72
this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
72 points (68.6% liked)
Showerthoughts
37977 readers
929 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Protesting is one part of a variety of anti-establishment responses. I'm tired of hearing people say it doesn't work - obviously, on its own it doesn't, but combine it with the many other aspects and there can be change. Of course, not everyone is fit to do every single one of the things required, but stop shitting on people who are trying to do even one of the things.
Protests are what get people fired up. Protests are part of what connect people and provide networking opportunities to organize other actions. Protests make people realize that they arenot alone, and that they CAN do something. Will they? Some of them will, and that's the fucking point. Protests are a warning. Telling people "protests don't work" only harms the fucking movement, so fucking stop it.
Why does it have to be Im shitting on them? Why can you just take a truth for what it is?
Just overly sensitive as if you understand the implication but are still in denial.
I've met people at protests who have organized boycotts, advocacy campaigns, fundraisers, and many many more things that enact measurable change. These people often meet through these types of events and I can guarantee you, if it wasn't for rallies, I wouldn't have even known where to start or how to find people that are doing the work.
Your "truth" is only true if you (or whoever the fuck you're talking about) isn't benefiting from the protest/rally/event. So maybe you should go to a protest and find a network and do some work if you feel like you're not getting what you need from protests.
And just to be clear, I'm not judging people who only go to protests and then go home. That's fine too. The whole point of activism is to do the best you can, and if it just means showing up on a weekend for 2 hours, that's fine. Other people will see you, they will feel your support, and they will feel motivated to keep working toward whatever they were advocating for in the first place. That is the real point of protests.
Its your interpretation that I am saying "protest dont work." Again, as if you feel some doubt in their effectiveness and are in denial. The point of my post was to comment on the protesters resolve.
Okay, so reading your title again, you are saying: people that only go to protests on their day off (and don't engage in any other type of activism), think that protests don't work. Is that accurate?
It has to be, right? If they felt they could truly effect change, looking at this world, they would be out there day in and out.
I disagree with you because protesting every day wouldn't be an effective way to enact change. Like I mentioned, the point of protests is networking, solidarity and awareness-building. The change happens from the other actions that are less visible/get less media attention (fundraising, community building, letter-writing campaigns, putting pressure on local governments, boycotting, disrupting events, etc.). Going out to a protest every single day would ignore the actual work that needs to happen, and it would burn you out almost immediately.
There's a difference between protesting every day and being willing to sacrifice. If you think you can effect change through passionless inaction Id ask for you to show me. Show me one good example.
You can't... that's my point. I'm really confused about what you're trying to say here. If you don't think that doing all of the other actions I mentioned are a sacrifice, I'm not sure I can help you see any of the points I'm trying to make. Sure those actions are not as visible as protesting, but people do them every day, and that's where change starts.
A few years ago a small group of transit riders in my area teamed up to put pressure on local governments to provide free transit to children. With enough pressure those municipalities came together and agreed to do it, and now we see free transit for children across our province. This wasn't done through "passionless inaction" but the hard work of people spreading awareness and putting pressure on their local governments. They continue to spread their message to improve transit by attending rallies and protests, but the majority of their work is behind the scenes. This might look like inaction to you, I guess, if you are not a part of one of those communities.
Im sorry bro. I have no idea what youre on about but I assume youre right. Want me to give you a quick tug? O.o?
Nah man, you are just engaging in free boot licking propaganda for absolutely no reason. World is what you frame it to be, and you sound like you're on the side of sociopaths here, trying to frame your way out of your own shitty ass behavior and/or fatalism
Thats a really scary thought. I hope you dont really believe that about me. Can I do something for you that might help you feel better about the situation?
No trust me bro one more protest and we defeat facism, just one more bro. The 3.5% bro trust they are losing for real bro.