When someone ignites some form of violence, start chanting PEACE-FUL PRO-TEST. PEACE-FUL PRO-TEST. Do not engage in violence.
When the police give you instructions, respectfully and orderly follow the instructions. You want the police to be on your side. Show them the respect and treatment you want to apply to you. Demonstrating continuous respect for the police can slowly earn their cooperation and collaboration.
‘the state almost always has overwhelming superiority when it comes to the use of force.’
‘The objective of nonviolent action is to undermine those in power, while winning over the general population. The most resistant groups are those who benefit from and support a dictatorship, such as the police, the military, and various elites. As long as these groups continue their support, an oppressive regime can remain in control. But once the middle class and elites defect, and the military and police refuse to use force to suppress opposition, a dictator is finished.’
Peaceful protest is useful. Peaceful protest brings awareness. Peaceful protest brings courage to a person to change daily life. Can a single person make a difference through small changes? Yes! In a capitalist society, we create change with our wallets and our data.
‘Any group wishing to overthrow a dictator must continually search for ways to encourage people to actively oppose the regime. They must also maintain steady pressure through continuous nonviolent actions. And they need be inventive, rather than settle for [only] the usual placard waving marches. Both dictatorships and democracies have adopted methods for accommodating marches and protests, and view them as a handy way to let people blow off steam with little or no disruption to the business of the state.’
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Start paying for shipping. Free shipping is a trick. If a platform regularly increases prices, the shipping costs will be integrated into the products you purchase.
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Consider disabling location tracking and Bluetooth. Disable Find My Device. It’s not a TV remote. You can call it if you lose it. If you protest, you could leave your device at home. Bring an old device without a SIM card in case you need to record an interaction.
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Delete your referral links to online products at a billionaire corporation. It can be misleading to claim there is no cost. There is a cost. The cost is the data of everyone who visits your link.
Be peaceful but prepared for the possibility of violence. There has to be a threat behind the protest or it is for nothing. It has to cause pressure. It has to make life difficult for power. Sometimes that means disobeying police and causing damage. By no means, start a riot, but if the police order you to disperse, make them make you disperse. I recommend people to open carry at protests. It sends the message that we aren’t afraid to fight.
People have the right to bear arms, but not the obligation to bear arms. Think about this distinction very carefully and really understand how powerful it can be. For any scenario where it is not prohibited by law, such as weapons being generally prohibited at an airport, a person has the right to make a choice.
A person has a right to make a choice as to whether or not to bear arms.
Ignore nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction as not relevant to the analogy. In a confrontation, the person who brings the strongest weapon ever created can be said to have the second most powerful force. The person who does not bring a weapon at all can be said to have the most powerful force.
Police are armed with military surplus from the mightiest armed forces in the world. The police have access to more powerful weapons than the militaries of many other countries. To overcome this overwhelming power, make the choice not to bring any weapon at all.
When you leave your weapon at home, you help to minimize the excuse for a large amount of police to show up.
To slowly earn the respect of the police, obey the instructions of the police. Many people personally know a member of the police force. In a protest situation, police may be ordered to instruct protesters to act for various reasons that we cannot see or understand at that time, such as moving to a different location or dispersing for the safety of the public.
You want the police to treat you with the respect of being innocent until proven guilty. The police are people too. The police also want and deserve the same level of respect. At that time we don’t know if a protest is blocking access to medical treatment of someone who might die. At that time we don’t know if too many protestors may be in an area that can cause safety concerns like fire safety or the risk of being trampled or some other safety concern. Give the police the benefit of the doubt and assume they are innocent. If the police later prove guilty of misusing their power, it becomes an opportunity for protestors to receive additional media coverage ahead of the next protest event.
Come out. Make your voice heard. Follow the instructions of the police. Your voice will still have been heard and the impact on others will have been made, without providing an excuse for an escalation to violence.
If you suspect the motives of the police, ask them why. But please do not give them an excuse to resort to violence. Violence is consistently the preferred method of putting a halt to the effectiveness of protests.