If the protesters want to be taken seriously, they should consider dressing nicer. Come on, t-shirts and jeans?

[AStern]

Oh sure, because nothing says “credible protest” like a sea of American flags. Maybe if they waved a few more Stars and Stripes, ICE would stop tearing families apart?

The obsession with how many flags they’re carrying isn’t about patriotism—it’s a tired tactic to discredit the protest itself. It’s not subtle, and it’s not new. The message is clear, but critics would rather nitpick the packaging than face the substance. Plain and simple.

[Javaman]

1. they should have carried trump flags LOL nt

[bif]

2. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

[AStern]

3. Dripping with it

In response to the attempts of invalidating the concerns of the protesters. Many of whom are of Mexican heritage.

[Hekate]

22. I appreciate that

I got into a circular argument with someone who said there was no way we should be allowing Mexican flags at our protests, and when I gave him a thumbnail sketch of the history of California, he doubled down, saying in that case the land had been twice stolen.

The real Bobby Kennedy stood with Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. In California.
Si se puede.

[Keepthesoulalive]

4. I think there is a touch of honesty and maybe getting the big picture

Also seeing things from another perspective.

[ret5hd]

5. ...AND CUT THEIR HAIR!!!

goddam hippies.

[Traildogbob]

6. Damnit

Who knew those damn Jean wearing tee shirt clad hippies could have ended Viet Nam sooner if they had pressed and creased jeans with a nice colored button down shirt. Maybe Izod. Tucked in of course.
Did ya see what those fine patriots wore in Jan 6?
Or any Trump KKKlan Jamboree?

[dweller]

7. DON'T THEY OWN A SUIT ?!?

or maybe say thank you a few times
😐



✌🏻

[Torchlight]

8. Tidy, polite, inoffensive

The push to water-down protests down into quaint parades utterly misses the point: if dissent is defanged, the GOP will just conjure up some new, baseless outrage. And naturally, we’ll be treated to more sanctimonious lectures on why we must appease those too.

[Basso8vb]

9. Good people are falling for the bullshit. Again.

The divide and conquer strategy is working.

[Marcuse]

10. All jokes aside.

https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110775/documents/HHRG-116-JU00-20200610-SD019.pdf

[Conjuay]

11. You've got to be fuckin kidding.

I'm sorry, but my tux is in the laundry.

[TheProle]

12. I have no interest in tone-policing protesters, however,

if I move to foreign country for a better life for myself and my family and am protesting for my right to stay in that country and pursue that dream, I'm not waving around an American flag on that soil.

That said, ask any Occupy veterans about the challenges of managing myriad messages and attitudes. Conflicting imagery is inevitable.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. .

I have no interest in tone-policing protesters, however, if I move to foreign country for a better life for myself and my family and am protesting for my right to stay in that country and pursue that dream, I'm not waving around an American flag on that soil.

That is such a hilariously unlikely hypothetical you could have saved time and effort by either putting a period after "I have no interest in tone-policing protestors" and leaving it at that OR just saying "I don't like what they're doing."

[TheProle]

16. That's your opinion, and I stand by my comment as written.

[Arazi]

18. You must lose your mind in Irish pubs all over the US then

The week before St Paddy’s Day must be unbearable.

And those Ukrainian flags I see in some windows are simply crazy. Crazy I tell ya!

Don’t get me started on those Canadians either. How dare they display that shit anywhere in the US! Damn maple leafs

[TheProle]

20. Nope, not at all.

[Ms. Toad]

19. I have no interest in tone-policing . . . then proceeds to tone police. n/t

[TheProle]

21. Oh bullshit.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Nope. Just an objective description of what you just did. n/t

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. I saw a photo of someone protesting with an Americna flag but they had green hair, what do

[Picaro]

14. Same tactics as the 60's and early 70's

The protesters were scruffy and they waved Vietnamese flags and they chanted mean slogans and they just weren’t polite and well dressed enough.

Forget that part about being drafted for a war that even with the benefit of hindsight made no sense at all. A war that the power structure in the US was so adamant about getting into that they may have had the sitting US president assassinated. But we’ll never see the unreacted files on that now will we?

The English nobility just didn’t like the way Wat Tyler and his people acted during the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 either (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt). Forget all that stuff about taxes and being able to charge more for labor because of the labor shortage caused by the Black Death.

These are the typical complaints of the powerful. Forget the lack of due process, the overt arbitrary violence of masked heavily armed ICE agents, the kidnapping of people of color without reference to any charges. Forget all that. These people were waving Mexican flags for god’s sake. And, gasp, some of them are wearing masks (most likely to provide some protection from the clouds of tear gas, but maybe to keep them from getting scooped up later due to facial recognition software).

Power doesn’t like being resisted. Never has. Never will.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

17. It's so obviously right wing bullshit

[Oneironaut]

24. It's such an absurd talking point. The media will always find something "wrong" with protests.

The protesters could be wearing suits and evening gowns, waving the American flag, and, singing God Bless America, and, the media would still shit on them and call them the bad guys. Respectability politics just do not work.

Of course, within reason. There are things that can make a protest look bad, like violence. Not t-shirts though.