Protest Effectiveness and Political Violence
🔥33% of mostly middle-aged, educated Democrats now agree political violence may be necessary to protect democracy, up from 8% in 2017, indicating growing frustration with electoral processes.
🚫Mass strikes and nonviolent civil disobedience are preferred over violence for effective protest against authoritarianism, but the presence of guns in the US raises concerns.
🔄Political violence supporters have shifted from historically right-leaning, young, male, and less educated to include more left-leaning individuals, according to pre-January 6 data.
Community Organizing and Solidarity
🤝The left's reliance on Zoom calls and online engagement has led to atomization, making it harder to build real-life connections and solidarity compared to right-wing groups' in-person events.
🏘️Local community organizing is key to effecting change, requiring only friends, neighbors, and community members to identify and build necessary changes that can work up to the federal level.
🔗Solidarity across identities, orientations, and social classes is crucial for building community infrastructure and bottom-up political movements, with unions and labor holding significant power.
Effective Activism Strategies
📢Outrage can mobilize people, but without organizational infrastructure like unions or churches, it lacks sustainability and strategic direction for lasting change.
🔬Community-based organizing focusing on specific local needs is more effective than top-down approaches or relying solely on national movements for creating lasting change.
🔥Loss aversion is a powerful motivator for political action, with people protesting when reliable services like checks or post offices shut down, directly affecting their lives.
Political Landscape and Power Dynamics
💰Complacency and the influence of money in politics have eroded democracy, with the existence of billionaires as a whole undermining democratic processes.
🏛️The right has successfully built power by focusing on local and state-level organizing, modeling what they want to see nationally, a strategy the left needs to adopt.
Media and Information
📺Resistance 2.0 sees the left merging and protesting daily in DC with thousands, but media coverage is lacking, potentially impacting public awareness and support.
Individual Action
🗳️To reclaim power, individuals must become active political players rather than passive supporters, requiring more time and effort in local organizing and meetings.
🌐Misinformation and anti-science ideologies can hinder effective political action, but local organizing and connecting with those directly affected by issues can help counter these narratives.