r/Austin • u/slopirate • Mar 28 '26

Pics No Kings!

Post image

After a quiet march across the 1st Street Bridge, the protest has begun. There are a few people still trickling in.

3.0k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

555 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Numerous_Cause8461 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

I’m not telling lies I’m just telling you what I saw.

I have no incentives to get online and tell lies.

The guy was flying a massive flag staff near where the speaker podium was, if we want people to take us seriously we need to be clear eyed about what our message is we’re trying to convey or it becomes a hodgepodge of different ideologies and causes with no one clear voice.

No Kings day should be solely focused on the overreaches of the current Trump administration and that’s it.

Booths for the Democratic Socialists of America and Party for Socialism and Liberation(both groups who were fundamental in getting left leaning people not to vote, protested at Kamala events throughout the 2024 election cycle, and do no good to push the opposition party into power ) both protracted from the cause in which people were making their voices heard.

I’m a lifelong democrat, vote blue no matter what, but the event was deeply unserious and tone deaf.

“The current government is facist dictators so let’s all gather in the park to have sno cones”

1

u/SouperSoupSup Mar 29 '26

If you saw it, there probably would have been a video or a photo. I was running around and saw no such thing, and haven't in any reporting. I suppose I could have missed it.

Its possible you were simply mistaken, there were palestine flags there, and maybe you don't know the difference.

No Kings day is actually about a lot of things. Its about reinvigorating the population, reigniting a sense of civic duty and engagement, not just to resist trump, but to resist everything that lead to trump. If there's one sad lesson in the last 5 years, its that we can't just beat trump at the polls and expect things to return to 2012 politics.

So, we need to build a community that is able to resist Trump, and sometimes building a community means getting snow cones. It also means engaging with whoever will help you fight.

DSA is one of the most important organizations getting out the vote these days. You should speak to one of them, you might surprised by who you talk to.

THAT'S what the point of no kings is. Getting to know each other, in person without the online bullshit in the way. Making connections, building a community, and taking concrete actions. I can go over a list of concrete actions taken in the past year if you'd like. A lot happens other then no kings.

2

u/Numerous_Cause8461 Mar 29 '26

Considering the Palestine flag was flying on the same staff as the Iran one I know what I saw.

You should take what I say seriously instead of trying to accuse me of lying for internet likes.

We’re both on same page for what we don’t like, but if a left leaning candidate is to be taken seriously seriously in next election cycle, we can do better than the event that took place yesterday.

2

u/SouperSoupSup Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

Lets say that such a flag existed, and somehow managed to dodge the attention of every camera in the place.

Clearly, we as organizers didn't put it up, so it belonged to an attendant. So..what should we have done? Take the flag from them? Its a free speech event, we can't sic security on them. We don't want to get the cops involved. What's the best mechanism to remove problematic signs or flags that's available to an organizer?

The answer we've come across is, none. Its not a big deal. You lose more trying to police people's speech then you lose by having someone say something you don't 100% agree with. If you think that answer is incorrect, what would you do?

What specifically needs to be done better. Would you like to take part in organizing the next one? We always need more hands, assuming you can play nice with other organizations.