this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

What are they protesting in Italy? Ferrari's shit strategy in the AUS GP? (jk)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

But also seriously what are they protesting, haven't heard shit about this in the UK and everyone assuming I already know is not helping.

[–] Tja 1 points 13 hours ago

It might be shit, but at least they did it with both cars. Wait...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago

I am proud of my European brothers and sisters. πŸ’ͺ

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The estimates for the Belgrade protest go as far as 800k participants.

Serbia has a population of 6.6 million.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

800k participants.

A little background info on number of the 1st picture: According to the comments of the Serbian Pic I stole:

-The initial numbers of participants were extremely underrereported (100 K) by Reuters.

-The whole city seemed packed according to witnesses. so all the streets and parks were full with people ( as seen on drone images), he reckoned to add the cities population of 1.5 M to the tally.

-Others said that the other ( smaller) cities & towns seemed empty.

-Therefore, he guesstimated: 1.6 M and counting..

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

he reckoned to add the cities population of 1.5 M to the tally.

That would mean 90% of Belgrade was in the streets that day. As intense the popular support of the protests is, that number is surely a strech. 800k is already quite mind-boggling by the standards of the country... actually, by the standards of any country.

Edit: "The number of protesters present in Belgrade at the protest is disputed: the official government figure provided by MUP was 107,000, an analysis by the Archive of Public Meetings found there were between 275,000 and 325,000 present "with the possibility that the number was even higher,"[499] and Božo Prelević [sr], the former MUP minister, estimated there were at least half a million protesters.[500]" (Wikipedia)

The Reuters number was simply taken from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), which obviously preferred to keep the number low.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Agreed.

It's at least a very creative stretch from his part to account for his numbers, I could appreciate that. Therefore I found it necessary to shed some light on it, after I saw your input.

And whatever the exact turnout was, it was an incredible inspirational event. Feel bad for the ppl though. About the horrible acts of violence by the Gvment and the use of Sonic booms and such.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It seems like every time that I read Serbia's population number, it's less than the last time. 30 years of population decline must suck for a society.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, it will hurt in the medium term because of the ratio of economically active ones, but overpopulation is bad in the long term.

Czech Republic has been compensating low birth rates with immigration. Maybe the factors that cause few people to migrate to Serbia are larger contributors to the "suck" you've been talking about.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours ago

It is not just the dependency ratio. When your population declines enough, you end up having trouble maintaining all sorts of infrastructure. That is especially bad in rural regions. If your population density falls, that means fewer people have to pay to maintain basically the same length of roads, electricity grid, water system and so forth. Fewer customers leads to shops and restaurants closing. With fewer young people, schools will close making even more young people leave, as it makes raising children that much more difficult. So larger villages and small towns tend to do somewhat fine, but villages end up with pretty much no young people and just die. Even worse with an overall population decline the biggest problems of cities, namely the high cost of housing becomes less of a problem.

It really is not just the dependency ratio, which is a problem. In fact that one is often stable, as old people die.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago

Adding this in case it’s helpful:

Defending against LRAD:
https://youtu.be/CXKTBQBugIA

Defending against microwave: https://youtu.be/Lg_aUOSLuRo

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Where's the picture of the protests in America?

...Oh yea...

[–] [email protected] 200 points 1 day ago (6 children)

They are being suppressed in media coverage, but there are people protesting. Media coverage paints a false picture that no one in the US is fighting back

Here's one from today with 1000 people in Boise, Idaho

Here's a super incomplete timeline with just a handful of the nationwide protests. I'm missing a lot, I'm just showing your the photos I had from recent memory


8 days ago there were national protest for science funding cuts. Here's the main one in DC


11 days ago there were nationwide protests in all 50 US state capitols + DC + Many cities within those states. This was part of the 50501 movement

Portland, Oregon

Monroe, Wisconsin

San Fransisco, California

Albany, New York

Raleigh, North Carolina

Richmond, Virginia

Austin, Texas

Protests Outside Fox News in New York City


16 days ago there were large protest in the Iowa Statehouse


19 days ago, a protest in Cherry Hill, New Jersy outside Tesla Showroom as part of a nationwide movement protesting Telsas. There have been tons more than just this one and these happen basically every day


21 days ago, large protests in DC for Ukraine aid


And so on. There's a lot more going on than just this

[–] [email protected] 14 points 16 hours ago

The revolution will not be televised.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago

Thank you for posting this. I'm so sick of ignorant people outside my country (US) spouting nonsense about nothing happening here.

These people are almost as bad as the US conservatives when it comes to believing only what they see on their news.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago

Actual bravo.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago

If we had shitty rewards, I'd give you a Lemmy Latinum.

[–] Tja -3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That's... kind of sad. There's like dozens of people in those pictures. Honestly, no surprise media doesn't report it, I've seen barbecues with higher attendance. Americans need to do a lot better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I feel like we are all on the same side here? Perhaps not

[–] Tja 2 points 3 hours ago

I think so, but look at the protests in Serbia (or south Korea recently, or France every other month since the invention of the baguette), or basically any other country... and look at the pictures of protests in the US. The difference is remarkable.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago

Being censored.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (7 children)

One thing to keep in mind is how geographically huge the US is comparatively and it makes it a lot harder to organize massive protests. Serbia is about the size of Wisconsin which is a relatively medium size state. Add that into the fact that the US is a very car dependent country where some people live 2 - 3 hours away from their capital or even a city. I'm not using this as an excuse, just a possible reason why ours in the US aren't big yet. I went to a couple in my state and I was extremely happy with everyone there but also extremely disappointed with the turnout. And I had to drive an hour and a half just to get there. I can't imagine how difficult it is for others in the bigger states.

