The 3.5% is a concept and not a truth. I don’t remember where it started to spread, probably reddit, even if the idea has been around for a while. It’s stuck in the online psyche now. I’m all for protests, but thinking 3.5% is some magic button isn’t right.
Edit: I went digging to find a source of some of the idea. Here it is. A paper that discusses tbe original concept. There are some key points that people are missing when online throws the “rule” out there, and one of them is this:
The movements on which it was based were maximalist ones, i.e. overthrowing a government or achieving territorial independence. They were not reformist in nature,…
So any protest would probably need to accept violence as a possibility, I don’t think Trump and his goons are going to leave peacefully.
Also, the linked paper suggests that the majority of peaceful protests that succeeded had to surpass 3.5%.
Few governments leave peacefully. Ask Iranians. Still, something needs to be done, and I think a general strike is the best tool at the moment. Witty signs and walking through the streets will not get it done with this White House, unfortunately.
I’d hope that at least 10% of your population must be furious enough at that shitty regime to inconvenience themselves, though at this point I’d even take 3.5%.
US twentieth century history teaches us that in whatever the US does, its citizens will suffer much less for it than the citizens of the victim nations, so as annoying as it may be, the shoe is finally on the other foot. Ask Latinos or Arabs how it felt to wear that shoe for generations.
Let’s see if an actual general strike can come to fruition. If so, I’ll be hoping for its success from afar.
I got off in a tangent there, apologies, since I’m not at all intending to argue against anything you said in your comment….
Keep in mind a general strike is successful if 3.5 % join in.
The 3.5% is a concept and not a truth. I don’t remember where it started to spread, probably reddit, even if the idea has been around for a while. It’s stuck in the online psyche now. I’m all for protests, but thinking 3.5% is some magic button isn’t right.
Edit: I went digging to find a source of some of the idea. Here it is. A paper that discusses tbe original concept. There are some key points that people are missing when online throws the “rule” out there, and one of them is this:
So any protest would probably need to accept violence as a possibility, I don’t think Trump and his goons are going to leave peacefully.
Also, the linked paper suggests that the majority of peaceful protests that succeeded had to surpass 3.5%.
Few governments leave peacefully. Ask Iranians. Still, something needs to be done, and I think a general strike is the best tool at the moment. Witty signs and walking through the streets will not get it done with this White House, unfortunately.
I’d hope that at least 10% of your population must be furious enough at that shitty regime to inconvenience themselves, though at this point I’d even take 3.5%.
US twentieth century history teaches us that in whatever the US does, its citizens will suffer much less for it than the citizens of the victim nations, so as annoying as it may be, the shoe is finally on the other foot. Ask Latinos or Arabs how it felt to wear that shoe for generations.
Let’s see if an actual general strike can come to fruition. If so, I’ll be hoping for its success from afar.
I got off in a tangent there, apologies, since I’m not at all intending to argue against anything you said in your comment….