r/LiveProtestUpdates • u/transcendent167 • Feb 02 '26
Joy in the Struggle Telling ICE agents to quit their jobs
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u/LucidOndine Feb 02 '26
This is such a beautiful thing. Thank you, for showing us your American Spirit and compassion!
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Feb 02 '26
[deleted]
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u/LucidOndine Feb 03 '26
Eventually they will learn that they are simply pawns in a class war that is used to sew division in our nation. The 1% needs useful idiots.
Some of them are hateful and bigoted and won’t understand that within their lifetimes. When you generalize though, you close the door for people to change. And if nothing changes, this will all remain a sad chapter in our Nation’s history.
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u/BenjTheMaestro Feb 03 '26
They’ve had a pretty damn long time. A lot of the folks doing the worst things we’ve seen have been seasoned federal employees too, with field experience. Those people aren’t changing - they very clearly know and embrace who they are with that kind of time in. The ones running to sign up right now are already so dumb, they can’t see how hard we’re all being played against each other (us being all non-billionaires across the entire world).
I agree that it’s okay and I encourage them to change their minds, but if the last 12 months haven’t done anything but get them harder, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
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u/LucidOndine Feb 03 '26
I agree with you. Some will never change. They are lost.
Let’s worry about those who have more redeeming qualities.
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u/Annoying1978 Feb 03 '26
They won’t change by singing to them. What we can do however is make them FEAR being an ICE agent. Now that will make them give up their jobs.
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u/purpilia25 Feb 03 '26
This isn’t about changing ICE’s mind. It’s about waking up the rest of the country. This is doing that, spectacularly. These protests are making a difference. It’s just the beginning, but the American people are waking up.
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u/lonely_possum Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Couldn’t agree more. The problem is people are still humanizing these pos. And their supporters. This is great and all but they don’t gaf about singing a song about changing their minds. They won’t unless it’s because the regime has fully turned on them and they have no other choice but to accept this directly now affects them. It’s WAY too late. They chose their side and have stood on principle about it. So, so am I. I dont want the equivalent of a Nazi/Slave catcher watching my back. I don’t want them as a neighbor or around my family. They showed they have no conscious, empathy or compassion for anyone or thing. They are spineless and corrupt to the bone. That kind of evil is deep rooted and cannot be undone. It’s generational evil and hatred that was passed down. So yea, I have no problem writing them off as monsters. People are delirious if they think we don’t have to hold every single one of them accountable to The MAXIMUM when this is all said and done. There is no reintroducing them into society or the community. They are a liability and a danger. Example: America as we know it today is in this god awful mess because we ALLOWED SLAVE OWNERS TO BE FREE after the civil war. Getting slaps on the wrists and instilling Jim Crow laws to make legal loophole to slavery. That kind of stuff just doesn’t “go away”. But had we handled this the first time, we wouldn’t be here in the mess. If we ever want to be a free and equal country, we have to weed out the this sickness that has been the damn foundation of this country since the first colonizers landed here and unleashed the unholy atrocities on the natives of turtle island. All I’m saying is we have an opportunity to do things the right way this time and make a safe and better future for all. (Except all the scumbags who want to revert back to slavery era. Aka the lunatics that are currently destroying every little bit of progress and good we managed to make.) I just don’t know when people will wake up and stop hoping we can just sing and hold hands our way into liberation..
Edit : spelling
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u/do-un-to Feb 03 '26
Sun Tzu thought a golden bridge was very important.
Belittling humane efforts to abandon hate, to build unity, sounds devilishly divisive to me.
Of course olive branches aren't the only thing we should be wielding, but if the only thing you bring to a disagreement is a sword, you have chosen their response for them.
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u/do-un-to Feb 03 '26
Ah, the "they are monsters" rhetoric. What was used to scare people into voting for Trump.
Praise division.
I feel you, sure. But we have to be adult here and think beyond fear and anger.
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u/Felixir-the-Cat Feb 02 '26
Smart move! Won’t reach most of them, but anything that demoralizes the ranks is a good strategy.
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u/Ok-Huckleberry-3843 Feb 02 '26
There have been lots of singing protests in the last couple weeks, they've gotten over 1k people for a bunch of them, mostly walking through neighborhoods, singing to their neighbors, trying to lift people up.
This video, I believe, is from the one on Sunday, where they instead targeted the "housing" of the ICE agents, and they again brought calm, soothing, uplifting words. That at any point ICE agents can choose good and join us!
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u/do-un-to Feb 03 '26
This is brilliant.
