LogFAQs > #962438871

atmasabr posted...

Then you have probably been on one side or another of what I am about to relate. I've been to about 10-15, about half of them gay rights related in some way, some nonideological to raise awareness on a current issue (often a death), and a smattering of causes on the political right. Almost invariably at any remotely ideological or partisan protest, there are other protesters whose views I find extremist and apalling, and they are LOUD. They bring signs that are very provacative. "Tax the church!" "Abolish ICE!" "Al Sharpton did this, this, and, this, but not ONE MINUTE for this cause." I am embarassed by these signs and chanters. Because I don't believe in over half the stuff that is said the loudest or promoted by the most organized or prominent people who show up--and they're rarely the people who organized the protest in the first place.

And so I have learned when going to a protest, to bring my own sign. I don't necessarily stay home out of fear of encountering extremists. I go to advance my own agenda and to tell both other protesters and the public what it is--so that they see what it isn't.

If I were worried about encountering extremists, then I wouldn't be able to protest for gay marriage, or against DADT, or for mourning and appreciation of the NYPD, or for continuing the war on terrorism. I would be staying home and, one, giving a deceptive impression of the amount of support on an issue, and two, ceding the field to the most unreasonable elements. I believe reasonable people need to come out and be heard, and in as large numbers as possible. My concern with your post is that it seems to offer no way for that to occur.

Ok, but do you see here that your comparisons are not really even. You are comparing concepts like "tax the church" and "abolish ICE" to the flag of a regime that assembly line murdered millions of people. To the flag of a state that existed almost entirely for the purpose of preserving chattel slavery. If you can't see that it might be a problem when you find yourselves on the same side of an issue as those people I don't really know that you and I can have a productive conversation on the subject.

Yes you can go to a protest for a thing and find yourself having an ideological difference with some of the people on the fringes of that movement. Who is a human being and who is not is not an ideological difference. Who we are going to enslave, or that slavery is acceptable, is not an ideological difference. Who we are going to assembly line murder and chuck in an oven is an ideological difference. I've yet to find myself in a situation where I've participated in any sort of protest or movement where such people could even pretend to use it as a vehicle for such vile ideology. If by some weird set of circumstances I did, it's on me and the others involved to make sure such people aren't allowed to taint whatever we are involved doing with that shit.