4w ago

Do you find protest fun?

I've been to two protest BLM protest and no kings day celebration protest. BLM protest was intimidating at first because I Parked close to the event and police had us surrounded and were gasing us, but that ended with them putting their shield and bats down as symbolic way of ending hostilities. No Kings day was way more chill and no confrontation with authorities that I witnessed but some happened before I got there, other than that it was mostly talking to people and expressing yourself in public.

There's fun stories

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I've been to many protests, and oddly enough i enjoy the feeling of freedom. Normal traffic rules don't apply and there are no cars, suddely you can walk in the middle of the street which is normally a forbidden space. You can dance, you can shoot fireworks in the middle of town, you can do loads of things that you normally can't.
Normally there's a nebulous sense that this space doesn't belong to us, it belongs to landlords and the state maybe? You don't feel a sense of ownership. But when it's being taken over by people in an unorganized way, now it feels like this space belongs to you.
And yes i'm french lmao
- The French know how to show the state who’s boss. You love to see it
- Hmm I never thought about that. In the BLM protest I was at we blocked traffic until we dispersed and the police diverted traffic. I'd say kicking the gas canisters are fun and gave me a sense of freedom

No, I only attend out of necessity. I don't enjoy crowds or confrontation.
- When you protest, you’re advocating against something that has to be bad enough to get people together. That’s not fun. I really wish I didn’t have to go to No Kings, it would have been nicer to do anything else. That being said, I was there with friends and we made the best of it.
  
  Exactly my thoughts. I'm sure some people enjoy the thrill of it all, but I'd guess most people protest not because they want to, but because they feel they must.

Not especially, I've always had claustrophobia in large crowds, even stuff like concerts. I'm maybe too keenly aware of how easily people can get trampled in crowds.
- That would be complicated. I haven't actually been to a concert in a while, but I know with protest you can hang back like you won't see the action but you avoid the cluster of people. Sometimes the crowd of people is like 1-2 blocks big

Sometimes it can be fun, I've had a fair bit of fun during some rallies by handing my megaphone to loads of different people, we had a counter protest back in April that turned into a dance party too.
I've also been to plenty of scary ones. I had one where I had to run away from violent cops and change into a different outfit behind dumpsters. Sometimes the adrenaline can be fun if it's a more spicy action, usually the nerves go away once you get started.

Do you by chance have French ancestors?
Jokes a side, it's a great feeling seeing people care enough to stand up for the same issues you care. As well as quite a lot of adrenaline being pumped into you as you don't know what might be going on next and just living moment by moment. So it's understandable that you may enjoy it.
- I may or may not be related to John Brown. The guy who tried to free the slaves before the civil war in America.
  I definitely did have shakes early on in the kings protest, it really was like climbing to the peak of a roller coaster, but payoff is way different. You definitely have to react to things you can not expect.
  I did enjoy going up to trump supporters with my Palestine flag and trying to empathize with him not being part of a popular movement

I don't like multitudes so no. They tend to be stressful. And for the ones I went alone without knowing anyone I felt a lot of social anxiety.
But sometimes you gotta go even if it's not pleasant.
- Protestors can be nice and they'll make small talk about the protest. I could hear the anxiety in people's voices when they talked to trump supporters and voice their decent of trump and my awkward ass gives them a thumbs up of approval.
  I wasn't even that outgoing at these events, but it took my 10-20 minutes to get over the jitters

I have sensory issues and don't handle crowds or noise well, I have fun for a little bit if it's not all too crowded, but then I crash hard while still there. After 1st of May I slept 19:00-11:00. And that's in a country where the very worst I've personally witnessed police do was surround and unjustly arrest people. But if I can spare the resources, it's totally worth it.
- And that's in a country where the very worst I've personally witnessed police do was surround and unjustly arrest people.
  For what it's worth, I'd look at it from the perspective of the protests being necessary to make sure that they aren't able to get away with worse and worse stuff over time. Gotta let them know that even small acts of injustice will be met with resistance.
  My country has been in the mentality of "Well at least they aren't doing X" for so long that the police can basically get away with anything now. And the police are now at the point where they are doing "X" with increasing frequency, but the public's ability to do anything about it is greatly hindered as a result.

Back in the day I participated in poll tax protests (fuck Thatcher) and later in some Reclaim the Streets protests.
The poll tax ones were quite tense. What with that and the miners there was a lot of political anger at the time.
The latter were much more fun and often had a chill family feel to them. Such a mix of people from families with small kids to crusties to clubbers with kick ass sound systems. Occasionally you’d see a couple of the “fuck a copper” brigade but they were mostly chill.

Yep! My first bruises from a police baton stayed with me for almost 2 months (they got me in the ribs) but I showed them off with pride! The comradery at protests is amazing, and the contacts you make are for a lifetime!

I found them fun in the 90s. Now that I’m in my 50s and take longer to recover from bumps, bruises, and batons than I did in my 20s, it’s not as fun.

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