Current Events > why don't Americans protest their government as much as other countries do?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_in_the_United_States_by_size

The largest protests we have is Women's March.
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Complacency.
Believe it or not, not everyone actually gives a damn.

Combination of complacency, apathy, inability to afford it, and general fear of arrest or assault by authority figures.
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Our weaker safety net and relative lack of labor protections make it more difficult to take part in political action. Among other reasons
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We have Netflix, so we dont bother.
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Probably part of it is most people have it pretty good and dont feel anything is big enough for them to march about.

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There is a reason why our schools teach memorization over critical thinking.
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wake up sheeple
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Because most Americans live like kings and don't want to rock the boat
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The bottom folk are relatively taken care of the most part so they have little reason to.

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We always talk shit about our government. Its kind of an American pastime

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_in_the_United_States_by_size

The largest protests we have is Women's March.

Which had 3-4 million people show up. That's 1% of the population of the united states. There are entire countries with smaller populations than the number of people who showed up to that protest.

What protests are you referring to that brought this topic on?
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Because boomers had an easy life. But we're gonna see more and more protests, count on it
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In most countries you could have the majority of the population in the capital in an afternoon, and they could be back to work later that day. In comparison, most people in the US aren't going to spend $600 to fly 5 hours each way to protest.

A lot of "why isn't the US like these other countries" questions can be answered by "it's just that big."
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s0nicfan posted...

In most countries you could have the majority of the population in the capital in an afternoon, and they could be back to work later that day. In comparison, most people in the US aren't going to spend $600 to fly 5 hours each way to protest.

A lot of "why isn't the US like these other countries" questions can be answered by "it's just that big."

No it's capitalism's fault

FL81 posted...

wake up sheeple

https://xkcd.com/1013/
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We get to revolt every 2 years so protesting doesn't matter. Plus it's an activity for unemployed people.
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Soggy_Pocket posted...

We get to revolt every 2 years so protesting doesn't matter.

What
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konokonohamaru posted...

Because boomers had an easy life.

You do know that hippies were boomers, right?

We're too fat
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Protests are largely ineffective. Most Americans choose to instead spend their time more efficiently fighting for their causes by shitposting on the internet.
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Because if someone complains, then obviously they hate America.
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Militarized police will mow everyone down
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If people's lives were bad enough they would protest.

People in America have it pretty good for the most part.
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What is it you want to protest exactly?

Despite what mainstream media says, America isn't this crying, up in arms country.

Reality is, whatever the issue, you more than likely don't have enough people to get together on the same day to make an impact.

Damn_Underscore posted...

If people's lives were bad enough they would protest.

People in America have it pretty good for the most part.

America is far from perfect though.
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Despite complaints, most people live comfortable enough lives they don't want to risk to chase bigger dreams. We aren't the people with nothing to lose but our chains. We're the people that don't want to go without netflix for too long.
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Sega95 posted...

What is it you want to protest exactly?

Despite what mainstream media says, America isn't this crying, up in arms country.

Reality is, whatever the issue, you more than likely don't have enough people to get together on the same day to make an impact.

-Rising homelessness (over 50,000 homeless in Los Angeles)
-Gun violence
-Massive wealth inequality

Americans should give more support to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
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TrowaBarton7 posted...

Sega95 posted...

What is it you want to protest exactly?

Despite what mainstream media says, America isn't this crying, up in arms country.

Reality is, whatever the issue, you more than likely don't have enough people to get together on the same day to make an impact.

-Rising homelessness (over 50,000 homeless in Los Angeles)
-Gun violence
-Massive wealth inequality

Americans should give more support to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

America is big enough that regular protests just drive out everyone to the suburbs, who can afford to leave.
Go protest out in the 'burbs, and they'll go gentrify downtown.

TrowaBarton7 posted...

Sega95 posted...

What is it you want to protest exactly?

Despite what mainstream media says, America isn't this crying, up in arms country.

Reality is, whatever the issue, you more than likely don't have enough people to get together on the same day to make an impact.

-Rising homelessness (over 50,000 homeless in Los Angeles)
-Gun violence
-Massive wealth inequality

Americans should give more support to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

LOL are you serious? Here's why we don't protest any of that nonsense:

"Rising homelessness (over 50,000 homeless in Los Angeles)"

California voted for this, SHOCKER: Raising minimum wage and taxes to unsustainable levels will destroy your job market and economy, but don't take my word for it, lets try it in 49 other states to be sure.

"-Gun violence"

You mean the actions of people? A gun is simply a tool, you want less gun violence? Start bringing more values to the household, I know this takes work, so just blame the tool

"-Massive wealth inequality"

LOL, you live in the most economic mobile time period in history, you can literally make a million dollars in a day, or learn a skill, or do anything to fix your situation, you've been told this already.

