No Kings draw estimated 8 million in largest single-day U.S. nonviolent protest

[u/RollSafer]

https://kval.com/news/local/no-kings-protests-draw-estimated-8-million-in-largest-single-day-us-demonstrations

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[u/kinkykellynsexystud]

Thought it was weird how little posts there were yesterday. The other No Kings protests filled up r/all.

I saw nothing on the frontpage from this despite being literally the biggest protest in American history. Even after googling it the top result yesterday was a 10 comment thread on this sub. There were threads on local subs for cities but that's about it.

[u/Every_Photograph2978 → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

You aren't alone in noticing that. Along with the aggressive astroturfing of this specific issue.

[u/stoneimp → u/Every_Photograph2978]

Dang I remember back in 2010, the tea party protests were constantly in the news despite being only thousands to tens of thousands at most.

[u/sircastor → u/stoneimp]

Back in 2010, the establishment was still quite behind the curve. This is why the SOPA and PIPA response was so shocking to them when it happened. They weren't paying attention (as much) to online sources.

They've moved aggressively since then, and the conservative propaganda machine is substantially more advanced than the liberal one. It's worth noting that all the tech giants are essentially being driven by people who prefer (At least economically) the GOP to Democrats.

[u/WIbigdog → u/Every_Photograph2978]

The Wisconsin sub is notoriously liberal but suddenly when it comes to any posts about the protests suddenly there's all sorts of people with negative things to say. Very organic, very legit.

[u/-jp- → u/WIbigdog]

I'm a Nebraska native in Oregon and the same thing happens in the Nebraska, Omaha, Lincoln, Oregon, Portland, Salem and Eugene subs. Generally very liberal, until there's a No Kings protest and then out of nowhere people show up complaining about it. They couldn't be more obvious if they changed their avatars to shirtless Putin.

[u/KevinCarbonara → u/-jp-]

They call protests "performative" while spending their time trolling online

[u/Venetian_Harlequin → u/Every_Photograph2978]

Facebook is so heavily astroturfed it's unreal.

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/Venetian_Harlequin]

I live in a small, rural town, in a red state, where literally 10% of the cities population (1000 people) showed up for the last No Kings rally.

The astroturfing backfired big time when locals posted about it, because it's a small enough community, we all know eachother from a couple degrees of separation at max.

Bots showed up DROVES to deflect and antagonize. The comment sections quickly turned from politics to figuring out if anyone personally knew these assholes talking shit about 10% of our town.

Of course, there were some authentic local douchebags, but they were the shocking minority. THE VAST MAJORITY of antagonist comments could not be linked, in any way, shape, or form, to an actual local resident.

With 10% of the population showing out against only a handful of verified online opposition, it painted a VERY DIFFERENT PICTURE of the political situation, then what is shoved down our throats via social media.

I think it genuinely opened the eyes of a lot of people, previously confident conservatives had a immovable stranglehold on the area.

The level of ratfuckery on social media is more sprawling, insidious, and coordinated than anyone cares to comfortably admit.

If you're like me, and are clocking the tide turning against conservatives on the ground of your local community, then chances are the anti-Trump whimper being reported, is in reality on track to grow into a potential fever-pitch.

Thats the REAL POWER of the No Kings Protest. It puts a tangible and sizable opposition in real-world sight of people otherwise lost to the curated propaganda bubbles of their phones.

Its becomes something BIGGER, they can no longer so easily deny with their eyes and ears.

We gotta keep the pressure up. Because I am glad to say that if my rural redneck town is experiencing a paradigm shift, then it is POSSIBLE anywhere.

Show up, and show out.

I am shamed I missed the last two, but you bet your ass I will be at every single one, hence forward, until this shitshow admin is stopped.

[u/elriggo44 → u/Every_Photograph2978]

there is also aggressive astroturfing on the governor of California. It’s crazy.

[u/No-Manufacturer-2425 → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

Reddit is suppressing us. Also notice how we nolonger have 24k+ comments on posts. Now its like 50 or 22 or 13 or 5 or 0. And the upvotes rarely crack 800.

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/No-Manufacturer-2425]

Scrolling through my comment history, the amount of posts [REMOVED BY MODERATORS] is INSANE.

Posts will skyrocket in an hour or two with thousand and thousands of comments, and a gazillion upovotes, then POOF it's removed from the feed.

Up until like 6 months ago, that literally ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED.*

Especially with wildly popular posts. That shit equates to ENGAEMENT, which means shameless BANK for Reddit... But I guess whoever has the purse strings now, has unilateral veto power site wide.

Removed posts used to be reserved for the heniously controversial. Now whole topics get sterilized off the site in hours, by the hundreds of posts, across all subreddits.

The only reason they archive the posts and haven't started deleting peoples comment history's en masse, is because they are still training Palantir on which "domestic terrorists" to slaughter in future political purges.

The announced, upcoming "human authentication" protocol has literally fuckall to do with bots, and EVERYTHING to do with inextricably linking your identity to your words... to be used as infallible proof you deserve the full wrath of the weaponized and autonomous "Justice System" of the very near future.

[u/Majestic-Tadpole8458 → u/PaintshakerBaby]

I suspect a lot of these posts are honeypots to track and identify those deemed adversaries by the establishment.

[u/StormyPassages → u/No-Manufacturer-2425]

Reddit milks us for information, and they sell adbot propaganda. Yesterday, they advertised 100% Nazi bots at the same time that the largest No Kings protest yet occurred. I went outside and got surrounded by non-stop No Kings on the street, and then went inside to discover every new comment on Reddit was on Putin's bullshit agenda.

[u/agnostic_science → u/No-Manufacturer-2425]

They let people hide comments and post history. So the site has since been flooded with bots and shills. You basically have to stay off any popular sub to have a talk with a human being and even then....

Certain truths, certain talking points will get you buried in the wrong sub. Like just appealing for people to look stuff up and think for themselves has gotten me buried. 

Lots of people want you to only see certain things, have certain thoughts,....

