Watching for clues
In an attention economy and a war for attention, opponents of fascism are outgunned but not outnumbered. Indivisible and MoveOn estimate that 7 million people took to the streets for more than 2,700 No Kings rallies on Saturday in 50 states. Kudos to Indivisible, MoveOn and other groups that organized this huge event.
Strangely (or not so strangely), The New York Times places a couple of pictures below the fold on Page One and plops its coverage on Page 23. This after an estimated 100,000 filled the streets of Manhattan. The protests don’t even merit a photo on the landing page, just one line. The Washington Post print edition announces the protests with its top headline and photos. But its landing page places the story below an “exclusive” about Marco Rubio. Politico buries its coverage down the left sidebar and focuses on Trump’s attacks on “No Kings.” The Guardian did better.
Good luck finding coverage on Fox News. Although despite the administration’s preemptive efforts to brand protesters as violent, Fox reports, “there were no reports of violence or arrests at the afternoon rallies amid the ongoing government shutdown.” CNN notes that the protests were “largely peaceful,” but a closer look reveals that the few reported arrests on Saturday were not directly related to the rallies.
That’s not what they’ll hear from the man with the biggest megaphone (CNN):
President Donald Trump and his allies have spent weeks painstakingly trying to manufacture an image of an irredeemably violent American left…. The Trump team and its allies suggested that the rallies, which are likely to draw millions of people, will essentially be chock full of antifa, terrorist sympathizers and even terrorists themselves.
Still, even on one of the largest protest days in U.S. history, millions of Americans taking to the streets to protest “the government’s swift drift into authoritarianism” (signs I saw went straight to fascism) under Donald Trump is not the biggest news of the day. Even 7 million Americans in the streets does not wrest control of the nation’s biggest media outlets. Point being, the way this movement builds is for more people need to know about it and join it. That means finding ways to get attention. People must see that their neighbors involved, ordinary Americans like them. It will take more than one-off days of big protests. A nationwide strike will be necessary, but for that to happen, the movement must first be visible, building, and persistent.
Indivisible is working on that with a Tuesday evening What’s Next After No Kings? mass call.
For his part, the wannabe dictator (or his account) issued a series of AI “Truths” mocking the protests and playing up himself as king. False bravado?
I am curious how the famously thin-skinned Trump and his majordomo, Stephen Miller, will react in the wake of such massive public defiance. Authoritarians like these never back down. They double- and triple-down. Do that and the public pushback will intensify. It needs to. The irony is that the would-be king is helping.
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Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement
50501
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense