blinding me with science oh wait no it was glitter

[blackjedii]

The Problem With the March for ScienceHundreds of thousands of self-professed science supporters turned out to over 600 iterations of the March for Science around the world this weekend. Thanks to the app Periscope, I attended half a dozen of them from the comfort of my apartment, thereby assiduously minimizing my carbon footprint

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[moonshaz]

I've been to a fair number of protest marches and such, and for me, a lot of the value is the experience of being part of a crowd of people who share my passion for the issue we are demonstrating about. I can't express how wonderful it has felt, in these dark days since 45 moved into the White House and took us all on this nighmare carnival ride that is his so-called presidency, to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with other people who find him to be as loathsome and terrifying as I do and know that they are as determined as I am to fight against the evil things he wants to do.

Case in point: on 4/15, I took part in the Tax March in Chicago, the chief point of which was to protest Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns and make it clear, despite his insistence that no one cares about his taxes, that lots and lots of peopke DO care, and that he's not fooling anybody--that we know there's something in those returns that he doesn't want peple to know about, and that pretending otherwise is NOT okay. Talk about an exercise in futility, right? We all know he has no fucks to give about what his detractors think (none that he will admit to anyway), and that he’s not going to suddenly go, "Oops, my bad, here are those silly old taxes!  Thank you so much for making me realize it was a mistake to hide them!!" just because a bunch of people in a bunch of different cities marched around with giant inflatable chickens for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. I think it's a safe bet that virtually no one who went to any of the tax marches thought there was the slightest chance that we were going to influence Trump to change his tiny mind about anything. Tbqh, the most I hoped myself for was that the marches might possiblyannoy or embarrass him just a little tiny bit, and I knew we'd never know if that was the case. And yet...

And yet, I didn't really even question whether it was worth doing. It’s hard to explain, but I feel that making one's voice heard has value, in and of itself. If nothing else, these marches send a message that there is a significant number of Americans who are not going to take this shit lying down, that we are not all going to roll over and play dead when an ignorant asshole finagles his way into the highest office in the land and tries to use that position to fuck with virtually everything we hold dear. When people take a stand for what they believe is right, I think it DOES have an impact, in many different ways, some tangible and some not, but all real and meaningful.

These kinds of activities energize people, both the ones who take part and the ones who hold the same views but aren’t there in person due to geography or other factors. They let us know we're not alone, and they let others know we're, at the risk of sounding corny, a force to be reckoned with. Which is a damn good feeling, and since Jabba the Trump got elected, it's a feeling I (and I believe a lot of other people) need to stay sane. That right there would be enough for me, even if I thought there were no other beneficial effects, which I don’t.

So yeah, I think these things are worthwhile. I can't fully articulate all the  reasons why, but I do. I just know what I experience when I march, and I know it is powerful. And that is enough to keep me coming back.