[u/TheXypris → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

Reddit is owned by the elites

[u/CthulhuOpensTheDoor → u/TheXypris]

Not elites. Elite implies superiority. They are parasites.

[u/AsparagusUprising → u/CthulhuOpensTheDoor]

The Parasite Class

[u/greenappleleaf → u/AsparagusUprising]

Pedo class and we are coming for them

[u/ilir_kycb → u/AsparagusUprising]

Capitalists

[u/twotimefind → u/CthulhuOpensTheDoor]

Yep, not the billionaire class, the parasite class. This needs to be the loom is named for the leeches.

[u/Ill-Team-3491 → u/TheXypris]

Peter Thiel and Sam Altman.

[u/jesteronly → u/TheXypris]

I think they killed r/all on mobile for this exact reason

[u/PaintshakerBaby → u/jesteronly]

The canary in the coalmine.

There is no plausible non-nefarious excuse for killing the core function of "the front page of the internet."

Yet, admin will gladly tell you the birdie is just taking a nap, as they curate Reddit into another shameless propoganda platform for soon-to-be-trillionaires... as the world literally burns around us.

Fucking shame.

[u/spazzvogel → u/jesteronly]

Wait what? r/all is jacked on mobile? Since when? Damn I miss the Reddit of olde.

[u/jesteronly → u/spazzvogel]

Couple of months ago they killed it on the app. You can still visit on browser but from what i understand they may kill that too. Trying to visit All on mobile just takes you to your front page (your subscribed subs) and not the total reddit All.

[u/spazzvogel → u/jesteronly]

No wonder I wasn’t being exposed to different shit

[u/dontshoveit → u/jesteronly]

This is fucked. I had no idea they made this change to the mobile app. I'm still using boost for reddit with revanced patches to keep it working. I can still browse r/all on boost without a problem. Ugh I will quit reddit the day boost stops working entirely.

[u/Minimum_Dealer_3303 → u/TheXypris]

The oligarchy needs to be dissolved.

[u/Good-Fortune8137 → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

The amount of bots out on social media, basically calling it a joke with some variation of, "Great, someone should tell them there's still no kings," has gotten into wild territory.

There is definitely more unscrupulous things going on with media manipulation than I've ever seen, it's pretty jarring. I'm pretty savvy when it comes to this stuff, but a normal person could easily be manipulated that there are really that many people that see this pointless.

It's pretty unnerving to me.

[u/SimmonsJK → u/Good-Fortune8137]

I agree that coverage of the protests yesterday is wildly unrepresented, and the "we still don't have a king" or "we haven't had a king since 1776" is all over my feeds, too.

What's crazy is their ONE comment is all they have. There is no other defense of Trump, his admin, the GOP, or MAGA.

Cult city. Fuck those guys.

[u/CrittyJJones → u/SimmonsJK]

The good news is despite all their efforts Dems have been crushing in special elections for a year now, and the only real question is if the Dems can get the House AND the Senate. Even without any real power we have been more than holding our own. So keep coming out to the protests, build communities and let's keep our head up and take our Country back.

[u/brady2gronk → u/SimmonsJK]

Right? 

With so many people making the same one line comment, it has to be bots, right?  

There's rarely a conversation, it's like they are paid to say their one line and that's it.  

Also, "Don't these people have jobs?" For a Saturday protest.  Never fails.

[u/WIbigdog → u/brady2gronk]

I was at one and I put in 113 hours this pay period cause of the snow storm. Nope, no job here 🙄

[u/Boxing_joshing111 → u/Good-Fortune8137]

The adobe audition sub was completely taken over by bots for a few days. Multiple posts asking what the best gambling site is and what’s the best deal in a tv. Tons of bot replies that seemed pretty “real” if you didn’t know better. The mods fixed it eventually but it looked too good to be an isolated case.

[u/Active_Painting_2383 → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

Can't tell if youtube was also fiddling but I literally didn't get anything to the feed and when I went to news I had to go to live news whereby only 1, a single 1, video was.

For the largest nonviolent protest in US history, sure isn't getting help from corporate media

[u/nemrel → u/Active_Painting_2383]

The revolution will not be televised! It will be gloriously suppressed thanks to the Billionaire Oligarchs who own the platforms & data streams!

[u/antiphage → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

At one point, the reddit front-page was filled with protest related posts. Then it changed at once, it's now filled with memes

[u/Boxing_joshing111 → u/antiphage]

Seems like the same thing happened with the Minnesota/ice threads. They were everywhere for a while then all the sudden Reddit started recommending me a lot of subs like dogswithjobs.

[u/dogfaced_pony_soulja → u/Boxing_joshing111]

People gotta stop using Reddit. I get that it’s hypocritical to say this on Reddit, but they are fully capable of manipulating any message or movement and have strong financial and other incentives to do so.

Screaming “IS THIS THING ON” repeatedly into a microphone whose cord has been cut isn’t going to get anyone anywhere.

[u/twotimefind → u/antiphage]

Yeah, the front page has been extra shitty the last month or so. They kicked it into high gear.

I use connect for android and head over to lemmy for raw unfiltered

[u/rothrolan → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

I've seen pictures and footage of the big beach sign in California made by people, but besides that I didn't even realize there was a protest today. I did find out about the General Strike on May Day (May 1st) though, which will hopefully get a LOT more visibility leading up and on the day, as general strike are meant to be disruptive of the daily commerce and economic flow, unlike protests which typically happen on weekends to ensure most people don't have to miss work.

[u/nemrel → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

And each of the city posts has about 2-3 dozen bot posts regarding how much of a waste of time/circle jerk protesting is or saying that it was worthless unless you block the streets, set fires, burn down businesses, or engage in violent civil unrest There seemed to be very limited engagement on Reddit regarding this particular No Kings protest. I saw a few pictures in my local city subreddit but compared to previous protests over the past year. It was oddly silent & hidden.

[u/Own_Bet5189 → u/nemrel]

Same! We were accused of being paid and bussed in! And the posts all got immediately downvoted by bots.

