Keyboard VagabondNaked bike riders demonstrate against federal troops in 'quintessentially Portland' protest
BrikoXapnews.com/article/portland-oregon-naked-bike-r…
Protesters are pedaling through Portland’s streets wearing nothing or close to it to rally against the Trump administration.
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kersplooshRelevant reading, for folks who have some time: Pranksters vs. Autocrats: Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism
pelespiritThis is awesome, thanks.
I’ve had many thrilling experiences helping nonviolent shakers and shapers push for positive social change. In this process of turning my personal experiences into strategies and tactics I can teach others, I have come to realize that successful nonviolent movements tend to share a common ingredient: they use dilemma actions that force those in power into a lose-lose situation. In other words, if you can trap those in power in an irresolvable dilemma, the action is more likely to accomplish its goals. Those goals might include recruiting more supporters, spreading the movement’s vision, attracting attention to the cause, pressuring unjust leaders to cede
power, or advancing democracy. I realized that if I could explain how, why, and to what extent dilemma actions succeed in advancing democracy, I could help activist groups become far more effective—regardless of whether they were planning their next move in a café in Cairo or in a home office in New York City.
KATU is a Sinclair owned station (notoriously conservative) and seem to be covering the protests quite a bit. They shut down the ICE live cam though. I wonder if they’re going rogue or what.
This shows the mascots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ejWM3bQEs
It’s a great idea that everyone should adopt. ICE abusing giant, cute, mascots is not a good look.
Hell yeah, Portland. Dicks out and gorilla costumes.
dicks out, tits out to protest nazis!
You can tell it’s american reporting by how discrete their pictures are.
I love Portland. But fascist will not care if you are clearly an unarmed threat. Naked or in a dinosaur costume.
Fascist do not care when the population sees the videos of ICE lashing out in violence against protesters like that either. They decide what most of the population will see. They don’t care if some of the truth gets through. Just as long as most of it doesn’t.
This lesson should have been learned by now. Americans need to shift from the whitewashed MLK non violence strategy to the Black Panther Party really fucking quick.
They will treat you and label you as a violent threat no matter what you do. You are not “fueling their narrative”. They will make that the narrative no matter what. They already have.
this protest isn’t for them. this protest is to inspire everyone else. and it works, seeing constant acts of defiance spurs further ones.
I don’t disagree. But if the further acts of defiance do not have a form of self defense it will be for naught in the end.
You don’t need clothes to sling an AR-15.
At this exact point in time, escalating violence is exactly what the Trump regime is hoping to achieve. Newscasts playinging their rhetoric of lawless burning streets juxtaposed with inflatable cartoon characters is not what they want people to see. The situation may. (and probably will) change, but I don’t think this is the time.
Any successful strategy has to include winning back the House and Senate. Trump will use any excuse to escalate a military presence in blue districts to suppress the vote. If people start taking pot shots at ICE, it will make it much easier for them to deploy more military.
The house and Senate are basically powerless now. The one thing that they had left was voting on the budget and now we’re seeing that that doesn’t even matter anymore.
I’m sorry, but people need to be much more concerned. I feel like we’ve normalized this stuff so much. If your 2016 self was seeing what is happening today; I think you’d be extremely shocked to hear yourself talking about “well, we just need to vote blue no matter who” as we literally have the state doing child abductions. Which is essentially what you’re saying.
Also, the fascist don’t need violence to say you are violent. They have been saying that protesters are violent the entire fucking time. I’m not talking about random mercenary acts. I’m talking about self defense against an unjust state attacking it’s citizens.
The fuck are we supposed do? Make phone calls that get screened and ignored? Write letters that get immediately trashed? Empty our life savings into advertising campaigns? Start a guerrilla war against ICE?
People ARE concerned, more than ever. But the only peaceful option that we haven’t tried yet is voting, so people are gonna vote.
Look for PSL in your area. Most general starting point I can give you without knowing where you live. I feel your frustration mate.
What an absolutely ignorant statement. Congress has lost no power, it’s just that it is marginally in control of the Republicans who want to cede power to Trump. Trump meanwhile is desperately trying to speed-run power consolidation because his administration is scared shitless that the Democrats will take Congress in 2026. That is why red states are panic gerrymandering and changing election rules, why they are working to get the Voting Rights Act overturned, and why they want military presence normalized in blue states.
Who says I’m not concerned? Being concerned doesn’t mean acting in a drastic and foolish manner. Do you think the left is ready for a military style conflict with the fascists? That is where they are stronger than us, and that is where challenge makes them stronger still. We can beat them and gain ground consistently in every other arena, but you want to go right to the one place where they currently have an advantage?
What the hell are you talking about? Yeah, I’ve always been an against third party strategies, but I’ve never advocated for “blue no matter who” as some kind of panacea, and I think that slogan in-particular is toxic as hell. Yes, vote for the lesser of two evils, but the lesser evil is still a demon to be overcome, and that should never be glossed over.