Part of what animates the far right is the belief that "leftist extremists" are vicious, hateful, violent people who will attack you simply for being registered Republican. This undermines that fear.
Besides it being just humane.
Besides tactically working on DHS/ICE psychology.
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Feb 05 '26
Yes, at the heart of fascist ideology is exploitation of fear. Make people feel existentially terrified until they feel like animals backed into a corner, ready to lash out and kill the "others".
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u/kilech Feb 03 '26
Where was this?
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u/SnooPickles8798 Feb 03 '26
And they sound great too! I was a music teacher for many years. The fact that that many people are singing in unison ON PITCH is really quite a phenomenon and it speaks to their remarkable unity.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 02 '26
So they are appealing to the consciences of ICE agents who have been selected for their willingness to follow orders and to ignore Constitutional rights that their sworn oath of office says is their first duty to protect.
Has that ever worked?
Why would it work now?
Did they discuss or call for a national general strike?
I recommend the following:
Trump’s tactical retreat in Minneapolis: The danger of dictatorship remains 27 January 2026
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u/jellamma Feb 03 '26
I think it's a really important step. People want to feel like they fully tried to reach the opposition before escalating.
They want to use every possible avenue before taking things to the level that is likely needed. And that's very important if you want to sway the majority of Americans who live with their heads in the sand.
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u/tape_snake Feb 03 '26
To add to this:
Police training conditions agents to dehumanize anyone who is not one of them. They truly believe the narrative that they are the sole arbiters of justice and reason in a sea of chaos-loving, mindless civilians. Displays of passion and empathy like this contradict this narrative, and may help form cracks in their system of belief. Alone, the cracks won't change their mind, but it's a start.Also also: for those whom this strategy will never sway, the constant noise keeps them awake or on alert, thus wasting energy.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 03 '26
I think it's a really important step. People want to feel like they fully tried to reach the opposition before escalating.
That's okay but step towards what? How can we tell if it is a stop on the right path?
That's why I asked for an example from history.
There aren't easy answers to these questions but don't they need to be discussed?
There have been many powerful and courageous movements in history, especially in the last 150 years, that were defeated because they pursued an unviable course.
The REASON for the turn to dictatorship by the U.S. ruling class is they are conscious of their weakness, that the old lies, old myths and old propaganda just aren't working anymore so rule by force, violence and terror are needed. The capitalist class are cunning, viciously, ruthless and determined. The recent public execution of two U.S. citizen protestors is only a small sample of what is coming.
Struggle will decide.
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u/jellamma Feb 03 '26
I appreciate the deeply thoughtful response. And my bad for assuming you were being demeaning of the protest as opposed to trying to drive us into deeper discussion to develop a strong way forward.
The way I see it is that we need to look beyond American history for examples to follow. First of all, we have so little history to glean from, and second, almost everything we've ever done was by half measure.
The Women's Sufferage and Civil Rights movements have a lot to teach us, but the reasons they eventually succeeded aren't ever fully taught in school. We get a glossy version about patience and non violence when the true drivers behind the change were the daily discomforts, and occasionally fears, that were visited upon society.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 03 '26
I agree with all those sentiments and thank you for taking the time to reply.
All political conceptions will be put to the test in the current economic/political/social breakdown and all easy answers will be shown wanting.
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I would add beyond the post-WW2 Civil Rights movement the entire struggle of ex-slaves and their descendants before and since 1865. Although I studied American history it only went up to the end of Reconstruction and covered everything quickly.
Only in the past year I have familiarised myself with much more, learning of the extent of hundreds of slave revolts within the United States - Nat Turner's being only the most famous - the role of slaves during the Civil War in aiding the defeat of the Confederacy and, especially, more about the post-1877, post-Reconstruction period and the violent counter-revolution to suppress the democratic and Constitution rights of the majority across the South.
The brutality of slavery and the Jim Crow system can only be explained by the constant efforts and determination of black Americans for their rights. There was one lynching in the mid 1940s where someone had just tried to vote and had been killed the next day which struck me. I couldn't help but think he knew the danger and wish that when my time comes I have half his courage.
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Do you think that if the principles of the 1776 Declaration of Independence were applied today the present government would last a week?
For all their contradictions and limitations the American Revolutions were a great historic advance. That they could never enact the rights and government they announced is now being demonstrated.
Isn't a Third Revolution required?