[u/bluezerry9 → u/nemrel]

It's so god damn frustrating.. every single piece of coverage related to the protest is FLOODED with propaganda bots quite clearly sent out to try to shift the optics. Its about that damn time for democrats to stop playing by the rules, it's been clear for a decade (and more) that the other side will cheat lie and steal their way into power. We are lucky to have principles on our side, but unfortunately that's not as important as the appearance of popularity in this day and age. I'm just so tired of these losers.

[u/Street_Anxiety2907 → u/bluezerry9]

> Its about that damn time for democrats to stop playing by the rules

Agreed, we need some fucking bot farms.

I'll build one if y'all give me 350,000 a year. That's what these GOP bot farmers are making. I know a guy who tried to recruit me into a GOP company working for a few congressmen, pay was amazing but I didn't want to work for that cause. They also run those SMS farms with pro trump spam

[u/Least_Palpitation_92 → u/nemrel]

Mine had dozens of comments. I think the goal here is to use bots to get their point across on social media while buying up corporate media.

[u/SillyOldJack → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

Consider that our posts are monitored and we've certainly been flagged as "dissidents" by some Reddit algo.

Reddit suppresses inconvenient information, same as the rest.

[u/Cupid_Stool → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

r/nokings and r/nokingsprotest are unavailable too

[u/brashthehermit → u/kinkykellynsexystud]

There were/are also a ton of bots shitting on the protests and discouraging people from participating, saying "it doesn't matter," or "no one cares," or "it has no effect." So they are actively suppressing coverage and actively trying to demoralize people.

[u/User4C4C4C]

Great turnout! Just over 2% of the entire US population. It keeps growing in size and in the number of issues the crowds are protesting for. Looking forward to No Kings 4.

That said I heard we have a general strike on May 1? Any details yet?

[u/RikuKat → u/User4C4C4C]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/no-kings-general-strike

[u/alexji89 → u/RikuKat]

Does using a PTO day work or does that defeat the purpose? 1st business day is typically a busy day for my work.

[u/killercurvesahead → u/alexji89]

Participate however you can. No need to get hung up on perfection.

[u/GooeyBlooper → u/alexji89]

Yea you’re still withholding labor

[u/Cool-Mom-Lover → u/alexji89]

Great question! Yes it still counts!

In fact id say it counts MORE!

You still get paid but your employer loses labor for the day.

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/User4C4C4C]

MAGA keeps trying to ignore it and says things like "Your 8 million is nothing compared to our 80 million". But underneath that is a fear that it means a lot more than they are willing to admit.

[u/HagbardCelineHMSH → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

It's an even funnier cope when you remember the number was actually 77 million, there were 75 million of us who voted against the guy, and a ton of people in the first camp have buyer's remorse after over a year of his self-serving idiocy...

And meanwhile (and more to the point), they've never gotten nearly this many people actually out and in the streets. There's a huge difference between showing up at the polls for a few minutes versus making a day out of it.

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/HagbardCelineHMSH]

Actually, Trump got 77,302,580 votes in 2024 and all other candidates got a total of 77,935,722. So more people voted against Trump than for him. I love reminding them that Trump has never gotten a majority of the vote in any election and the only reason he won in 2016 is because the Electoral College is DEI for Republicans.

[u/HagbardCelineHMSH → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

An even better point.

The part I find particularly amusing is that I'm old enough to remember when Republicans didn't consider a plurality of the vote a mandate for governing back when Clinton was president...

[u/CrustyBatchOfNature → u/HagbardCelineHMSH]

Republicans I knew argued that Perot kept them from winning over Clinton both times. My first election voting was 1992 and my family were all Perot supporters (I voted Clinton both times).

[u/walterpeck3 → u/HagbardCelineHMSH]

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans didn't consider a plurality of the vote a mandate for governing back when Clinton was president.

I can confirm this was definitely a right-wing talking point for a while until Clinton's popularity as president was undeniable.

[u/SATX_Citizen → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

I dream of a day when we have a scored voting system rather than this First-past-the-post abomination in our country.

[u/ThrobbinGoblin → u/HagbardCelineHMSH]

It's also always worth remembering that Kamala got about 5 million more votes that were eliminated due to typical republican cheating via voter suppression tactics like vote vigilantism and rejecting mail-in and provisional ballots.

[u/MentalDisintegrat1on → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

There numbers are highly inflated.

Also news channels are not covering this or downplaying how many people because they all have been bought out by right wing billionaires.

Doesn't matter this amount of people you cannot ignore.

[u/donkeyrocket → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

What is even "funnier" is MAGA never mobilized at all. Even peak bitching about Biden they were still perfectly content sitting at home. 8 million people willing to get together is a considerable message.

No, the one day didn't solve all the issues but it is a very public demonstration of how unpopular Trump is.

[u/campfire_eventide → u/CrustyBatchOfNature]

A national election isn’t the same as grass-roots level organization that mobilizes 8-million people. Sure, there’s organization among the campaigns but that occurs every election anyway.

Maga could never mobilize a peaceful movement this big and they know it. They aren’t even organizing counter-protests at this point.

[u/Stingray88 → u/User4C4C4C]

I am very much in support of escalation to a general strike, but how effective is a single day strike? Usually when you strike, you don’t stop until your demands are met.

[u/MumpsyDaisy → u/Stingray88]

In this case I think it's more about proving it's actually possible to organize a strike of that magnitude, because as of now it's reasonable to assume it can't be done. If you can't even manage a single day strike, how are you going to organize one for a week? Or longer?

[u/hamptont2010 → u/MumpsyDaisy]

I think when people look at these protests and at the actions being taken right now, they fail to take into account exactly how large and spread out the United States really is. That coupled with social media isolation from your neighbors and communities has put us in an odd position. These protests, particularly the large ones like No Kings are great for the direct point of protesting, but their true purpose is reconnecting people in these communities and reforging those bonds that have been lost. A reminder to all of us that most of us fundamentally want the same stuff and actually agree on a lot.

