When protest packs a punch

After attending the Stand Up for Science demonstration in Washington D.C. on Friday, I can report that nerds are alive and well in our nation’s capital. The local event was part of a nationwide turnout effort, with attendees supporting everything from funding science and saving vaccination programs to choosing reality over the whimsical method of wishcasting and grudges currently used to set policy by the president of the United States.

With at least thirty demonstrations domestically and more than 150 around the world, the day was a chance for sometimes politically disengaged researchers and medical professionals to let the public know that the new administration was distinguishing itself, in the words of astronomer Phil Plait, as “the most aggressive anti-science government the U.S. has ever had.”

Unlike the USAID demonstrations I reported on earlier this year, which demanded restoration of the jobs and funding unceremoniously (and likely illegally) cut by Elon Musk, this protest was a more general call to support science. Though people carried signs with specific demands, a variety of attendees came to offer moral support to a community under attack. Thousands showed up in D.C.

A lot of other variables are still in play, but it’s seeming more and more likely that the eventual solution to the crisis of democracy unfolding in the country will come down to protest. That could take several different forms. Today I want to talk about what the point of protest is, how it works, and when it’s valuable.

But first I want to take a moment to for some housekeeping. The big reason we’re doing Next Comes What is to push back against authoritarianism in the most effective ways possible—now, while we still can. And meeting that goal is a group project! So we want to hear from you. Do you have a question about any of the topics I’ve covered? More-of-a-comment-than-a-question you’d like to send? Do you have a local—or a national—success story? Email your thoughts to [email protected]. You can write it, record it, or even video it. And we might even use it in a future episode. Thanks for being a part of this newsletter.

Action against oppression

When it comes to demonstrating, a key question that has to be answered is why protest in the first place? Simply put, protest is often at the base of the people’s ability to remind leaders that the public ultimately controls who holds power. When protests are eradicated or so controlled by government as to be useless, it often signals a society’s submission to authoritarian rule.

Though I’m talking about nonviolent protest today, it has to be acknowledged that the power of a bunch of bodies coming together in space for political reasons implicitly suggests that peaceful alternatives are being offered in place of what those bodies can otherwise do. Other kinds of protests that aren’t about creating a crowd in public—things like complaining to your elected representative on a phone call or in a meeting, speaking against a budget cut at a city council meeting—suggest a different kind of power over legislators. But these actions also remind officials you have the power to remove them.

Though mass demonstrations are likewise about power, that power is apparent in a much more raw way. That’s why governments sometimes cave to widespread protests when they show massive strength suddenly or even steady unrest over long periods of time.

Officials hope that the protests can sap unrest before it explodes into something more dynamic. But the fear of those dynamic actions is why police so often seek to provoke violence from protesters—fearing violence, the current regime wants to carry it out on their own terms, while they have the advantage.

But autocratic types (and even some who only dabble in police-state tactics) fret over when to let protesters vent and when to crush dissent. They know that protests, when allowed but successfully controlled, can sometimes sap a movement. But they fear that left unchecked, visible resistance to the government might let unrest spread through the broader population.

This has been an ongoing issue for Vladimir Putin in Russia. A recent study on tactics there, “Opposition rule under autocracy,” looked at what possibilities the opposition has to make changes when its access to power is limited. Among other questions, the study considered the appeal of two roles for those opposing the government—running for low-level office to challenge to the ruling regime versus remaining an outsider leading protests without the taint of being part of the system.

The good news for those of us in the U.S. is that there are still low-level offices where real power can be exercised in tandem with organized movements. And public protest remains, for most citizens, far less dangerous than it is in more fully authoritarian societies.

Still, the dangers of protest, which have always existed for Black Americans and Native American populations, are likely to expand in the coming months to threaten more of us. (Not for nothing has Trump threatened to treat property damage to Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.”)

Looking back, the U.S. civil rights movement is perhaps the high point of public protest driving significant change in policy on a national level, with parallel impacts locally coast to coast. But it’s important to note the relationships and the community institutions that were built before that effective protest were what made such coordinated and disciplined action possible. And in a country as geographically large as the U.S., building a nationwide movement can be a challenge.

Different forms of protest

As I’ve mentioned before, quieter, invisible kinds of protest do exist. You might deliberately slow work or sabotaging projects from the inside. You might discourage friends, acquaintances, or coworkers from abetting illegal or unethical assignments.

