I was recently held up in absolute dead stop traffic. We were sitting on the tarmac with no movement for well over an hour, in the 80 degree sun, before I felt obliged to leave my car and go see if it was because of roadwork or an accident or what.

I joined a small crowd of onlookers after reaching the head, spectating a row of sit-in protesters. One driver had tried to get around but a few protesters moved tactically so that he couldn’t go any further without injuring somebody.

I didn’t wait around, although there were people phoning the police and some tempers beginning to flare. So I head back to my car. The dairy groceries that I picked up on the way back from work had begun to spoil.

I was late home by nearly three hours, so no time to unwind. Just enough to pack away some old leftovers before heading off to sleep and restart cycle all over, -1 hour or so of sleep.

Previously, I had no opinion whatsoever on whether cars=good or cars=bad. But after being held up in traffic, wasting money, wasting gas, losing sleep and perhaps a bit of my sanity I am now totally on board with the Fuck Cars movement. I couldn’t imagine a more convincing strategy to bring people over to your perspective. Excellent thinking. Good job.

  • FarceOfWill
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    4 months ago

    The idea that protest is about convincing people of something is such a daft idea, I don’t understand where this comes from. Everyone seems to think it but I can’t remember any protest, and especially any direct action protest where this has ever been the goal or the effect.

    • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      But imagine for a moment a world in which a flash dance mob can erupt in the middle of an Ohio mega-mall to confetti, jazz-hands, and live music specifically to convince you, the one standing in the center of a See’s Candies, that clean water is good actually and the city could do a bit better maybe about keeping it that way.

      Yeah, that would be the ideal protest. Chocolate and a show. Some good wine, also, they should do that too.

      • FarceOfWill
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        4 months ago

        I’d like a massage, is that on offer?

        I find massages very convincing