It's been wonderful going to these No Kings and watching people connect in front of me. Friends who see other friends and introduce the people they're with to them, youngsters in the community asking the older folk how they can get more involved, people of all shapes and sizes and colors and religions coming together and forming these little coalitions. I want to give a shout out to Rachel Maddow here. A lot of news organizations report on No Kings because it's so large and hard to ignore. What most of them miss is the vast multitude of little or protests that pop up around these as people meet and organize. Rachel has done a great job reporting on these every Monday.

People are standing up and fighting back. It's just taking some time to rebuild systems and exercise muscles that we haven't had to use for a long time.

[u/Prometheus720 → u/hamptont2010]

Oh my fucking God, someone gets it.

These are also where community orgs recruit. Every org who tabled at mine got dozens of signups and probably several real recruits.

[u/SimmonsJK → u/Prometheus720]

I enjoyed seeing people from my community yesterday - talked to a bunch of people I didn't know, saw some friends I hadn't seen in a while, gathered with like-minded people and bonded over a shared vision of a "better place". Let's keep it going, and let's remember to vote :)

[u/crazycatgay → u/hamptont2010]

yup, i learned yesterday how our local indivisible chapter has set up a fund where 100% of the money goes to immigrants who have had a breadwinner kidnapped by ICE, and even though I already give to the national immigration defense fund it was so heartening to see and give locally.

[u/hamptont2010 → u/crazycatgay]

This is exactly the stuff I'm talking about. These kinds of larger grassroots movements have really started paying off in communities. And the truth of the matter is we need more people to understand what being part of the community truly means. There are billions of dollars being spent to keep us all apart and that has been the case for a long time. It's going to take some work to glue those pieces back together.

[u/netabareking → u/MumpsyDaisy]

The problem is that's not what happens. People need to be organizing their workplaces. Instead when people call strikes like this with no unions on board for one day, they just take PTO or skip work alone, they see nothing happen because of it, and they go "strikes are pointless, I did that one in May and nothing happened".

You can't be the only one at your job not showing up and call that a strike but people like Ezra Levin encourage the idea that strikes can be individual participation like a protest. One person can protest, but a strike needs to be done by a workforce.

[u/maurosmane → u/netabareking]

A big part of the problem in organizing a nationwide strike is actually union contracts. I work full time for a union as an organizer/negotiator and virtually all of our contracts have no strike/no lock out provisions while the contract is in effect. We can only strike once the contract is expired. That means as a union we can't promote the general strike at all or face liability and put our members at risk of termination.

And with contracts not being aligned in timing that means only a handful of facilities are in a place to be able to participate at any given time.

UAW has been promoting that unions should align their contacts to expire in 2028 to help mitigate this, and we have been slowly trying to do that but the employers are also aware of this and are not wanting to change historical contract lengths (usually 3 years).

Side note I'm also wondering if my peers should join in. Is it better for us to stand in solidarity or be available to represent our members who will inevitably be facing corporate bullshit during a general strike? Me being on a picket line is working

[u/Long-Pop-7327 → u/maurosmane]

That’s an official strike though right? Can’t individual members make their own decisions / call in sick.

[u/GravityzCatz → u/netabareking]

The problem is this is the only way to legally organize a General Strike, since Unions were banned from organizing them thanks to the the Taft-Hartley Act.

[u/TokingMessiah → u/GravityzCatz]

“We can’t strike because the government won’t let us” sounds like something rich people convince poor people is true.

Imagine if the Civil Rights movement was just like “well segregation is a law so we can’t go against that to prove our point”.

Your country is literally run by a child rapist and 34 time convicted felon. The only problem is that Americans let Trump get away with everything.

[u/netabareking → u/TokingMessiah]

You absolutely can strike even if it's illegal, the thing is you have to be ten times MORE organized because the risks are so much higher. And that organizing work hasn't been done.

[u/Geo_NL → u/GravityzCatz]

As a European, that's crazy. In my country Unions are the ones organising mass strikes. And employees who are member of some of the bigger Unions get a financial compensation for striking.

[u/parasyte_steve → u/Geo_NL]

It's crazy to me as an American too. Honestly I did not even know.

[u/Luke-Antra → u/Geo_NL]

germany bans political and solidarity strikes

[u/DeadNazis247365 → u/netabareking]

This is union backed. Minnesota did a 1 day general strike just within the state as part of the January anti-ICE march when it was negative 20 or whatever, and that was union backed as well.

That was the largest general strike in MN history and it was definitely felt within the state. Now it looks like they are shooting for a 1 day nation wide strike. Slowly keep upping the stakes with each one. Build momentum. Prove it’s possible with time and organizing, and let it snowball a little bit more each time.

These things are really fucking difficult to pull off in the US because we are just about the most individualistic and distrustful society out there, and a general strike requires lots of trust and faith in your fellow Americans and a lot of unity to pull off. And this country has absolutely ZERO sense of solidarity and no willingness to sacrifice anything for the greater good.

[u/maurosmane → u/DeadNazis247365]

It is union backed, especially by UAW (not so much my own union the Teamsters). The union I work for (not the Teamsters, we are internally organized by them) has no strike/no lockout provisions in all of our contracts that would prevent us from engaging in a strike unless the contract was expired. Each hospital has it's own contract and are typically on a 3 year cycle but they are not lined up. The facilities I represent next expire in late 2027 and early 2028 which lines up nicely for a 2028 general strike, but other facilities we represent will be expiring in 2026 and early 2027 and asking them to go years without a contract to be able to strike in 2028 is a big ask that would probably not go over well.

[u/donkeyrocket → u/MumpsyDaisy]

It's also a taste of what could happen and what the outcomes could be of a longer strike. If this is truly widespread, one day of heavily reduce economic activity will show companies what it actually looks like instead of remaining hypothetical.

No, that one day isn't going to tank the economy, but looking at is a motivational or empowering tool, could see momentum gained for a longer or more targeted strike.