No fucking kidding. But they do need violence to convince the courts that deploying the Texas national guard in Chicago is necessary (for instance). I totally get the impulse. I see the videos of these ignorant thugs and want to tear them apart myself, but I know that’s not the best way to help when considering the big picture. We need more underground networks hiding people. We need more volunteers providing legal support. We need more protesters delaying and tying up enforcement. We need more reporting and awareness campaigns. We need more progressives replacing establishment Democrats. There is plenty of work to be done. There is no need to engage in violent battles that will just lose us good people.
Thanks for letting me know you actually have no idea how we even got here in the first place.
They absolutely have lost power. You don’t lose power by directly having specific powers revoked. The legislative branch of government has become powerless because of the expansion of powers of the executive. It has rendered it all but useless.
That opening paragraph you wrote is so incredibly delusional. You think the Trump admin is desperate and scared of the Democrats winning? Hello? Have you been asleep since Obama left office?
Good luck mate. When you go to the polls in 2026 and they’re all guarded by ICE to “ensure election security” maybe then you’ll understand what I’m saying. But you’re kind of just proving my point; that people in this country are deluding themselves into thinking the system that brought about fascism will somehow also save them from it.
Go ahead. Save my comment and let me know come 2026.
What you’re saying? WTF? I’m the one who brought up the fact that their entire intention is to have troops present for the election. And yeah, it’s exactly because they are afraid of the outcome that they want to do that, and it’s exactly because they want to do it that we shouldn’t make it easy for them. Fuck this really turned into a dumb dick measuring contest. Does any part of this screed support the notion that now is the time to roll out violence against ICE?
They are not afraid of the outcomes mate. They are controlling the outcomes. This is the disconnect we have. You think the democracy is still functioning in some way. It is not. And it has not ever functioned as a democracy for anyone but the rich. The only purpose electoral politics at this point is in delaying. Which I support.
You admit to all of the means in which those with power control the outcomes of elections. But somehow think that that can be overcome solely by working within the system that they control.
Fascist don’t suddenly go “aw, gee, we tried to rig the election with intimidation and gerrymandering. But we still lost. Golly gee, I guess we’ll just give up power”. No, they continue breaking the rules and lying.
You’re asking for a party in power that isn’t playing by the rules to give up power after somehow losing in their rigged electoral process? Again, delay within that system is still meaningful. But it’s just that. Delay.
No, this has never been a conversation about random acts of violence against ICE. I’ve literally said that several times over. It is about protecting and defending people that are being killed and disappeared right now. It’s a conversation about “remain nonviolent” people like yourselves that, I assume, do not actually go out in the streets (maybe you show up on “no kings” days).
It is about organizing and training groups to defend themselves. Not encouraging passively accepting the violence they experience. Which is why someone like you changed the conversation to electoral politics in the first place. You don’t experience the violence first hand and so are not forced to step outside of that system. You have hope that that system will protect you, or at the very least, not hurt you.
I think people like you instantly think someone is talking about a group of masked vigilantes with AKs as the only means of resistance. I suggest you read up on the tactics of community defense employed by groups like the Black Panther Party. Which is what I mentioned in my very first comment.
Can you share with us what tactics you are personally employing that are proving effective?
Do you think that I’m talking about individual vigilante acts of violence? I guess I can’t really blame you. The education system in the US definitely reinforces it’s whitewashed MLK by pointing to “the other methods” just being random political assassinations or some anarchist kid throwing a molotov cocktail at a cop car. I’m guessing that’s what you have in your head? The US education system really only allows people to be taught a single method of resistance that is easily controlled by the state.
I mentioned the Black Panther Party specifically because of its community defense tactics as well as community support programs they enlisted.
If you’re actually interested in what I’m talking about then you can go have a read about their methods of community defense. But the fact that you’re asking for an example of individual resistance from me tells me you don’t actually know what I’m talking about.
The organizations I work with personally are working to build these types of communities. Our primary defensive tactics currently are in non lethal forms directed at keeping protesters safe from the situations that lead to violence in the first place. We are not, however, a currently “invaded” city. And are learning tactics from our organization in cities that have been heavily occupied.
And yes. We are “antifa” if that’s what fits your definition. Though that literally just means any organization that wants to protect their community at this point. Some police departments at this point could be labeled “antifa” for limiting ICE activity in their city. Though most are not.
This isn’t about going out and murking random state actors. This is about community defense and safety in a time in which communities are being attacked. And, yes, physical resistance and group intimidation ARE tactics to be used in that defense.
We need more people though. We cannot be effective if every liberal at a protest stands idle while a random comrade is brutalized and taken by ICE. ICE are weak scared little boys that run back to their vans if enough people intimidate them. They are not prepared for or expect to deal with anything but one person they pick out at a time. Physical resistance has been effective in protecting people.
No no no… just shoot the fuckers and hide the bodies.
Discrete Civil Disobedience.
Malcolm X would be a better example. The peaceful MLK movement wouldn’t have had any power without having the violent Malcolm X movement on its wing.
Malcolm X was a part of the movement that lead to the founding of the party. Malcolm X was a very important figure. But there were many others less known that did just as much for black liberation. Including the Party as a whole was on purpose. I would include many names but mentioning the party and what it stood is more inclusive. But you are correct.