But today, I’m focusing on the visible side: when groups of people speak out in public in obvious and strategic ways, usually focused on a particular issue, such as racism, economic policies, or policing. These protests can take a lot of forms, from labor strikes and boycotts to letter-writing campaigns or networks mobilizing people to call their representatives, or, most obviously, mass public demonstrations by the general public.

Who usually protests?

Universities are frequently a hotbed of political dissent. Think of US student antiwar groups on campuses (a population particularly threatened by the draft) who stood up against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Universities in the U.S. often simultaneously resisted and reluctantly defended free speech on campus. Students tend to be unmarried, not yet employed, or have jobs less tied to their professional futures. As a result, they’re often more willing to take risks than older adults, whose job and community pressures might discourage them from speaking out.

This is one reason it was disastrous (beyond being simply wrong) for universities to proceed with such animus against their own students during the demonstrations against Israeli military actions in Gaza. Despite their corporate inclinations, even five years ago, colleges and universities could have been counted on, at least in some minimal way, to help secure democracy in a movement against authoritarian tactics.

But now students have seen their university leadership actively soliciting police actions against them in the wake of nonviolent protest, and also using administrative tools to punish them and faculty alike. It risks breaking the back of one of the most effective means of guarding freedom in the country. And while it’s no surprise that state and national figures opposing democracy and free speech have embraced this approach, it’s shameful how many people in power in higher education have actively aided the persecution of their own students.

Many countries, including the U.S., likewise have a robust tradition of labor protests over working conditions. And unions have traditionally been another group that has historically successfully defied oppressive governments. And since his return to the presidency, Trump has expanded on his traditional hostility to workers’ rights, attempting to targeting federal union contracts.

All this is to say that many of the traditional ways that people have pushed back against government overreach and rights violations are under attack, and some have already been sold out by those who were given a chance to lead and protect them. Absent institutional help, regular people will need to step up in bigger ways.

One reason for physical protests is to show ownership of physical spaces. Recall the civil rights protests focused around lunch counters and walking through spaces still dangerous to Black Americans. Think of the 2017 disability rights protests, which people risked their lives to carry out in a refusal to exist invisibly. I hope to write more specifically about their particular refusal to be invisible before too long. It’s also important to note that each of these kinds of protests by specific American communities have benefited the country as a whole, a country that has not always repaid the kindness.

Mass protests in smaller countries have flooded capital cities, asserting their control over government. Think of those against Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, or the ones denouncing Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea. The right to this kind of massive protest is much harder to get back after it’s lost than it is to maintain it in the first place. This is one of the reasons that the demonstrations on the national Mall are critical to the health of the nation—they preemptively assert the peoples’ traditional rule over the peoples’ spaces.

What’s the point?

There are two reasons to be protesting now. The first is that protests can be a quick and high-profile way to call attention to dramatic increases in wrongdoing. And the new administration is unleashing attacks not only on government by the people but also on freedom of speech itself. We don’t have to look any further than the detention of Mahmoud Khalil over the weekend to make this point. Khalil was involved in the Columbia University protests against Israeli actions in Gaza. As of today, he is reported to be a green-card holder who has not been charged with any crime.

But there’s a second reason to protest, one that in some ways is just as important as making strategic gains in the moment. Key battles are unfolding right now, and the courts are still playing an important role. But with the executive branch pressing its advantage of flexibility and obfuscation (aided in some cases by what appear to be judges complicit in illegal executive overreach), it’s becoming more likely that holding onto democracy in the United States will eventually come down to a show of force by Americans demanding our government remain accountable to the public.

Basic training

And just as a government shouldn’t send military recruits off to war without basic training, Americans should imagine they’re also in training to save the country. We need experience to have good judgment and to be able to understand the tasks at hand. It takes time to build a movement, and though we can learn from the experiences of groups like Black Lives Matter or the United Farm Workers, we need to prepare to offer more opposition to an even bigger crackdown from Trump backed by the weight of the entire federal government.

Going to demonstrations now can build public support, but it can also be a form of training. After attending a few, you’ll know what nonviolent ones feel like, you’ll know if there are bad actors in the crowd who are trying to sabotage the real protest. You’ll notice when the police start behaving differently and might be looking for trouble, or are getting orders to take action. You’ll make more informed decisions in the moment and better able to keep yourself safe if the stakes grow higher.

I was glad to see last week’s demonstrations for science included a safety manual with tips on how to prepare and how to respond if law enforcement got involved. The organizers likewise advocated for masking—though I didn’t see many people in masks at the march itself. And the organizers included chairs and an open space for those with accessibility challenges or difficulty standing.