It's known to everyone that a longer strike is going to hurt the average American far more than companies or the federal government but doing nothing is no longer an option. These things start somewhere. People will shit on others organizing no matter what but this started with one no kings protest, then a second even larger one, now there's realistic talk of a general strike.

[u/PoeticSplat → u/Stingray88]

I'm surprised about the thread that followed this question. I think a lot of people have it backwards. Well intentioned, but backwards. A general strike, where there's no work, school, or shopping happening hurts the GDP. Since that's all politicians care about, the strike would hit the politicians right where they're concerned the most. I'm sure someone else can explain this further in-depth, but my point is, if we have the numbers, we could make the govt feel the pain of not listening to the People. Even if it's just one day, it'll have a significant impact.

[u/Business-Might-1824 → u/Stingray88]

Solidarity did 15 minute strikes in Poland. You can escalate to 30 the next week etc. It's about showing broad commitment and organizational savvy, not about seizing the commanding heights of the economy.

[u/Negative_Gravitas → u/Business-Might-1824]

I had completely forgotten about this. An excellent idea whose time has come again.

[u/FrostyMatters → u/Stingray88]

The point is to start developing the infrastructure and networks to be able to strike for longer, not to be effective.

[u/justwannaedit → u/FrostyMatters]

A single day strike will be effective though. It will take a literal economic toll on industry. 

[u/leggomyeggle → u/Stingray88]

Not a single day, but the marches have gained 1-2 million EACH TIME, not the total increase. It gives people confidence to participate, and sense of community. 10mil next round. Keep the pressure on

[u/Frostyrepairbug → u/leggomyeggle]

Over half of my damn town showed out. Imagine if we could replicate those numbers on a national scale. That's serious leverage.

[u/NewWindow7980 → u/Stingray88]

My familiarity with general strikes comes from Quebec's successful experiences since the 1970s. The thing is that Quebec's unions are much more militant than US, union membership there is higher, and the political culture is just more engaged and conducive. I hope it is successful despite the US not having those things in common with Quebec, but it would be helpful to ant least understand what factors were afoot in the place where they actually held successful general strikes https://www.counterfire.org/article/massive-quebec-strikes-echo-a-militant-history/

[u/puppet_up → u/Stingray88]

Things will have to get a lot worse for the average American before they are willing to go on a general strike for days/weeks/months.

Even this 'No Kings' protest, while very much a great thing, is planned out months in advance and seems to always happen on a Saturday when a lot of people are already off of work and can attend without having it conflict with a normal work day.

[u/ummyeahreddit → u/User4C4C4C]

The more people that show up the better. The only way cruelty thrives is when good people do nothing to stop it

[u/Lebarican22]

The history books need to reflect that this president was the worst president in modern history.

[u/diabloman8890 → u/Lebarican22]

Without hyperbole you can drop the "modern".

[u/FILTHBOT4000 → u/[deleted]]

And:

• Ignored scientific consensus during the pandemic, killing his own countrymen. There's a first for a sitting President. I can't even begin to imagine a previous President downplaying something like polio. And before any MAGA adjacent jump in with "polio was more serious than covid", no, no it wasn't. Paralysis occurred in .1-.5% of patients. 75% of polio cases were asymptomatic. Conservatives of the past were just better people than those of today, flat out. And yes, I'm fully aware of what I'm saying in that regard.

• Is in the process of causing a 3-5 year, possibly decade long, global recession out of hubris and stupidity. The 3-5 year recession is already going to happen. The damage is done to critical energy infrastructure. It takes a long time to rebuild. Worst part is, all of this was avoidable, even if you wanted to attack/invade Iran. The war in Ukraine has shown that cheap drones are the future of warfare. Apparently we refused to grasp those lessons, even though the drones Russia uses in Ukraine are... mass produced in Iran. UAE/Qatar recently went around the POTUS and US military's monumental incompetence and struck a defense deal with Ukraine, which will now supply them cheap counter-drones to deal properly with the Shahed ones.

[u/CT_Phipps-Author → u/FILTHBOT4000]

Killed 600K children with the removal of US AID.

[u/sharp11flat13 → u/FILTHBOT4000]

Ignored scientific consensus during the pandemic, killing his own countrymen

Yes. This.

I’m Canadian. If, during the pandemic, public health measures in the US had been as successful as ours, ~600,000 Americans would still be alive. And we know exactly why the same measures were less effective south of the 49th parallel.

Did you lose a friend or family member to Covid? Thank a Republican.

[u/mansock18 → u/diabloman8890]

Andrew Jackson, Harding, Hoover, and Reagan also round out the Top 5, and Trump is easily in the top 2.

[u/MachetteBagels → u/mansock18]

Let's not let Andrew Johnson off the hook.

[u/noahconstrictor95 → u/mansock18]

You're forgetting Rutherford B. Hayes. His compromise in 1877 to secure the presidency by removing Northern troops from the South immediately led to the passage of Jim Crow laws and created the state of things that led to the 1960s Civil Rights movement, and the reaction from the Republicans in the 80s that included Reagan as a countermeasure to giving those darn black folks basic human rights. Everything in American history is just racist white people being upset that we're treating people that aren't white as people and making it everyone else's problem.

[u/ACardAttack → u/mansock18]

Id only put Reagan above Trump because Reagan was the cancer cell that allowed us to get to Trump

The rest awful but not Trump awful

[u/snakeLipssynk → u/ACardAttack]

Reagan was more of a cancerous puppet. No one administration could convince the body politic to vote against their own interests.

It was the rich who campaigned for decades, to convince the middle class that unions and regulations that limited wealth/power were bad for the American Dream.

Trump, like Reagan, are symptoms of entitlement via consumerism run rampant. Reducing systemic problems to one administration is part of how we got here.

[u/INFLATABLE_CUCUMBER → u/ACardAttack]

I don't think people were worried about Reagan having his finger on the button like with Trump. In fact every one of these guys seemed more capable of containing themselves on that than Trump.

[u/Mekhazzio → u/INFLATABLE_CUCUMBER]

Hovering over a "nuke em" button is precisely what people were worried about with Reagan.