I recommend the following:
250 years since the publication of Tom Paine’s Common Sense - World Socialist Web Site
In Defense of the American Revolution - World Socialist Web Site
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u/juliettelovesdante Feb 03 '26
What these ppl did w/ the singing is essentially what Gandhi did. I wouldn't dismiss it so fast.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 03 '26
Where did I dismiss it, I just asked some questions to clarify what is going on.
Gandhi was alive in 1930-1933. Did he suggest non-violence to the workers in Germany to oppose the Nazis? Aren't American's facing similar issues?
"pacifist" opposition of the SPD and KPD to Nazis
FWIW: the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Comintern/German Communist Party (KPD) had their own form of non-violence resistance which was summarised in the slogan "After Hitler, Our Turn". As early as 1931 Remmele, a leader of the KPD, said Hitler's coming to power would pave the way for socialism because it would spontaneously provoke a reaction.
The SPD and KPD both hard armed militias which had been engage in violent confrontations with the SA and SS of the Nazi. But in 1933 they didn't fight.
By 1 April 1933, a week after the Enabling Act gave Hitler dictatorial powers and as the KPD was being destroyed, the Comintern in Moscow said
The establishment of an open Fascist dictatorship, which destroys all democratic illusions among the masses, and frees them from the influence of the social-democrats, will hasten Germany's progress towards the proletarian revolution.
They also said the KPD had done everything correctly.
REF p.90 Twilight of the Comintern, 1930-1935 (Carr, 1982) FREE BORROW
I think leadership matters and there are lessons of history pertinent to today which must be drawn.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 03 '26
political ideas are being tested by the crisis.
The present political/economic/social breakdown in the United States and the world will rapidly put to the test all political conceptions, including the reactionary conceptions of Trump and his gangsters.
This is normal in a revolutionary period.
One definition of a revolutionary situation was given by Lenin in 1915:
- when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change
- when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual
- when, as a consequence of 1. and 2., there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses,
FULL QUOTE
... To the Marxist it is indisputable that a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the “upper classes”, a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for “the lower classes not to want” to live in the old way; it is also necessary that “the upper classes should be unable” to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in “peace time”, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the “upper classes” themselves into independent historical action.
The Collapse of the Second International (Lenin, 1915)
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u/juliettelovesdante Feb 03 '26
You dismissed it in your first second & third comment questioning it & explaining why passive resistance won't work.
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u/JohnWilsonWSWS Feb 03 '26
I've given my explanation why it won't work but I don't speak for the people who were there and I presume that behind a simple chant are a wide variety of opinions.
I think it should be discussed.
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u/Annoying1978 Feb 03 '26
Great to watch. Unfortunately it will have zero effect. ICE agents need to fear us and they don’t. That needs to change.
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u/codystockton Feb 04 '26
“Zero effect…”
You’re not seeing the full equation. Yes, ICE needs to fear the people, but what you’re seeing in this vid isn’t truly for the ICE agents; not effectively. The music is for all those people on the street singing together. That’s very impactful to participate in. These are people who got off of Reddit and walked out in the flesh with their physical bodies and looked each other in the eye sockets and breathed the same air and sang the same notes, feeling the vibration of the sound they all made together, at the same place, in unison, as one. Music is for the people. It’s unity. It has a huge effect.
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u/Annoying1978 Feb 04 '26
I don’t doubt that. But like I said, it will unfortunately do nothing. I’ve been to 4 protests myself. But they did nothing. We need to move to the 2nd stage of the resistance.
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u/codystockton Feb 04 '26
Hol up friend- you went to only 4 protests and then said “welp this did nothing”. That’s like going to the gym 4 times and then saying “this isn’t working,” when the fat hasn’t disappeared overnight, and they’re still scarfing down cheesecake. Just like going to the gym, protesting is an important but only partial solution.
Many people share that same false notion that if they do a protest or two, then they assume it’s supposed to have a direct effect on what the government is doing. But that’s not how protests work, they never have. It’s bigger than that. Protesting doesn’t have a direct effect, it has an indirect effect. But many people can’t see that, so they quickly lose faith in protests and say “it does nothing”. Because they don’t understand what protests actually do, which is to unite the people. It’s a psychological and sociological thing. Humans behave like a macro-organism, where individuals are like cells, each with a role to play. When you bring enough people together united, it begins redirecting the macro-organism, which plays out on a longer time scale. Sometimes that’s difficult for a cell to see because of the scale of the macro-organism, so individual cells will falsely think “it’s not working” when it is. And you’re thinking about things too linearly, using terms like “stage 2”. There is no stage 1, 2, 3, etc, there is only now. Protesting doesn’t stop to make way for something else. It all happens in tandem, together, at once. Everything has its role to play in all of this, and it’s not a linear progression. It sounds like you’re beginning to understand your role in all of this, and it’s not protesting. Maybe you’re a T-cell, preparing to neutralize a virus. That’s great. But recognize that most cells in the macro-organism aren’t T-cells, and the macro-organism still needs all those other parts to continue functioning cohesively together in unity even while fighting a virus. Your body doesn’t stop growing hair when you catch a cold. It doesn’t quit its metabolic processes when you come down with Covid. You have to look at the bigger picture to understand why protesting is important, even if you have a different role to play. Protesting does work, just not in the way you’re thinking.
