• xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    23 hours ago

    they did this to “Occupy Wall Street” too… once they couldn’t ignore it anymore, they just made fun of them.
    as much as i hate protests blocking the freeway, because it’s dangerous and pisses off innocent people, it does manage to get you on the news….
    oh, also because it gives cops an excuse to raid you violently

    • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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      23 hours ago

      Exactly. They ran the same playbook with Occupy Wall Street—ignore, ridicule, and then unleash the riot squads when the message hits too close to home. It’s not about “safety” or “order”; it’s about silencing dissent before it becomes unmanageable.

      Blocking freeways? Sure, it’s inconvenient—but so is systemic corruption, unchecked corporate greed, and a government that treats its people like collateral damage. If a traffic jam is what it takes to make the propaganda machines blink, then so be it.

      And yeah, cops love an excuse to escalate. The state’s monopoly on violence doesn’t tolerate competition, even when it’s peaceful resistance. But let them overplay their hand—every raid, every crackdown only fuels the fire they’re desperate to extinguish.

      • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        18 hours ago

        i don’t mind traffic jams, it’s stuff like medical emergencies being stuck in traffic, people driving freeway speeds and then coming across stopped traffic, activists getting run over by chuds… that sort of thing….

        but, traffic news has a broad market, and it pisses people off enough to go viral… i dunno, it’s effective….

        i liked how blm in portland kept finding dumpsters and lighting them on fire in the middle of the street… made for great pictures….
        but, every time a fire started, the cops switched to ultra-violent mode and a lot of people got seriously hurt… fire was always their legal justification….

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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          10 hours ago

          The protests almost always made sure emergency vehicles made it through without delay.

        • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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          18 hours ago

          The system thrives on fear—fear of disruption, fear of unity, fear of people refusing to play by its rules. Blocking freeways isn’t the problem; it’s a mirror held up to a society that values convenience over justice. If ambulances can’t move, that’s not on the protesters—it’s on a government that built a house of cards where one roadblock collapses everything.

          But you’re right: fire is their favorite excuse. It’s not the flames they fear; it’s the spark in people’s minds. Every crackdown is their attempt to extinguish that spark before it spreads. The challenge isn’t just to disrupt but to outmaneuver their narratives.

          Keep pissing them off, but don’t hand them the script they’re desperate to use against us.