My mom was a huge speeder. She almost never went below 10 over the limit. Any time someone told her something along the lines of “The sign says 60, and you’re going 80.” she’d respond along the lines of “Well, good thing signs can’t stop me then, huh?”
She’d always slow down if she thought she saw a cop, though.
I always think about that when people talk about protests as if they’re the final step and not just the warning before a revolt. If you want self-centered people, like the ones running our government, to listen to your signs, you need them to fear what comes afterward if they don’t.
Interesting analogy, and a great point. I think it’s a lot like poker. They place their bets, we place our bets. They raise the stakes, we raise the stakes. Eventually one of us is either going to fold or we’re both going to end up going all in, and then we’ll finally end up seeing what our hands end up being once that happens. Are any of us prepared to fold on this? I’m not. Are they prepared to fold? I don’t know. Are they bluffing or are they holding all the right cards? I don’t know. If it comes to that, I guess we’ll find out.
That’s a great analogy as well, though with the stakes as high as they are, I don’t think either side is likely to fold. I think we’ll have to show our hands and see who wins. I’d love to hear that the government caved in to our demands and everything is fine, but if that doesn’t happen we need to understand that our work isn’t done until we get what we need, regardless of whether or not they decide to give it to us willingly.
I don’t think their hand is really that strong, as much as they’ve been trying to convince people it is. Their media is powerful, the image they project is powerful. They have convinced us to fear of a massively powerful military-backed surveillance state, as we should, but is that really something they can achieve? Only with a lot more apathy and cowing to authority than they’re actually going to get, I think. Americans (and even the military is made up of Americans) are an unruly bunch at the best of times, and the powers that be might think they have enough money and enough security in place to protect them as their popular support dwindles and the MAGA wave they rode to power begins to realize that these authoritarians are not giving them back “muh freedumbs” like they promised but are in fact taking more of them away. As the famous quote goes, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” The regime has been ignoring and laughing at protests like 50501 and No Kings. They will have to fight eventually. Would the current regime survive more LA riots? Vietnam war protests? Another million man march? Probably. That’s obviously what they’re preparing for, as they should. But how far are they actually going to be able to go? And how far will the resistance go? I agree, we’ll see once the cards are all on the table. But I think there’s still plenty of room for hope that the actual future isn’t going to be as bleak as it may seem right now.
My mom was a huge speeder. She almost never went below 10 over the limit. Any time someone told her something along the lines of “The sign says 60, and you’re going 80.” she’d respond along the lines of “Well, good thing signs can’t stop me then, huh?”
She’d always slow down if she thought she saw a cop, though.
I always think about that when people talk about protests as if they’re the final step and not just the warning before a revolt. If you want self-centered people, like the ones running our government, to listen to your signs, you need them to fear what comes afterward if they don’t.
Interesting analogy, and a great point. I think it’s a lot like poker. They place their bets, we place our bets. They raise the stakes, we raise the stakes. Eventually one of us is either going to fold or we’re both going to end up going all in, and then we’ll finally end up seeing what our hands end up being once that happens. Are any of us prepared to fold on this? I’m not. Are they prepared to fold? I don’t know. Are they bluffing or are they holding all the right cards? I don’t know. If it comes to that, I guess we’ll find out.
That’s a great analogy as well, though with the stakes as high as they are, I don’t think either side is likely to fold. I think we’ll have to show our hands and see who wins. I’d love to hear that the government caved in to our demands and everything is fine, but if that doesn’t happen we need to understand that our work isn’t done until we get what we need, regardless of whether or not they decide to give it to us willingly.
I don’t think their hand is really that strong, as much as they’ve been trying to convince people it is. Their media is powerful, the image they project is powerful. They have convinced us to fear of a massively powerful military-backed surveillance state, as we should, but is that really something they can achieve? Only with a lot more apathy and cowing to authority than they’re actually going to get, I think. Americans (and even the military is made up of Americans) are an unruly bunch at the best of times, and the powers that be might think they have enough money and enough security in place to protect them as their popular support dwindles and the MAGA wave they rode to power begins to realize that these authoritarians are not giving them back “muh freedumbs” like they promised but are in fact taking more of them away. As the famous quote goes, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” The regime has been ignoring and laughing at protests like 50501 and No Kings. They will have to fight eventually. Would the current regime survive more LA riots? Vietnam war protests? Another million man march? Probably. That’s obviously what they’re preparing for, as they should. But how far are they actually going to be able to go? And how far will the resistance go? I agree, we’ll see once the cards are all on the table. But I think there’s still plenty of room for hope that the actual future isn’t going to be as bleak as it may seem right now.