Education about the risks of protesting is important, but so is education about the issues you’re protesting about. That might mean having FAQ materials available on a website, so that people can understand what demonstrators are doing, and why they might be affected by or want to help with the goals of the protest.

And it’s not just potential demonstrators who can benefit from this information. Having handouts available to bystanders, to provide context for whatever action you’re doing is the best way for a protest to work. A big group out in public is a great way to let people know that others have noticed something is wrong. Maybe the bystanders already noticed themselves—maybe they haven’t thought about it at all. But giving them information about the issue when they encounter your protest is a way to recruit other people to support doing something about that problem.

Strategy matters

It’s fine if there are always some people coming aboard in this state—without a lot of knowledge but with fresh energy and a willingness to join a crowd. In the long run, however, often sooner than later, there needs to be some kind of direction and specific demands. Otherwise, all that human energy and potential can get slowly bled to exhaustion without making concrete gains.

The most striking example of this kind of protest so far in 2025 is the #TeslaTakedown movement. The attempts to target Tesla are an innovative response to Elon Musk, unelected and shadily deputized by Trump, using his DOGE team to ransack government databases for profitable information while firing tens of thousands of federal employees without due process or any reason at all.

As I’ve said before, Musk is an ideal target, for three reasons. First of all, he’s the public face of the team demolishing the federal government and carrying out mass firings. Secondly, he’s less popular than Trump. Thirdly, he bankrolled Trump into the presidency and is likewise the implicit threat to bankroll opposition to any elected officials who defy Trump. And there is no bigger Elon standing behind Musk to save him if his fortune craters.

Protests at Tesla showrooms around the country provide a way to link a nationwide movement in common action and let people feel they’re a concrete part of a bigger effort. It is also, as organizer Mariame Kaba has noted, a way to do just that kind of education I was mentioning—using leaflets to explain why Musk is a threat to millions around the country. Most Americans, even if they find Musk repellent, are unaware what he’s actually up to.

Here’s a great flier that addresses what protest can do. It leads with the goals of the picketing, and does so in terms that show individuals what actions to take. Everyone is invited to join protests, investors are asked to dump their stock, and Tesla owners are encouraged to sell their cars. Demonstrators are trying to take down Tesla in order to short-circuit Musk’s wealth, which will in turn undercut his outside influence on Washington and the world.

The flyer lists some of the most egregious actions Musk has taken so far. And it lists the ways he directly benefits from federal funding that he’s denying regular people at home and abroad—with the difference being that what he’s taking away from others will result in widespread suffering and death.

The new U.S. role in the world

The U.S. used to profess some loyalty to democracy and its institutions. This was often done while turning a blind eye to enormous wrongs, several of which America helped to perpetrate. But since January 20 of this year, the U.S.—the most powerful country in the world—is actively allying itself with many of the worst actors on the planet, particularly ones it has historically rejected. This has terrible ramifications around the globe, and also some awful new ones here at home.

The U.S. pro-democracy stance, even when it was done hypocritically, did still create pressure toward civil rights and freedoms in various settings. But after distancing itself from Europe and turning its back on Ukraine, there no longer seems to be even a superficial expectation of showing other democracies that the U.S. is keeping to its stated ideals.

Trump is not trying to appeal to anyone but the dictators he envies. There will be no effective moral pressure about the optics of a given situation that might pressure Trump to hew to legal standards and civil liberties. For perhaps the first time in U.S. history, the ruling cabinet and the president cannot be shamed by the optics of a situation.

But that doesn’t mean that others with power are as impervious to shame. Everyone from governors to Tesla owners still have to live in their own communities, unable to wall themselves off from everyday people. And protest is one key tool to do that.

When it comes to demonstrating, there has to be some kind of organic component—a grievance at mistreatment, a wrong to be corrected. The more coherently those wrongs are laid out for the public over time, and the more specific the demands to address them, the better. This is why I’ve talked so much about networking.

Get involved locally in an issue that matters to you, whether it has national ramifications now or not. Find a policy that needs addressed. Become accustomed to showing up. Get familiar with your representatives, help your group set specific goals and get the word out what’s happening and what can be done about it. Think about how various forms of protest—public or invisible—might be good avenues for what matters to you. And keep in mind that no one is coming to save us. In the end, the odds are that we will have to save ourselves.

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