this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Protest movements take time to grow. Especially when most within the US don't have any idea they're going on. Because the media coverage of protests is limited (though not zero, yes)
I know Indivisible is trying to get a larger DC specific group together on April 5th if you're looking for larger in one place. Though there will also be protests in all 50 states that day too
People are protesting locally in tons city not just every state capitol. It's helped get local news coverage when national news orgs have limited converage. It helps the average person be more likely to run into them and learn about it as well
To be honest, that doesn't fly. Our conservatives voted with the right wing party in parliament once on a proposition and on a law that didn't even pass a couple of weeks ago. That was announced on Tuesday, voted on on Wednesday and Friday. Over a million were on the streets by Sunday, distributed over the whole country with some protests exceeding 300.000 people.
While in the US, things are a lot worse and it's been weeks and it's been known to be coming for months. I would have expected millions on the streets by now, hell, I would have expected there to be huge protests on day one.
Of course, that's not on those who try their best to get things organized. But it's shocking to me, that there are so many people still remaining passive, and that's not only on the media, other groups are dropping the ball here, too. First and foremost of course the Democrats but also local businesses, sport clubs, charities, unions, churches, they all join in when big protests like that are organized in Europe.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you're looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU's actions. That large protest wasn't the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%932025_German_anti-extremism_protests
The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It's a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump's strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it's hard for anything to break through the noise. It's designed to make people so numb they don't think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can
Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like "we're cooked", "why is no one doing anything", "where are the people protesting", etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think
I think you're the one looking at things on way too short of time scale.
You're looking at the current protests as if they are the start of the movement.
But protests have been going on against the rise of fascism and Trump since his first term. Almost a full decade of protests. Less and less people turning out each time as they realize it changes nothing. This isn't the beginning, it's the end.
Protests flow in waves. After Trump was removed from office in 2020, it lost a lot of energy. The protests in his first term did successfully getting voted out of office and limited the damage. Now it's growing again after a period of stagnation
Look at the AFD protests and you'll see they too also died down and then started growing again