A Tale of Two Protests

There are still ways for Democrats and progressives to make our voices heard. It's more important than ever for us to stay engaged.

Over the next weeks and months, Democrats and progressives are going to need to make our opinions known in whatever way we can. Protests — whether online or in person — will be crucial to remind the incoming felon and his MAGA sycophants that they do not have our buy-in for all the horrors that they want to foist upon us.

In recent days, two simple but effective ways to protest have surfaced. If enough people engage in them, we can make a difference.

Inauguration Blackout

Presidential inaugurations have historically been sedate, dignified celebrations surrounding the swearing in of a U.S. President. They’ve been opportunities for Americans of all political stripes to come together for the shared purpose of carrying on this centuries-old democratic tradition.

Not this year.

Billionaires, tech bros, Nazis (yes, literal Nazis), Christian nationalists, and the usual assortment of sycophants of Felon47 will be populating the dais. There seem to be very few qualms about rubbing elbows with the people who are intent on destroying the nation. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Oh, yes, and also all former living U.S. Presidents are being put in a position to share the stage with these guys or face the wrath of the MAGA hordes and the right-wing media machine.

Several Democratic congress members will not be attending — some with transparent excuses, others stating outright that they won’t attending because of the nature of the event.

After all these years, Felon47 is still desperate to outdo his predecessor in crowd size and in television viewership. So I, like many others, will not be watching the Inauguration.

There are informal boycotts underway, including those intending to deprive Felon47 of his TV ratings lifeblood. (Remember how butthurt Felon47 was about inauguration crowd sizes in 2017?)

I encourage everyone to switch off the TV and not watch the inauguration at all. The temptation may be great to witness the chaos firsthand but, I promise you, anything of any importance that occurs on Inauguration Day will be replayed non-stop on newscasts and will be available to be viewed for the rest of our lives.

A byproduct of this kind of protest is that it may let television news organizations know that a good chunk of their audience isn’t interested in viewing non-stop fawning over this convicted felon autocrat.

Deactivating, Defunding, or Deleting Meta

There’s also an online movement underway in which people are eliminating or minimizing their use of Meta products. Some are suggesting to log out of all those apps for one week, from January 19 through January 25. That mass logout is intended to “send a message” to Mark Zuckerberg that many of his own users do not approve of his capitulation to and financial support of Felon47.

The difficult thing about simply pulling the plug is that apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and now Threads have become so integral to our lives.

I’ve reconnected with any number of people from my past via Facebook. I stay in touch with friends in different parts of the world on WhatsApp. On the other hand, Instagram — for me — is mostly a time-sink and would be the easiest for me to pull the plug on. Threads is another easily expendable app — partly because it’s relatively new and partly because there are viable alternatives.

Minimizing or eliminating the use of these apps will take a different form for each of us. Here are some options:

• Unplug altogether from all Meta apps. This, of course, is the most extreme and may not be possible. But at one time, we were all unplugged from all Meta apps — and all social media — because they didn’t exist. We got along just fine without them then.

• Limit use of the Meta apps to specific functions — like staying in touch with relatives or keeping connected with those who share your specific hobby or profession.

• Use the Meta apps to promote your presence on other apps. For example, if you have accounts on BlueSky or Mastadon, you can gradually redirect your Facebook or Instagram followers to your accounts on those apps.

• Promote progressive ideas, causes, and events. If, so far, you have remained apolitical on those apps, break your own rules. Now is not the time to be shy about resisting tyranny, autocracy, and oligarchy.

• Put a strict time limit on your use of these apps each day or each week. This not only deprives Meta of what it wants (your eyeballs and your engagement), it also frees up time for more meaningful pursuits.

• Stop clicking on Facebook ads. Each click provides revenue.

• Use the Meta apps to criticize Meta and Mark Zuckerberg.

The underlying goal is to minimize any benefit that Meta has for our presence on their apps while deriving the maximum benefit for ourselves.

Will either of these efforts have any effect? If anything, they’ll at least be a kickoff for the work that is ahead of us. And perhaps they’ll get under Felon47’s thin skin.