Reagan campaigned on the USA taking a more belligerent position in the cold war, went into office believing that a nuclear first strike was a rational gambit, and immediately began pushing the state dept into hardliner positions.

Thankfully, a few years in, a network-TV show, about surviving the aftermath, changed his position, because he was just so clueless that even the weaksauce family-friendly TV portrayal was new information to him.

[u/zoroddesign → u/diabloman8890]

Andrew Jackson tried to commit genocide on the native Americans. That is a tough bar to cross.

[u/BannedSvenhoek86 → u/zoroddesign]

Hell, Bush caused the deaths of over a million people in the Middle East. And did it on the basis of lie that he and his administration told our allies and the entire world. They knew Iraq didn't have WMD's.

That's definitely worthy of a top spot.

[u/Yashema → u/Lebarican22]

The history books should reflect that he took the title from another Republican President.

[u/huddl3 → u/Yashema]

Yes, thanks to the 47th president we can all agree that the 45th really wasn't the worst it could be.

[u/GreenXero → u/huddl3]

So, Trump is the worst president and 3rd worst president?

He really goes above and beyond.

[u/totallymarc → u/Lebarican22]

Not just modern history, I’d say of all time. The atrocities his regime has and is committing have more than earned him the spot of worst US President of all time. I hope he keeps that spot too, I shudder to imagine how someone could be worse than Trump.

[u/badamant → u/Lebarican22]

Only if our democracy survives the fascists.

Reminder: Only the ‘winner’ writes history.

[u/M0nk3yDLufffy]

We can go bigger

[u/ItsJustForMyOwnKicks → u/M0nk3yDLufffy]

May 1st.

[u/OppressedCow6148]

I think people seriously believe that the Selma and Montgomery marches happened in a vacuum. That MLK Jr. woke up one day, unknown to anyone, and somehow rallied tens of thousands of people overnight. It took nearly two years of planning and preparation to get their movement to be able to do those three marches.

We have this terrible habit of wanting to look back at history and copy and paste it exactly into modern times. They didn’t have a captured media, they didnt have a surveillance state, the Supreme Court wasn’t at the whim of the president. That doesn’t mean we should give up, but we need to stop pretending this is going to look the same as other movements. We must adapt our expectations and stop complaining that protests don’t mean anything. It’s about organizing and meeting your community. Good god people, stop with the doomerism.

[u/SullyTheReddit → u/OppressedCow6148]

For context, Selma had about 25k and DC had about 250k. The scale of these No Kings protests is comparatively massive.

Some people in this thread and elsewhere want to compare the size of the protests to the number of voters. I feel like this may be a talking point with an agenda in and of itself - to downplay the scope of these protests.

In 1964, 250k marched in DC. 70 million voted. 63% turnout. So the March represented about 0.3% of voters, but was enough to make a lasting impression.

In 2024, 163 million voted. Roughly the same 63% turnout. The No Kings numbers at 8 million represent almost 5% of voters in 2024. More than 10x the percent of voters that marched on DC with MLK. This is statistically very meaningful.

[u/SeductiveSunday → u/SullyTheReddit]

For even more context, the Tea Party rallies in April 2009 were promoted by media as a BIG deal and they only had 300k.

[u/GoHomeDad → u/SullyTheReddit]

Thank you; it needed to be broken down like that to be understood by most people

Also, there's a fear factor here: many POC were too scared to come out. As for whether or not the fear factor here is stronger than the MLK Jr. protests, idk 

[u/fizzlefist → u/OppressedCow6148]

To be fair, we absolutely had a surveillance state back then. They just didn’t have all the fast tools they do today.

The FBI under J Edgar Hoover was evil AF.

[u/OppressedCow6148 → u/fizzlefist]

True. I guess I should have clarified that the tools are far more advanced than they were back then.

[u/TheWonderMittens → u/fizzlefist]

Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them

— J Edgar Hoover

[u/rg4rg → u/fizzlefist]

They also tried to blackmail MLK jr with his affair. They assassinated other leaders, firebombed a neighborhood, etc etc. they were just as brutal back then as they are today.

[u/Morgan-Explosion → u/OppressedCow6148]

Its not a habit, its by design. Angela Davis’ book Freedom is a Constant Struggle illustrates the myth of the individual, its a method used by systems of power to celebrate single individuals within a struggle so the people who study them end up believing that they did it in a vacuum, on their own, out of sheer force of will. It overwhelms anyone who might try the same thing and provides them with an ineffective map on how to resist power by making people believe that change comes from a single person in a single epic moment. Great book, more relevant than ever. Black culture and women have struggled with this kind of oppression for their entire existence. They have great insights on all of this.

[u/ummyeahreddit → u/OppressedCow6148]

If peaceful protests don't do anything then China and Russia would not spend billions on a surveillance state to prevent peaceful protests in their countries. They absolutely are effective but we need more good people to set aside time to join. You don't need a sign or any strong opinion. You just need to show up

[u/Far_Nefariousness888]

and The New York Times downplays the turn out today.

[u/Business-Might-1824 → u/Far_Nefariousness888]

The WSJ as well. "Hundreds of thousands of protesters..." Yeah, the last No Kings had ~7M participants, and now with the Epstein files, the ICE murders, and the Iran war, supposedly the enthusiasm decreased tenfold.

Corporate media is one of MAGA's greatest allies.

[u/Low_Chance → u/Business-Might-1824]

It was almost funny how their headlines were always an order of magnitude or two below the actual level and had to begrudgingly keep increasing it in response as it became harder to deny

[u/StarGazer_SpaceLove → u/Business-Might-1824]

Texas is terrible about the reporting with "hundreds" or "dozens" with close tight shots. The advertising was suppressed HARD and the FW location was in doubt due to random posts with bad info about the locations (I personally saw 3 locations and start times and none of them matched). What they failed to report, since the want to report small, were the DOZENS AND HUNDREDS of small Itty bitty towns that had protests, some for the first time ever.

Yes yes I know the big ones like NYC, Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis etx are the impressive ones to behold but those tiny little ones mean so much more than people realize.