"Americans should give more support to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa."

Want me to stop supporting Wall Street? Sure, when you stop consuming petroleum products I'll come protest with you.

BLM? HAHA a complete joke.

Antifa? If I ever see that scum in my area, they will get the beating their fathers should have gave them.

**** you and your fake protest.

- Why aren't homeless people protesting then? You should be asking that.
- There are many people who support gun rights. Gun rights are part of the American Constitution. This is a divided issue and there isn't nearly enough consensus for there to be large scale protests about it.
- Having less money than other people alone isn't going to be enough to make someone protest. If you are on the negative side of wealth inequality but you are living comfortably, why should you protest?
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I can hardly get a group of 5 friends together on a weekend.

How are people supposed to get tens of thousands together, when ultimately, our lives are fine and comfortable for the most part?
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TrowaBarton7 posted...

Sega95 posted...

What is it you want to protest exactly?

Despite what mainstream media says, America isn't this crying, up in arms country.

Reality is, whatever the issue, you more than likely don't have enough people to get together on the same day to make an impact.

-Rising homelessness (over 50,000 homeless in Los Angeles)
-Gun violence
-Massive wealth inequality

Americans should give more support to Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

-LA is thousands of miles away.
-I saw somebody brandish a gun once. Didn't fire it though.
-What do I care about someone else's wallet when I get by just fine?
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Because when anyone protests anything, White Amerikkka comes and shits on it.

Abortion? Nope. Bunch of white men are gonna tell women what to do with their bodies.

Climate change? Fake news.

Police brutality? Nah. Not a problem.

Gun control? Ur not takin mah gunz!

Taxes, healthcare, etc. The list goes on.
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Funny, I thought we were sort of known for bitching and protesting about mostly everything, whether its an issue or not.
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Because even when shit is bad here we still have a ridiculous amount of comforts as far as entertainment goes to distract us tbh.

Like even in rural places you can get pretty much whatever the hell you want to sate your anger, and we're really not so adamant about most things nowadays to where we complain on anything but Reddit and whatnot.

Also a lot of our issues are contained to places where the bulk of people in the US don't actually care about it, because it doesn't effect them.

some are complacent, others are just shills.

but some groups can protest the government without being called anti-American. others get labeled as unpatriotic.
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Because the majority actually has a pretty sweet life with not much to complain about.

I went to the Womens March In LA 3 years ago and it was more of a social gathering than a protest.

Protesting doesn't really do much, voting does
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Relative to other western nations? The US is fucking huge. You can drive to a protest anywhere in France, England, Germany, etc, and be back in time for work the next day. Here? If there's a centralized protest in DC, I hope you have some days off or enough money for plane fare.

A lot of small protests happen across the States all the time, but you don't see much about them outside of local newspapers.
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As imperfect as Amerca is, I don't feel like I'll be killed because of what I say. Unless the Clintons are involved.
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American culture produces a weird ass lethargy about it, it's probably the biggest actual threat to our survival as a nation.
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Because blocking traffic to protest is not cool for all those people that need to get to work on time. Some crazy can also show up and steal your sign and toss it over a fence and then take your phone and throw it, crazies be everywhere. Then you'd have to go to Twitter to try to find the guy to have him get fired and then he'll become more crazy and we don't need more crazies in a country that allows the general population to have guns.

bknight posted...

Because blocking traffic to protest is not cool for all those people that need to get to work on time. Some crazy can also show up and steal your sign and toss it over a fence and then take your phone and throw it, crazies be everywhere. Then you'd have to go to Twitter to try to find the guy to have him get fired and then he'll become more crazy and we don't need more crazies in a country that allows the general population to have guns.

what the hell did I just read
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Because the "bad" things that the American government can be accused of do not affect Americans themselves directly.

We all know we are being spied on but guess what, most of us put our personal lives on social media anyway.

American occupation happens in other countries, far from where we live so it has zero impact on our own personal lives.

Also, people have been protesting police brutality for years and years with very little to show for it.

The US has alot of social problems that need to be worked out but honestly protest is not an effective means to produce change.
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hockeybub89 posted...

Damn_Underscore posted...

If people's lives were bad enough they would protest.

People in America have it pretty good for the most part.

America is far from perfect though.

Yes, but as long as their basic needs are met and they can watch something shitty on TV or YouTube or whatever, they'll be content to ignore the problems.
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I wonder if certain reponses would change if more people ITT had their own home and paid their own bills in that home with the job they have.

those bubbles provided by others keep people insulated from a lot of societal issues.
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