will feel that "we are many" rather than "it's just me" - grassroots movements independent of established politicial and media networks, no matter how many potential supporters they have, must be seen in order to grow otherwise they'll just fizzle away and nothing will change.
That usually means some kind of stunt in an important and highly public place which is almost certain to affect lots of members of the public.
Barelly disturbing a handful of politicians as you suggest would not make the News unless the Press was already there for some other reason and it would still have to be some kind of stunt (think the Iraqi guy that threw his shoe at George Bush) for the Press to even mention it in the news.
Unfortunatelly in the World we live in people have to use marketing strategies to merelly be seen, more so to have soap box to be heard by the rest of the nation, especially in Theatre Of Democracy countries were the "choice" is either pre-selected A or pre-selected B, and were the Press is not at all a Pillar Of Democracy independent of the Political Pillar but is pretty much joined at the hip with Political and/or Wealth Powers.
If it had the kind of Political and Press environment were those things could just be done the way you naivelly (or maybe misleadingly) suggest, the US would be quite a different place in terms of Power, Voice and Representativeness and not one where the only electoral "choice" is between two genocide-loving presidential candidates.
Media attention is a failed outdated tactic.
https://www.a15action.com/
Hurting the rich's pocket books is the only language they respect. Now I'm not sure blocking roads is the most effective form of this tactic. Usually you use labor unions. But they're probably just working with what they have.
Yeah, but you're not getting public support. You're getting the opposite.
Convenient protests don’t do shit. They get ignored, and often not reported on at all.
People said exactly the same thing you’re saying about the civil rights movement. Which was much more disruptive than the schoolbooks teach.
Those poor schmucks also have a voice and have political power. And you can't deny the optics of the Golden Gate Bridge being closed, it's an iconic throughway. I'm not sure if there are any instantly recognizable parking garages.
So, some single mother in the Midwest is now going to do something about Gaza now? That's what we needed? Optics? Fuck. We should put up some billboards along the interstate next, that'll bring all this kids back from the dead
You all are missing then ENTIRE FUCKING POINT of a protest. It isn't to block traffic, it's to force action to be taken where none is, and no one capable of taking that action gives two squirts of chipotle if some people stood on a bridge yesterday. Fuck with the establishment, make some cunt in his comfortable office sweat.
I dunno I mean I would normally oppose this on principle, but I do kind of agree. This does stop all local traffic at the golden gate bridge, but it doesn't really do anything to incentivize that politicians controlling the funding of israel at (mostly) the federal level to change course. Unless we maybe saw floyd-level protests happening across the nation, or something. This specific kind of protest is most effective when addressing local or state level problems, because local or state level leaders are more easily strongarmed, especially as they're about to pass bad legislation. The threat of further property damage can be used as leverage which can influence local decisions. Local protests are better used against local targets, and target selection is crucial, basically, though that applies more to mass protests, this seems more like a smaller group.
It probably would've been better to go after a lockheed martin facility, or something to that effect, but obviously that comes with a much, much greater deal of risk. Probably the softest points to push on would be something like a higher-up, or the infrastructure going into and immediately around a facility, especially with such a small group. It's not as though the locations of weapons manufacturers aren't publically known, or accessible, or that there aren't many different, small, critical pieces, including people, that go into the manufacture of advanced weaponry.
It's so easy to complain about people protesting genocide when they stop you from going to work to fund the genocide.
Who else is gonna make the ladders for you to climb off your horse with?
I'm also funding public roads and schools and cancer research and fire departments. If you care that much, go to DC and protest. They obviously are able to take time off of work as it is.
You got it man random people driving in San Francisco are personally propping up the genocide well done
I knew I forgot to pay my genocide bill this month.
I surely do not spend money on living expenses. Just genocide.
This a pretty bad take, and I fucking applaud what the protesters are doing.
I see you don't understand the point of protesting.
And that you don't know how to protest effectively.