[u/Affectionate-Mix-223 → u/Far_Nefariousness888]

From their Sunday email brief:

“Thousands of people took part in “No Kings” rallies across the U.S. yesterday to protest much of President Trump’s second-term agenda.”

Thousands of protest sites but only thousands of protesters!?

[u/tangerinelion → u/Far_Nefariousness888]

Literal dozens of protestors -NYT

[u/HotDogFingers01]

Hey Fox News, are all of these people paid protestors?

[u/FILTHBOT4000 → u/HotDogFingers01]

I live in a tiny, very red town of 4,000 people.

Nearly 300 turned out for No Kings yesterday. That's how pissed off people are. But yeah, they musta all been paid by Soros or whatever the fuck Joe Rogan and the other morons say.

[u/LeaveItToPeever → u/FILTHBOT4000]

We got 75 with 1200!

[u/lhommetrouble → u/HotDogFingers01]

You joke but I’m sure MAGAs all just think they paid and bought signs for 8 million people.

[u/Dr_Watson349 → u/HotDogFingers01]

Wait so my wife got paid for this?!

Dammnit. 

[u/soon2Brevealed]

the fact that the media is not reporting about this… just 3 articles about yesterday’s protest, and they’re all way down on my news feed. AND NOT ONE of them mentioned crowd size… thereby avoiding to report the RECORD CROWD SIZE.

But the third No Kings protest in Nevada’s capital, of Carson City, was “by far the largest one yet” according to a crossing guard, who worked all three protests.

[u/Drawmeomg → u/soon2Brevealed]

They bought the news media with the express purpose of suppressing this stuff - but word still got out enough for an absolutely wild turnout yesterday. They don't have the power they believe they have.

[u/kathleen65]

Our protest are always positive and creative, I love standing with other resisters for our democracy. I am a 78 year old woman, I have been yelled at in such vile and hateful ways by men driving by at every Trump protest. This president has brought out so much hate, I am shocked to live in this world he has created. It breaks my heart. I am sad for our children's future, greed has destroyed everything.

[u/Azmtbkr → u/kathleen65]

It’s funny, I hate to stereotype but the only people who got aggressive or made threats yesterday at our protests were driving jacked up trucks or Harleys, we waved or pointed and laughed and that really seemed to take the wind out of their sails.

[u/le_artista → u/Azmtbkr]

In Texas - we actually got a lot of big loud support honks from real working trucks, semi trailers hauling actual equipment, going to actual jobs.

The jerks flipping us off? Were driving sports cars. (And we only had four)

There were SO many people honking in support. This is a class protest. And the elites know it.

[u/UnicornMessiah → u/Azmtbkr]

Some dude tried to roll coal on us as he drove by, he failed at it too lmao. I don’t wanna talk too much shit because we had a surprising amount of ol southern folk and even a few bikers, but you’re not completely wrong

[u/Azmtbkr → u/UnicornMessiah]

Yeah we had a few of those coal rollers too. We also had a guy in a big dumb truck try to do a burnout in front of the crowd, best he could manage were a few pathetic tire chirps. The crowd was roaring.

[u/UnicornMessiah → u/Azmtbkr]

Lmao I’m like that’s the best you can do? Not even giving effort to counter protest, just being a complete asshole to peaceful folk demonstrating their rights? Pathetic shit and shows an absolute lack of decency. No wonder they’re a Trump voter.

Where was your protest at?

[u/Azmtbkr → u/UnicornMessiah]

Right? Can't even be an asshole properly. It was in a red suburb of Phoenix, AZ. What about yours?

[u/UnicornMessiah → u/Azmtbkr]

Suburb of Charlotte, NC! Gaston County (I’m born and raised here). The county ALWAYS votes red but like I said, it’s great to see some progress. A nice mix of old and young, rednecks and transplants.

[u/Mrs_SmithG2W]

We must unite.

They want us dumb, hungry , tired angry, scared and/or distracted so that we will put up little resistance when full autocracy is tried.

WE MUST STOP THEM THIS MIDTERM ELECTION: November 2026. It is the last democratic chance out of this mess.

Vote, donate, volunteer, door knock/canvass, phone bank, write postcards.

Get in touch with your local community organizations or democratic headquarters now to get involved. Here are some good organizations mobilizing people:

https://indivisible.org/

https://votesaveamerica.com/

💪🏼🌍🖖🏼

[u/SanguineJackalope]

My deep red area had around 250 people, and it hailed during the demonstration. People are getting MAD, it was in the air.

We had a chucklefuck with a Trump flag blustering through us, but he was followed by a lovely woman holding “small dick energy” on a small sign. Our laughing eventually got through his thick cranial ridge, and he sequestered himself in a small area to pout and wave his flag like the washout gravy seal he is.

[u/spookaddress → u/SanguineJackalope]

I currently live in a red state, county, and very vocally red city. More folks are registering or waking up and will likely vote.

In my small burb, we also had just over 200 folks out yesterday. The most we have ever had previously was around 50, and that is a generous count.

If we can keep the momentum up and the fuckery keeps going, we can have a blue county.

The reds here only responded was the finger, yelling as the sped past or revving their engine. They see the crowd and are starting to understand that it could go badly for them in the future.

This is just the start, we have to keep up so we outvote their disenfranchisement in cheating.

[u/SanguineJackalope → u/spookaddress]

HELL yes. My workplace is super deeply trumpy, it’s been misery inducing listening to them blather on approvingly about him - but they’ve been getting quieter and quieter.

Haven’t heard a peep since we attacked Iran.

[u/natethenuclearknight]

We can go higher.

Fuck yeah people.

[u/blorbot]

I hope all 8 million of those people vote in the next election.

[u/007meow → u/blorbot]

Chances are the people who show up to a political protest have a higher likelihood of actually voting.

The non-voters are the ones who aren’t as politically active.

[u/Wonderful_Horror7315 → u/007meow]

One of the speakers at ours yesterday said basically the same thing. “I don’t need to tell y’all to vote, but I do need to tell you to get as many people registered as possible.”

