Forum Post: Flash Protesting: an idea to consider
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 14, 2011, 1:07 p.m. EST by bigbangbilly
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You walk down into a crowded street and mix in in the crowd of bystanders (don't forget to pretend to be non-protesters) then pull your sign out and then protest. The people to the left and right of you will be considered as protesters. The bystanders next to you will either be part of it or not but they would puff up the protest. Those nonprotesters will provide us refuge with their presence as it will hurt our enemy if they hurt non protesters.
Its the Yippie tool of the new millenium ! We can penetrate almost anywhere....we can use the Occupy twitter alert system so we don't post flash-mobs in public.alert friendly journalists to cover them.
It's not expected to be easy. Many will be inconvenienced. No revolution has ever been achieved without stepping on the toes of some who chose not to revolt. To ask of the people that they politely respect the ears and eyes of everyone, while their opponents brazenly disrespect our physical senses as well as those moral and ethical, is to ask them not to revolt.
I love this idea. This could be just one of many (nonviolent) guerrilla tactics that would help the movement become lean and mean. Others are:
Flash Occupies: Small tent cities popping up everywhere at different times. Gum up the works.
Targeted, cycling 1-day to 1-week boycotts of hurtful corporations (like BP). Hit em in the pocket. They'll pass the shortfall to the consumer, but taxes are paying for all this police presence as well, so...
Interrupting classes: I was once part of a campus protest where we went around campus and stopped teachers from being able to teach. We left every class with more people than we came with. As a matter of fact, it's how I became an activist!
WOW - I see why your would want to be an activist. No real thought required. How do I get a job like that.
And your last point is probably the most revealing. All this hub-bub for what purpose - do you even remember what the reason was???
Absolutely !!! its a great idea that i have been promoting.For example-on thurs.for the 7 am mass rally ON wall st...wear biz attire...hide signs in briefcase,and just get down to the stock exchange doors.then at 7 am....flash mob !!!!
Why at the stock exchange? I use NASDAQ.
In case of a search for protesters hide the signs and make signs out of the briefcases instead and if they do search us, the search will shut down wall street instead of ows shutting it down.
I who do you expect to donate these biz attire items, the banksters??
How many of you already have brief cases?? Or are you going to put out a public appeal for 1,000 or so briefcases. too??
Some of us already have suits to look for jobs.
Way to go. Good luck in your job seeking efforts, I can only wish you the best. Please realize that I come from an area where a suit is not part of the job seeking effort. That all left my world many years ago about the time I got my first job out of college. Since then, it has been rolled up sleeves, open collar and WORK.
Holding up signs and stuff by whatever method is ok, but to really be effective we must focus in on disrupting Corporate and patsy government infrastructures (preferably nonviolently if possible)...
Non-violence is very important because in the art of war moral law applies here.
Great Plan!
+20...it's original, productive, and uses very little resources to accomplish a bigger goal.
Well done sir.
Thank you very much.
No sir, thank YOU.
flash protesters is a good idea
though I would not want bystanders to feel corralled into these protests
actually we are surrounded by bystanders not the other way around.
Join us thursday !!! it will NOW be biggest yet !!!!
WE can use flash mob- in "disguise "-ie-biz suits....and occupy anything...Corp.offices,politicians offices {Bloomberg ! }
Not a bad idea. Seems cool.
This could be fun, even if those around you weren't considered anything.
No, they are important as an important part of this plan.
I have trouble picturing that working, but find the idea interesting nonetheless.
This is indeed a good idea, try to make some contacts with those who seem enthusiastic, and always remember to keep the higher morale ground,
And, for your own safety, don't be afraid to back away if needs be (discretion being the better part of valor, live to fight another day, as it were.)
this is an awesome idea.
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I thought this was about flashing. My bad.
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Lets add "rich district" and "pretend to be rich" somewhere in this idea.
I think that it is unwise. Unless, of course, the name of the game is to make everyone around you an enemy. People get hurt with flash mob crap.
Is there any way to make this safer? Besides they can walk away.
I don't see how. You cannot control each and every person that is in your group. You have to accept that. You cannot control each and every sudden movement of the people that you are running into. You have to accept that. You cannot guarantee their reaction to the event that is taking place. You have no idea what kind of physical or mental health issues any of those people have. Some of those people may think that they are being attacked and respond to it in unimaginable ways.
Actually it is an idea not a leadership. I would not be the one to implement it since I have school and school work. I also would not be the one to delete this idea.
Not a bad idea, except the non-protestors would not want to feel like they have been coerced into looking like protestors. This is even more true since the Police are beating up protestors brutally.
The non-protesters can walk away. Any better ideas?
I have lots of different ideas. I don't know if they are better or worse than yours.
I like your idea. I think it is creative. I am just speculating that ordinary people might not like OWS protestors using them as a 'buffer' without their consent. Public relations is really what we need right now, so try not to blow it.
Put yourself in their shoes. Let's say you support a woman's right to choose to have an abortion or not, or even just dont care. You are walking down the street, and are flanked by 'right to life' protestors that start chanting 'Abortion is murder!' etc. All the while, someone is videotaping you.
