Maybe Marginalia could work for you? I’ve tried using it, but it’s a lot more focused on academic stuff (rather than figuring out song lyrics or which episode some TV quote came from). It’s an “old school” search engine, though, so a bit less convenient than google, duckduckgo, etc. if you weren’t around in 90s/early 00s for that.
When google shoves their ai to the top of search results, its hard not to read it. I’ve been spoiled by ublock and I am no longer used to ignoring the first few things that come up.
The tricky part about a general strike is that you dont have much room for do-overs if it turns out you don’t have the numbers you need. Protests are largely symbolic, but are also a good way for organizers to gauge how willing/able folks are to engage in more drastic action.
If a general strike is what you think the movement should go towards, I recommend your next steps be strengthening community support systems - food banks, free clinics, shelters, etc - since these things will be needed to support a general strike (folks will choose feeding their children over political action, so make sure they can accomplish both). In the mean time, it also helps out folks who have been hit the hardest by republican and trump cuts to services.
I highly recommend folks read up on some of ICNC’s stuff, since they focus on the practical side of nonviolent conflict.
That is the tricky thing about basing predictions on historic trends. IIRC, is was Arab spring in some countries that broke the rule (and that “rule” was calculated based on data from 1900-2006). I’m also curious how Nepal and Madagascar stack up compared to historic trends.
Other aspects of Chenoweths research (such as the importance of “converting” certain factions such as police or military - or at least getting them to be neutral) are important as well but don’t get as much traction as the clickbaity 3.5% number does
ETA: Nepal’s discord had about 100k members, and it’s population is 29 million. So that was well below 3.5%. Like No Kings, Nepals protests were decentralized, which is potentially a factor compared to historic protests which tend to be focused on a single location or march
I haven’t blocked anyone here, but on Tumblr I started unfollowing folks who posted about doom and gloom all the time. That site’s more conducive to memes and TV show discussions than it is discussion about news/politics, and I don’t like scrolling through a bunch of superhero memes and then getting hit with a post about the latest atrocity in the world. That stuffs important, but it’s not healthy to fixate on it all the time.
It’s important to curate what you’re doing so that you dont fall into a doomscrolling trap or get ragebaited into arguments that go nowhere.
Timing is a fools game for sure. Bubble could pop next month, next year, or even later.
If you’re old, make sure you have a good percent in bonds. If you’re young, make sure you have 6-12 months saved in case of layoffs and keep saving - market will look completely different in 20-30 years anyways so it’s not worth worrying about.
The other option is that the supreme court undoes a prior decision, like they did to roe v. wade. Texas v. Johnson was only a 5-4 decision (To be clear, I think this would be awful as well, but it is likely how the admin plans to enforce this, assuming they have a plan).
No, what you say makes sense, and I think it’s part of the reason why linux usage (as a daily driver) is starting to increase now versus 20 years ago. It’s just easier to install and use linux distros nowadays.
And most folks who want office for free are going to go with google docs, for the convenience factor.
The assumption that you’ll lose a lawsuit against a large corporation probably stops a lot of viable lawsuits from ever happening - good for him for giving it a go.
“Staying peaceful” and “fighting back” aren’t mutually exclusive. Anyone who thinks nonviolent tactics don’t work hasn’t read up on their history (East Timor, Philippines, etc.). Every time ICE shows up to pepper spray cops and shoot at priests, local police gets more pissed, and they drive a wedge between local and federal law enforcement, weakening the administration’s ability to project power. Don’t underestimate that opportunity.
That being said, current actions are far more symbolic than transformative. No kings protests don’t do anything on their own, but could easily be leveraged into an enabler of things like boycotts and general strikes which will have a strong impact.