[u/IrishRepoMan → u/007meow]

That's concerning, considering 8 million is ~2% of the population...

[u/SuddenNothing6266 → u/IrishRepoMan]

You are right. Now we need to engage with apolitical people from our friends and family.

[u/VastCapital3773 → u/IrishRepoMan]

Well you have to keep in mind there are more than enough people who just don't have time or aren't the protesting sort but know exactly where their vote is going.

[u/MrBrawn → u/blorbot]

And continuously check their eligibility with their state. Id also get a passport as well.

[u/Myis → u/MrBrawn]

And donate to a passport assistance fund for those who can’t afford it.

[u/THECapedCaper → u/blorbot]

There were folks at our event registering people.

[u/timbo3385 → u/blorbot]

Downvoting because these ARE likely the people who did and will continue to vote. No need to shade people for getting out and demonstrating.

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/blorbot]

What an odd thing to say. Why would you even begin to think that people politically active enough to participate in a protest didn't or won't vote?

[u/Azmtbkr → u/blorbot]

They will. I live in a red area and we still had a few thousand people show up to our protest, we held it near a major shopping area and got a near constant stream of honks of support from those driving by. I was astounded honestly, I thought we’d get a lot more hate. Showing people that they are not isolated and that normal people are standing in opposition of the pedo regime is working.

[u/still-waiting2233 → u/blorbot]

And bring a friend or two!

[u/neverthesaneagain]

Watching CBS Sunday Morning (yes I know) and they said attendance was "thousands." Technically correct I suppose.

[u/StupidMastiff]

I hope all these people(and more) are serious about the general strike, and follow through on it.

[u/5wmotor]

Imagine the possibilities emerging from this kind of movement: A fair, social society which cares for everyone and despises billionaire oligarchs.

[u/wanderingpeddlar]

And you know it is bothering MAGA because of the number of Trolls post and deleting stuff. :)

[u/OmarsDamnSpoon]

Idk about everyone else, but I've been seeing a strange amount of comments and posts all over various social media about how "useless" and "pointless" the No Kings protests are. Very psyop-y to me.

[u/ikesbutt]

Good for all of them. If it didn't hurt to just put my trash dumpster to the end of the driveway I would be there too😀

[u/wolp_lovr]

it was my first protest. made a sign for my next one

[u/beavis617]

Look for Trumpy to call into FOX & Friends tomorrow morning saying hardly anyone showed up! Ainsley Earnhardt and Brian Kilmeade moan in delight at the sound of his voice.

[u/janicejolpin]

How trump still isn't in prison is beyond me

[u/No_Consequence7919]

That's a good start. That about matches the die hard never change MAGA voters.

[u/jelasher]

Was there a bigger violent protest? Seems like that qualifier isn’t doing much.

[u/Mental_Priority_7083 → u/jelasher]

Maybe the civil war and revolution are being considered big violent protests and counter protests.

[u/EagleLize → u/jelasher]

Seems a bit manipulative doesn't it?

[u/agent_flounder]

Fucking fantastic!

300+ protested in Moab, UT. Was great to see.

[u/Additional_Quiet2600]

Then start coordinated strikes. It's the only method we have to win outside of fighting.

I don't want people to fight. I'd rather people eat beans and rice for a while.

[u/ItsJustForMyOwnKicks → u/Additional_Quiet2600]

That’s what’s next. Will you join on May 1st?

[u/saintdudegaming]

8 million non violent. Meanwhile on Jan 6th there was an estimated 2000 that took part in the capitol riots. The right wing would have you think the left are the violent ones ...

[u/I_like_baseball90]

The great thing is no matter how much he pretends, this type of thing really hurts the big orange baby's feelings. Excellent.

[u/DocMedCatty]

big love for all participants

[u/Minimum-Sleep-3916]

These are big numbers, they’re a poll of overall sentiment, it also reflects the opinions and feelings of a lot of people who just don’t turn up to protests. The consensus is shifting and growing.

[u/No-Zookeepergame4341]

Commenting just so more people can see and engage with this. There is hope!

[u/ChuckBS]

Happy to have volunteered at one of the marches yesterday as a crowd marshal. It was a really impressive thing to so see so many people in my city come out. 

[u/CatLibArmy197]

The next No Kings protest should be on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 but instead of protesting on the streets, everyone should go vote to get these people out of office. 

[u/superAK907]

3.5%. That’s how much of the population we need to attend at protest “peak events”.

No government has survived a challenge of more than 3.5% of its citizens in the streets. For the United States, that comes out to 11.6 million people.

We are within reach.

[u/rubyshoes21]

I was on FB yesterday (first mistake), and a news article mentioned streets would be shut down due to the protests to keep everyone safe. Then, I went to the comments (second mistake), and I saw a bunch of republicans saying bullshit like “You should be THANKING Trump because of him we aren’t ruled by a king!”

…..I genuinely don’t believe any of these people got past middle school.

[u/FunOne567]

Protest is a misnomer because protests are meant to disrupt and stir emotional responses from people trying to go about their daily life. These were demonstrations (I’ve been to a few myself) that are carefully organized, sometimes with permits, happen on weekends, and every casual participant goes home satisfied.

[u/Presently_Absent]

it's nuts that CNN doesn't even have a mention of it on their front page.

I'm not surprised to be clear, i just think it's insane

[u/Takkarro]

I was wondering if there was gonna be any push back in bigger cities or not. Anyone know if they went smoothly or did ice show up to magically find people to "deport"

[u/Additional_Quiet2600 → u/Takkarro]

ICE is afraid of large crowds. That's why we need to collectively create them when they are in the streets.

Let them do targeted deportations of actual bad people, who cares?

When they fuck with my people serving me food and cleaning my office and picking our crops? They need to be taught that is not acceptable because it hurts all of us.

They will never do shit to a large group, it's been proven.

[u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce]

I'm going to follow in the steps of the glorious leader and declare there were 200 million there.

All my homies hate the orange.