How do you now feel about the protestors who have made you look like one of them, without your consent? I mean sure, YOU can just walk away too. Those people still interfered with your space, and your privacy.
If you want to do something like this, try something more subtle like guerilla street theatre. That way, people will feel that you are entertaining them instead of using them as a 'buffer' to bolster your numbers. They will stick around to watch the show, even if they aren't in agreement with your message.
Here's an example of guerilla street theatre. A big fish chases all the little fish around, trying to eat them. He corners all the little fish together, then the little fish realize they are more powerful...and start to chase the big fish. Then say something like "99% of the fish went back to school, and got smarter."
How about a sand in water metaphor. Some of the particles would dissolve in water while others would not. The sand would be sticking out.
I don't know. It sounds like it would be good performance art. However, the metaphor is lost on me, so it will probably be lost on your audience.
You have to come across with a clearer message, such as "Nineteen little guys can take on one big bully."
Having a bully as a character is a pretty easy one, since everyone will identify him as the enemy. Most people can relate to being picked on by a bully in school. The bully gets away with it, until the nineteen kids stand against him.
I just saw a video on you tube. "Capitalism and other kids stuff". It used the metaphor of a kindergarten, where the teacher decided that only one of the kids should own all the toys. If the other kids wanted to play with the toys, they would have to ask permission of the kid who owned them all. Of course, the kid with all the toys hired bullies to protect him.
This would be a good thing to do as street theatre. Be sure to watch the video first.
I was talking about the protest method.
ah ok. Sorry, I took it too literally.
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this is a cowards way. have more faith in the cause.
How about using this as a back up plan and side plan at the same time.
there are already thermal video that show empty tents posing as a large crowd on youtube. thats bead enough i think.
So far thermal imaging can't tell the difference between protesters and bystanders when we use this method.
so you have to make it look like there are three of you instead of one? you are saying that 2/3 of the people in that picture disagree with you and yet you still hang onto the idea that you are the 99%
If they don't agree we are informing those that do not agree with us instead of protesting at them. They are the target of our information instead of protests. Think of it as something better than front row seating.
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Why is it that liberals always think that everyone just needs to be educated and they'll see things their way? lol
Most people are well aware of the issues and perfectly capable of forming their own opinions without your "information." They really don't need you to tell them anything; particularly, when you're a few years late to the party versus many others as far as most of it goes.
You can take information or reject it. Just like the option of opinion there is an option of ignoring
That's not the issue. It's a question of forcing your information on others. You likely wouldn't want, for example, a group of radical evangelical Christians to do the same to you regardless of whether "you can take it or reject it."
And please tell me that you really don't believe that you necessarily must unconditionally accept everything that you are taught in school. That's not education, that's indoctrination.
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If you're talking about what doing what you described in your post then you absolutely are forcing your "information" on them. And you appear to understand that when your say above:
"..If they don't agree we are informing those that do not agree with us instead of protesting at them. They are the target of our information instead of protests..."
You're not giving them any choice and that appears to be intentionally so. Worse yet, you're attempting to leverage their mere presense to be misconstrued as endorsement of your "information."
I am not forcing "information" on them. Did you read my posts? They are allowed to walk away. That is the choice that they have already. Do you understand the difference between giving and and forcing? Forcing information is something I am not doing.
Bullshit. lol
Kinda like when the Taliban place themselves amongst women and children using them as human shields. Great idea!
Nope the bystanders will support us by doing their normal swarming when there is no protesters and we will take advantage of that. This will provide us cover. The bystanders will be able to protest about that to the police also.
This would be great. But in the nude. Naked, the OWS babes with their hairy legs and arm pits would look like sasquatch.
Nudity would blow our cover.
The mob rules!
Flash protest tomorrow at noon in Harlem, wear white hoods so you can identify each others. Those that are left repeat the process in South Philly at noon the next day....
bigbang below missed the evolutionary step where we became upright thinkers. he might have shown up. funny post.
really, what a dumbass.
Identifying each other is not necessary we just need a "starters" (a person to start the protest with a signal) with the "reacters" (flash protesters that will start protesting after the starters starts) spread around regular people. Besides anything that will identify each others make us more easier to arrest.
You must really feel your "movement" is pretty weak to be discussing ideas like this. Sad.
I have a pain in my skull when I hit myself with a large stick. How do I make the pain stop?
Time heals as long as you stop hurting yourself and I am not hurting myself. Therefore be like me: a person that does not hurt oneself.
thanks Billy...did you see that forum about the lady that's putting pencils in her nose? she needs help.
Is it the sharp point or the eraser side because even though the "lead" is graphite this may cause permanent brain damage if shoved in far enough. There is a difference between shoving a pencil in your nose and shoving one in a sharpener. I am not a doctor and the advice I gave you is based on common sense.
Thank you so much...I saw some advice about breaking the pencil up into small pieces before putting up your nose. I thought that was good advice.