• Gabadabs
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      1 month ago

      What’s happening in Gaza is being directly funded by all of our taxes, there’s not a particular location that the protesting needs to be done, it just needs to be done.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        If you want to protest tax dollars, take it to the Mall in D.C. and shut down their infrastructure.

        If you actually care about what’s happening in Gaza, take it to Tel Aviv.

        Anything else is a pointless “look at me!” protest.

        • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          lol “if you wanna protest, literally travel across the whole ass country or the world. Nothing local matters.”

          You’re either a supporter of Israel or you don’t know history. I can’t think of any other way to get to what you just posted.

          So do you support Israel or do you not understand how every expansion of civil rights in the 20th and 21st century were won?

          • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Local very much matters, for local issues. See the protests directly in Ferguson for example.

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_unrest

            The related protests outside Ferguson accomplished fuck all.

            If the issue is an international issue, a local protest means and accomplishes NOTHING other than a mild inconvenience for people completely unrelated to the problem.

            • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              You don’t think the nationwide protests and international reaction to the killing of Michael brown had any effect.

              Would you say there was any effect when politicians and police in areas outside furgeson had to make statements in response to the protests in their regions?

              Do you think catapulting blm to the national level and international recognition had any effect?

              Since you said a local protest means nothing if the issue is international do you think that the various anti war protests throughout Americas 20th and 21st centuries have meant anything?

        • Gabadabs
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          1 month ago

          Not everyone can just ship themselves off to DC and like, shut down infrastructure. Let alone travel internationally. Being in a financial position where you can do that is an incredibly privileged position to be in. We have to do what we can, where we are to make change - and for people living in LA that means protesting in LA. A lot of protesting IS about visibility, and doing it so you can be noticed is far from pointless! Blocking traffic anywhere in this country is directly making sure that you and your message cannot be ignored.

            • Gabadabs
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              1 month ago

              You really haven’t established that that’s the case. Wherever you protest, you’re getting visibility and costing the state money to manage.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Local and state governments absolutely have a say through their investments to Israel. It’s just as important to pressure them for divestment as the federal government and corporations on the BDS list.

      Not only are state and local lawmakers more accessible to constituents than federal lawmakers, but local investment portfolios also hold billions of dollars in funding to Israel sourced from the everyday taxes of community members. State and local governments across the U.S. hold more than $4 trillion in all investments in their investment portfolios. At least $1.6 billion in Israel Bonds is held between state governments, municipal governments, and public pension funds nationwide. Those investment dollars come from every individual, household, and business within the municipal or state borders that pay property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes, making them some of the most representative pools of dollars invested on behalf of the public. Saper says that campaigns targeting the investment of these local dollars “invite people to reckon with how implicated we are here at home with the atrocities we are witnessing abroad.”

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The people screaming for divestment have no idea what’s involved. In many cases there are contractual obligations that make it impossible.

        The people screaming for it have no idea how any of it works, they just want it stopped and will continue to get angry when it doesn’t.

        • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          This is nonviolent civil disobedience to protect the financial support of an ongoing genocide. Acting like this isn’t a valid form of protest or that the BDS movement have “no idea what’s involved” when putting pressure on corporations and institutions to Divest is ridiculous.

          These kind of protests do put pressure and bring the issue to the forefront of the local and state administrative bodies. The BDS movement was successful in the divestment of Apartheid South Africa, this isn’t too different

          “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,” King wrote. “It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

          • MLK Jr. on the nature of nonviolent protests
            • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Yeah dude, that’s why the anti-apartheid protests and BDS movement in the United States were so unsuccessful and not effective when it came to South Africa

            • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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              1 month ago

              The offenses are actually happening in the US, too. That’s where the voters voting for genocide enablers are located, that are sending all the bombs to Gaza to blow up schools and hospitals.

        • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          I’m sorry, hundreds of thousands of innocent children. This piece of paper says it’s impossible to stop paying for you to be murdered.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Pretty much, that’s how “contractual obligations” work.

            In my state, we’ve been trying to get the state Public Employees Retirement System to divest from oil investments for a few decades now. The big problem is PERS is tied up with contractual obligations to provide a specific return on investment, a return which can’t be made if they dump fossil fuels:

            https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/07/oregon-retirement-fund-carbon-neutrality/

            The folks supporting divestment think it’s like a light switch. “Well, just STOP!” and it doesn’t work that way.

            • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              It literally does just work that way. A piece of paper is a piece of paper. “But we won’t make as much money” is the part that holds it together. Contracts and laws in general are no more or less than a pretext to exercise class power. They’re broken at will in other contexts. The US was literally founded on it.

              • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Tell me you don’t understand how a contract works without telling me you don’t understand how a contract works.

                There are legal liabilities for breaking a contract. It’s not that simple.

                • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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                  1 month ago

                  Tell me you don’t interact with people without a keyboard without telling me [useless repetition]. Fucking weirdo.

                  Yes it is that simple. The law is, and only is, a mechanism for people with power to exercise that power under the veil of legitimacy. Ask any Indian tribe. Ask anyone with x amount of money attempting to litigate a contract with someone with 1000x amount of money.

                  The reality of the system cannot be disputed without looking like a fucking joke.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        An effective protest reaches the hearts and minds of people who can actually have an impact.

        Protesting in L.A. does neither of those things.

        • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I’m 100% disinterested in your opinion of what you consider a valid protest.

          What you or I consider a valid protest is irrelevant unless we organized it.

            • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Since you seem to lack reading comprehension.

              I’m 100% disinterested in your opinion

              I’m not interested in the opinions of reactionaries masquerading or deluding themselves into thinking they are revolutionaries.

              • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Well you chose to be in a thread literally about reactionaries masquerading or deluding themselves into thinking they are revolutionaries…

            • verdigris@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              Freeway shutdowns are one of the only actually effective nonviolent protests available to modern civilians, as they disrupt industry. Also these people consciously risked jail time to stand up for victims of genocide. Calling them performative… Fuck you.

        • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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          An effective protest reaches the hearts and minds of people who can actually have an impact.

          A more idiotic and ahistoric statement is rarely uttered