I think teaching people how protests work is pretty important praxis and is not talked about nearly enough.
Moderates and liberals tend to think of protest and demonstration as the same thing and anything that is not a demonstration is generally though of as bad or counterproductive.
Most of the populace simply doesn’t understand that blocking roads or getting arrested have strategic value. They consider the goal of every protest to be to raise awareness and support and to convince people like them ™️ that any given cause is worth supporting and that their support is all it really takes to a make change happen. It’s a very self-centered view of how political movement work and it seems unfortunately quite obiquitous.
They see a road block and think “that just makes you look bad” and the thought process ends there because now your movement isn’t worth supporting in their eyes. If you try to explain that blocking off roads is often done to cut off supply lines to financial districts or big corporations and put economic pressure on them or the politicians they donate to, they refuse to engage with the idea entirely or claim that it doesn’t actually work and the only way to protest successfully is to win over people like them even though they’ve probably never been to a demonstration, let alone a direct action event and if they did they’d probably do more harm than good given how ignorant they are on the subject.
We really need to educate people about protesting tactics, how they work, what they actually seek to achieve, and how different methods put pressure on different areas to get different effects and I think you probably can’t teach this to older generations but younger generations are capable of learning and we really need them to learn this.
Teaching people to think in terms of systems and take a structural approach when trying to change a system is paramount because, in the current state of things, the common belief seems to be if enough people wave signs from the sidewalk, things magically work out in the end.
That’s not the only possibility brother. I just asked if people think it would be better if they gave up. But I’ll bite.
I bet your job is great but are you saying you’re doing more for the climate? Like you think the protestors (we can focus on the climate change ones like you said) would be more effective doing day jobs to make heaters use less fuel or equivalent? Do you think you generate more political pressure and attention and conversation doing what you do? Or that it’s people’s heaters that are a really significant part of the issue?
I mean if you’re taking the “you’re blocking important people” angle I’m really sorry but… Yeah. That’s kind of the point isn’t it? Like. I think most of us follow what they’re doing with the art destruction and road blocking and stunts, right? It’s not a popularity contest (clearly lol) but a sacrifice to keep these issues generating attention and pressure. And yeah let’s just say for a second that they’ll block an ambulance carrying someone who will die if they don’t reach the hospital --just as a device to exemplify a situation-- that is unquestionably bad, but you should genuinely account for the fact that these people truly believe the world will end over the climate crisis. They probably wouldn’t be putting themselves and others at risk if they didn’t think it was literally the end of the world. And to be fair they might be right. It’s going to look pretty fucking silly down the road when the planet dies even more and people are still pissy about people protesting the wrong way. I know I’m going to remember every warning and protest and attempt to stop the inevitable when the power grid fails at 120 degrees or whatever and people start really dying. You know. Where I live. not just in Texas.
Anyway, hit me with some effective alternatives that achieve the same goals without making anybody upset.
The important person you’re blocking is your future ally.
You want an alternative? Find a fossil fuel executive’s car and block that in. Block the entrance to an oil refinery, or a trash incinerator. Sit in the lobby of the corporate office of Exxon-Mobil. Find an unimpeachable member of your movement, like Rosa Parks was, and use her to garner sympathy for your cause when she gets persecuted for something everyone agrees is wrong.
Blocking random roads and calling it protest is like calling a knocked over paint can “Modern Art”. You’re just pretending you know what artists do and everyone can tell.