Probably want to witness the last inauguration in the history of the country

No. They are just being gracious losers. An example a lot more people could follow.

Very interesting thanks.

With regard to automation: I see your point but I did notice all the bank cashiers and checkout girls (and a few guys) being replaced with machines. That's a lot of people. It is a serious social change. Maybe you think those people couldn't be unionized anyway?

I don't know as much about the potential of industrial labour because the UK doesn't have any to speak so I'll defer to your judgement.

About the Ferguson riots: it seems to me that there is a bit of myth that revolutionaries are charming, well educated ideallistic types like the chorus line of les miserable. From what i recall of my studies of the French and Russian revolutions they were mostly actually an angry mob of people who just couldn't take their **** lives any more. By comparison the Ferguson rioters et al looked pretty sharp.
Individual acts of millitancy may not have much impact: but this type of asymmetric warfare is probably the only effective way to resist the ienhanced power of the state with violence.

I love your creative digital insugency ideas. I think they have a lot of potential.
You are right that in isolation it can't be successful: but RL activism does come out of hacktivism to some extent. The million mask marches are indicative of that: of limited effectiveness they may be but they do hint at broader possibilities.

A salient point here: do you know the name of the man who cost the banking sector more money than any one else alive? He's a man called Martin Lewis who popularized PPI claims against UK banks. He cost them billions. He's not a socialist or an activist, probably not even a left-winger. He just led a consumer rights campaign. I think we can learn a lot from people like him.

Absolutely not. All working folk, regardless of what they do, and without exception, have, can and should organize.

Sure. My point is the folks rioting in Ferguson weren't revolutionaries. If the cops would have abandoned the city, there still wouldn't have been any revolution there. BTW: that's pretty much how the LAPD handled the 1992 riots, and we know those didn't lead to anything.

Again, although it's not what I do, I can't argue against the efficacy of individualized violent militancy, or Diversity of Tactics, in certain situations. Back in the campaign to integrate US lunch counters, in Jacksonville, where there was a riot known as "Axe-handle Saturday". The lunch counters there were snap-desegregated in days... where in other cities that didn't suffer violence, the same task took several years.

However, and again, disorganized rioters aren't waging warfare on the powers-to-be, asymmetric or otherwise.

BP shareholders also took a serious beating after the gulf drilling platform disaster. There are other mega $$$$ examples too. However, regardless of the $$$$, one thing guaranteed is that the sanctions imposed by the owning class upon the owning class will never be large enough to destabilize the hegemony of the owning class.

I didn't even notice. Now I feel bad.

I'm really hoping the general strike idea takes off. That's something my mom can do, and will if it looks like a thing other people are doing too. A measurable one day drop in productivity and commerce would be a powerful statement.

So, if nobody is working, going to school, or shopping, it's like a holiday, right? But it's way better than any old holiday, because we called it ourselves, and willed in into existence by our very actions. And nobody needs to be using those streets, as they shouldn't be going to work, school, or the stores. There really isn't a better time to exercise our rights to assemble on those streets and... party like we own them !!!1!

Can you imagine if the entire country just outright did that?

It would be both awesome and horrifying at the same time.

That would basically be like Thanksgiving before a ton of people decided it should be a day for shopping.

We don't have to imagine. It's been done. This works. I hope to see it work in person.

From the Wikipedia article on the 1919 Seattle General Strike...

South America, unless you want to be 100% free as a nomad, then Antarctica.

Don't get too hung up on the problems. This is making the perfect the enemy of the good.

I'll strike on Jan. 20th and even take my kids (HS age) to a protest, but I'm not in this for the Neo-Goreanism.

I'm highlighting the dangers.

In the UK during the Iraq war we had the largest ever protest march (1 million people, 2% of the whole of the UK population). It led to nothing. Marching isn't enough by itself.

The Occupy movement similarly petered out with no tangible effects.

If marching becomes simply a pressure valve for discontent then it ultimately becomes part of the control mechanism.

I'm going to work.

March organizers and some attendees will earn some needed cash from George Soros, that's a financial plus for them, isn't that enough of a positive benefit?

The Occupy movement brought inequality to mainstream public attention and introduced an entire generation to organized protest. It built the foundation future actions will be based on. Many of the J20 people are experienced veterans from Occupy.

Right, like you have a job... hippie.

This. In turn many of the Occupy peeps like myself were experienced veterans of the WTO era. In turn, several of the Seattle peeps back then organized with folks who organized with veterans of the 1919 General Strike.

ETA: I'd also like to point out that there were indeed tangible and direct gains. Here in San Diego we doubled the amount of shelter space for the homeless. In general, all around the country, the foot of the policeman was loosened a bit off the neck of the homeless. Oh yeh, what else... the attempt to union bust the ILWU was defeated. That's really big... it's hard to explain just how big that was. There are tons more of examples.

The protest movement I was most involved in was anti-apartheid/divestment in 1985-6. It led the University of California divesting and a few years later Nelson Mandela came by to say it made a difference.

You think America's democracy is in disrepair? Check out what Brazil is going through now.

If you really want to be away from people, Mongolia has the lowest population density in the world (5 people per 1 mile squared). It also has a traditional nomadic lifestyle if you dig that.

By comparison, New Hampshire has 147 people per mile squared

I've never really been involved directly in politics, but that's definitely going to change. I'm going to write to every congresscritter who represents me and look into volunteering. I'm not gonna tell future generations that I just sat on my hands and let these imbeciles destroy my country.

I wasn't talking about despair. I was talking about evading the gov't. Chile, Nicaragua, India, all good candidates.

Beyond protesting, and moving away, you can set-up one of these,



And start to produce the various merchandise required in a counter-economy.

It's hard to tell when you're joking sometimes.











That was a joke, right?

He's a troll who wants liberals to leave the country.