It could be a lot of cope on my end, but I can't just assume everyone is just giving up. The last thing the US needs right now is apathy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Serbia also only has about 20% more inhabitants than Wisconsin. πŸ™‚

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I feel this is a lack oft creativity. Protests need to be peaceful, but disruptive. In a car based society, protest by car? If 5,000,000 cars "meet up" in any given metropolitan area, that areas productivity goes to zero, those in power won't even have any recourse, there aren't enough police/towtrucks to counter this, and if so it would take days or weeks. Only coordinated driving and parking/traffic jam required.

Effective protest should instill fear in those in power - the message is, with the sheer number of people right outside your building, could easily crush you if they so choose. A few guards can not offer protection in this case. The idea is, with this realization, that violence is not a good escalation, as in the end the powerful few will never come out on top.

This only works if the powerful few actually believe the masses will go as far as needed to effect the demanded change.

From outside, it appears the US protests favor comfort over conflict, thus are viewed as lacking credibility and therefore, pose no danger to the power class. As long as the individual prioritizes their selves before acting as a collective, including taking the risk of collective punishment, the protest remains unbelievable, therefore ineffective and easily ignored.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

Serbia has like a quarter population of NYC.

I don't know why there aren't any mass protests in the US, but that ain't it.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago

One thing to keep in mind is that this never seemed to have been an issue during the WoT or 1% protests.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You've got to be kidding me. I'm sitting here in Canada preparing for the unthinkable because the citizens of the country closest to us in every way can't be bothered to take a day off work or get from behind the screen. Need apathy? If you haven't noticed they're full on into it for decades already.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean the problem is the people who are being worst affected by Trump are the kind of people who genuinely can't afford to take a day off work without being fired and being thrown into homelessness. There are protests in the US but due to the lackluster worker protections we have people generally either can't make it to them or are well enough off that they just really don't care enough to go out. So they end up being much smaller then the one in Europe. Also add to that fact that a bunch of people here are dumb enough to like Trump and what he's doing and the result is much smaller protests.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Ok. Point taken. I am disabled since extreme cancer a decade ago. I'm 50 years old. My 5 person family lives on less than what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in my province. Yet here we are preparing as best we can to fight back and organizing to resist an economic and possible military invasion that is completely unwarranted and based on many outright lies from a neighboring country who's own people will not stand up to the tyranny they face daily. Why? because...oh my god...they have to go to work.

This involves me dusting off old skills as a paramedic and restocking all my kit. I don't have money for that but here I am...doing it. I loaded rounds for the .303, a new lighter stock is on the way and when it gets here I will alter it so I can carry again. The garden is going in earlier in case I have to leave. Food storage is getting built even bigger. Everything American is getting wiped from our electronics and cupboards. The kids are learning things at 10 years old they shouldn't have to ever learn and they're doing it while missing out on lots of things they're accustomed to and in some cases even need because we need to prepare to stand up for those who won't or can't.

Quit the fucking excuses and stand up already. If I can manage you can too.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean I went to a protest today in my city, so I'm not making excuses, I'm just explaining why it's hard for people to go out and protest especially in America. Some of it definitely is attitude and apathy that needs to change but there is a good amount of it that it down to either poverty or lack of real community in most places in America.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That's bullshit though. You don't have to protest at Washington DC. You don't think the people in Serbia didn't drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?

I hate to break it to you, but Americans are cowardly crabs in a bucket. More content with stepping on each other in a sad attempt to get ahead of the rest.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

You don’t have to protest at Washington DC.

Since you're drawing parallels to Serbia - yes, you do want to protest as close to the centre of power as possible, and that's what Serbs did.

You don’t think the people in Serbia didn’t drive or ride 2-3 hours to get there?

I don't. The driving distance between Belgrade and Novi Sad, the second largest Serbian city, is ~1 h. And Belgrade by itself already has more than enough population for massive protests, because it has four times the population of Novi Sad and around 1/4 of the population of the entire country. This degree of centralisation and physical proximity is completely incomparable to US. US geography significantly diffuses the power of protests.

Also the Serbian protests have been initiated and are led by students who in general do not drive around much, it's safe to assume most don't have their own cars, etc. IIRC, some of those who participated in the yesterday protest were brought by buses to Belgrade, which was organised ahead of time by the protesters.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

There are people protesting, you're just not seeing it because the media is suppressing coverage of it

Here's a protest yesterday in DC

Here's another for Ukraine aid the other day in DC


I also think you underestimate how big the US is. 2-3 hours would be if you're close by DC. People on the other side of the country in California, Washington State, Oregon, etc. are 5 hour plane rides away or 40+ hours of driving

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 18 hours ago

Better to simply call them "the states", because unity evaporated a while ago.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (5 children)

As a Canadian, No I definitely mean 'murica.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Solidarity wirh the people against corruption and for democracy.

Context: see links below and other Ops. Pics stolen and made a 'collage' in the same order as the title.

-Serbia

-Hungary

-Romania

-Italy

EDIT; link to most recent Romanian (pro Europe) protest, instead of older one

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Could you please also link something that gives context here? Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Done. Was looking for one encompassing all these protests to post as one link in the OP, but couldn't find one atm.

+don't know how to avoid that the pic appears twice.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Was at the one in Bucharest. Was a little disappointing tbh. Was just a photo op with extra steps. Organizers maneuvered the crowd into the formation they wanted for the photo, took the photo, then wished everyone a good night and wandered off.

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