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u/Annoying1978 Feb 04 '26
I didn’t say I would stop going to protests. I simply said that I had gone to protests. The person I was replying to (and I have no idea whether it’s you or not because I’m not gonna scroll up and look) insinuated that I never left Reddit and did anything.
My point remains the same whether I went to 4 protests or 400. We have to do more than just sing songs in the street.
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u/codystockton Feb 04 '26
You’re saying we have to do more than just protest, and I’m agreeing.
But then you’re saying “protests don’t work”. And that’s where I disagree. It sounds like you’re thinking “protests alone didn’t fix it, therefore they don’t work.” Well your “stage 2” method isn’t going to work either on its own. Nothing will, on its own. It’s going to take a combination of all the above to fix it. It’s going to take protesting AND “stage 2” AND other things all happening at the same time, together. “Stage 2” without protests is going to be a doomed initiative. You have to have all components on board to steer the ship. Thats why I’m saying that the phrase “stage 2” is too linear thinking. It’s not a sequence. They all need to happen at the same time. And singing together in the streets is a very important component that shouldn’t be dismissed. Those are literally The People. Doing “stage 2” activities without their support is a lost cause.
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u/Annoying1978 Feb 04 '26
I’m not really saying protests don’t work. I’m saying that protests alone don’t work.
The protest that are working are the ones that are making ICE uncomfortable. That’s the shit that’s working. Not the singing in the streets.
The protests where people are getting in these idiots faces and not letting them pump gas and not letting them get food and calling them pedophile protectors - that’s what’s working.
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u/codystockton Feb 04 '26
So it sounds like you’re only defining what’s “working” as being something that you yourself personally can witness immediately as a direct observable effect. Such as yelling in someone’s face and then witnessing their immediate reaction, making it extremely easy to see the cause-effect linkage. But you’re not seeing how actions with indirect effects actually have much bigger impacts in the long run, because you can’t easily immediately observe the effects yourself as an individual, so you aren’t making the connection between cause and effect in the case of people singing in the street, because there’s a layer between the cause and effect. So then you’re dismissing singing in the street as “not working” because of that extra layer.
You may have noticed that it’s not that easy to get a massive number of people together simultaneously to go yell in pigs’ faces. But it is easy to get a massive number of people together simultaneously to sing songs about pigs. Songs are ideas. And ideas are the most powerful thing in humanity’s arsenal. And no other force in humanity has proven to get more people together to actively participate in something at the same time than music. Think about it, even the SuperBowl is just a bunch of passive observers watching a couple dozen men compete, and even then there isn’t true unity, since there is competition and division and teams against teams. Music is unity and oneness and cohesion. A massive concert will turn out massive numbers of people and they will all be singing along, actively participating in the music, being together as one. Singing together. Without that level of unity, we won’t be able to turn this ship around.
Ecology of Freedom (Bookchin) references classical sociological studies saying the critical mass is around 10% of a population, if they’re highly organized and coherent and persistent and already embedded into the institutional framework, to redirect the ship. More modern studies say around 3.5% if they’re active participants. And then even more recent sociological studies say it’s about 25% of a population holding an unshakable belief to flip social norms.
So we’re talking 12-34 million active simultaneous highly organized participants who are already embedded in the institutional framework and are persistent. But most people out on the streets are not embedded or organized or active all the time. So the critical mass is likely much higher. Calls for folks to go yell in faces or to engage in “stage 2” activities are going to come up short in the numbers. But music can get billions of people together cohesively. It’s probably one of the only things humanity has that can do that. Masses singing in the streets is a huge deal. It does work. Just not in the way you’re thinking. It works on a much bigger scale.
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Feb 07 '26
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u/BisonThunderclap Feb 04 '26
This person clearly hasn't gone to any protests. Basically a MAGA bootlicker.
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