Political activism and protesting - Is it worth it?

[Ima Freeman]

Lately, I got into political activism.

My main goal is to develope higher consciousness, health and happiness, but outer happenings can impact that endevour in a harmful way - especially in this unstable times.

Often I get the anxiety that things will turn bad if I don't do anything about them. Things have to change into a way that benefits the common people - not what harms them.

On the other hand the involvement into it distracts me from self actualization. Protests consume timeand energy, group think is everywhere and there were two times I almost attacked riot police (I know that's problematic). 


What is your attitute towards political activism and protesting?
Should I just use time for my development and the development of the people in my periphery?
Is protesting a waste of time, if you want to change things with it?

 

[Michal__]

Tbh I'd probably adopt a more indirect approach like donating to conscious political organizations etc. 

If you're directly engaged it can be bad for your survival. Joining riots won't do much good. I'd only consider joining a riot if government does something extremely heinous (as in more heinous than what's happening now in developed countries).

[Ima Freeman]

6 hours ago, Michal__ said:

Tbh I'd probably adopt a more indirect approach like donating to conscious political organizations etc. 

If you're directly engaged it can be bad for your survival. Joining riots won't do much good. I'd only consider joining a riot if government does something extremely heinous (as in more heinous than what's happening now in developed countries).

I donated in the past, but money doesn't to things.

Yeah riots for riots sake is to reduce frustration/anger. But demonstrations can turn into riots when the police suppresses peoples autonomy too much, which they are ordered to by guess whom.

[Yarco]

There's almost always something more productive you can do than just standing around in a big group of people. Plus as you've mentioned, the act of protesting comes with serious risk of injury or death or imprisonment if things go wrong.

You probably can't donate an amount that will make a significant difference on an issue either.

In my eyes, the most powerful weapon/tool we have is right here at our fingertips -- The internet. We have a printing press where we can print infinite flyers/pamphlets and distribute them for nearly free to people all around the world. You don't have to go out and do anything yourself, you can just convince other people to do it for you.

I served in The Great Meme War of 2016 and if I really wanted to shift public opinion on something, I'd turn to memes again.

Memetic warfare is real. It's not "just memes". They're mind viruses. They are the most efficient and furthest condensed form of propaganda you can create in terms of complexity. At a crazier level I believe there is an occult aspect to memes as well.

Of course there's room for big intellectual blog posts, articles, and videos that explain topics in-depth too. But I'd always layer that with a compliment of memes. Memes are the way to get things done.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Yarco

[Husseinisdoingfine]

I actually am flirting with being a political activist, to burn through the SDi GREEN system.

[Michal__]

1 hour ago, Ima Freeman said:

I donated in the past, but money doesn't to things.

Still more effective than rioting. Another good thing is to try to somehow influence the general public's opinion. Whether through gaining large social media following or whatever. My point is not to reduce yourself to the level of a rioting monkey.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Michal__

[aurum]

@Ima Freeman

I don’t get involved with a lot of protests personally, even though I care a lot about collective issues.

I just find that protests are filled with a lot of resistant energy, us vs them thinking and general tier 1 behavior.

Do it if you really want. But it’s not my bag.

[Ima Freeman]

13 hours ago, Yarco said:

There's almost always something more productive you can do than just standing around in a big group of people. Plus as you've mentioned, the act of protesting comes with serious risk of injury or death or imprisonment if things go wrong.

You probably can't donate an amount that will make a significant difference on an issue either.

In my eyes, the most powerful weapon/tool we have is right here at our fingertips -- The internet. We have a printing press where we can print infinite flyers/pamphlets and distribute them for nearly free to people all around the world. You don't have to go out and do anything yourself, you can just convince other people to do it for you.

I served in The Great Meme War of 2016 and if I really wanted to shift public opinion on something, I'd turn to memes again.

Memetic warfare is real. It's not "just memes". They're mind viruses. They are the most efficient and furthest condensed form of propaganda you can create in terms of complexity. At a crazier level I believe there is an occult aspect to memes as well.

Of course there's room for big intellectual blog posts, articles, and videos that explain topics in-depth too. But I'd always layer that with a compliment of memes. Memes are the way to get things done.

Very fascinating 
I just realized what a degree of information warfare memes are

[Ima Freeman]

12 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

I actually am flirting with being a political activist, to burn through the SDi GREEN system.

Spiral dynamics is very helpful for grounding, in order to not become too lost into a stage

[Ima Freeman]

12 hours ago, Michal__ said:

Still more effective than rioting. Another good thing is to try to somehow influence the general public's opinion. Whether through gaining large social media following or whatever. My point is not to reduce yourself to the level of a rioting monkey.

I see... I guess I have to cope with my aggression in a more constructive way, otherwise I can get into big trouble

[Ima Freeman]

9 hours ago, aurum said:

@Ima Freeman

I don’t get involved with a lot of protests personally, even though I care a lot about collective issues.

I just find that protests are filled with a lot of resistant energy, us vs them thinking and general tier 1 behavior.

Do it if you really want. But it’s not my bag.

You seem to be way more calm than me 
 

[DocWatts]

I was active role in the Occupy Protests in the 2010s, and a decade later I'm somewhat ambivalent about how effective protests are.

As a way to bring visibility to an issue, a large protest with good optics (this part is important) can be very effective in that regard.

As a way to effect political change, well unfortunately in a place like the United States many of our lawmakers are in effect shielded from democracy through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the structurally undemocratic makeup of the US Senate and Supreme Court.

In the United States, if you live in a democratic city or state, protesting might be a way to bully your legislature in to Voting a particular way on an issue. If you have the misfortune to be living in a Republican region I wouldn't bother, as the Republican Party has chosen the route of trying to end democracy rather than trying to govern.

[Ima Freeman]

5 hours ago, DocWatts said:

I was active role in the Occupy Protests in the 2010s, and a decade later I'm somewhat ambivalent about how effective protests are.

As a way to bring visibility to an issue, a large protest with good optics (this part is important) can be very effective in that regard.

As a way to effect political change, well unfortunately in a place like the United States many of our lawmakers are in effect shielded from democracy through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the structurally undemocratic makeup of the US Senate and Supreme Court.

In the United States, if you live in a democratic city or state, protesting might be a way to bully your legislature in to Voting a particular way on an issue. If you have the misfortune to be living in a Republican region I wouldn't bother, as the Republican Party has chosen the route of trying to end democracy rather than trying to govern.

I see, protests as a political marketing tool 

I'm European by the way 
The US are a different beast

[BlueOak]

If you have a small amount of money. You can certainly back conscious people when they need it most so they can maintain channels of communication, small fledgling groups, ideas or organizations. When they are starting up or struggling, if you are the second person to help out you are incredibly important in their development.

Its an old saying that the second person to support something is the most important, because without them the person(s) doing it are just an individual alone in a void. When that second person arrives it encourages others to listen or help out and begins to form a group or community. You can provide moral support, encouragement and something for them to build off of.

Now the hard part. The entire internet is against you finding these new or interesting channels, groups, causes or fledgling start up businesses. Its entirely biased towards large multinationals which are already well financed, successful and established. 

If I could do one thing to help, i'd make a search engine, index or organization dedicated to finding those who don't have the exposure they would benefit from and giving it to them. But for now you'll have to hunt around on the fringes and maybe on the deep web (not the dark web) to find anything.

Reference: https://www.upguard.com/blog/dark-web-vs-deep-web