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UncleOxidant02/19/20255 repliesview on HN

Lots of things should have happened long before we got to this point. After Jan 6th he should never have been a contender for the nomination, but then he was and won it. And then the electorate at large should have chosen his opponent, but they didn't. And here we are. I'm not sure what would trigger nation wide protests that are large enough to have an effect - I suspect that in our spread-out country you'd need something like at least 20% of the population which would be about 65 million people. Most people are too apathetic to be bothered and by the time some final straw makes them care it'll likely be too late.


Replies

pbhjpbhj02/20/2025

He said he would be a dictator and implied that elections would not be needed going forward. Y'all voted him in on that basis.

It sucks that the constitution died this way. RIP USA.

johnnyanmac02/20/2025

I didn't read too much into it, but apparently 11m people is the critical mass needed for a national protest that can't be ignored. So, it's more around 2-3%. Maybe more is needed, but at that point you will get a network effect of others joining in for the sake of joining in.

We're spread, but IIRC the 10 most populous metro contains half the population. It'd more be a matter in making sure each major hub has around 500k-1m people gathered. As a matter of scale, the Montgomery march was 256k.

>Most people are too apathetic to be bothered and by the time some final straw makes them care it'll likely be too late.

I suppose we'll see soon enough at this current rate.

dekhn02/20/2025

Remember, Trump wants protests. He knows that even in a peaceful protest some fraction of "fuck-shit-up-contingent" will go around attacking people, destroying property, etc. And that gives him a justification to invoke advanced measures (Kelly, his DHS leader, specifically said that Trump had to be told multiple times he couldn't use the military on US citizens while Trump insisted that he did).

I think it's an open question at this point whether the military leadership would deny Trump's request.

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procaryote02/20/2025

I saw somewhere that it often takes "just" 3.5% people taking to the streets to protest to overthrow a government, because for that to happen a much larger number needs to be supportive of the protests.

Even in the worst police state, the dictators power ultimately depends on enough of the people going along with it.

Americans could change this, if enough people cared beyond pressing like on facebook

ungreased067502/20/2025

Have you considered that your model of how things should work is missing something?