Here are the initial results from our crowdsourced crowd-counting estimates

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Worth noting that it’s in spite of threats of violence and getting disappeared. There’s bound to be some people who didn’t attend because of immigration status or worry over job loss.

    • DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      But immigration status makes sense right? I am on Green Card I try to avoid any political demonstration because I don’t vote. I don’t want to lose my visa, my home and be sent to a concentration camp, no everyone is protected by the 1st right now.

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Yes, exactly my point, the march is suppressed by the authoritarian government. 7 million is a lot when it probably could have been twice that if everyone was able to come out who disagreed with how things are going.

  • InvalidName2@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Absolutely no reasonable person protesting on Saturday expected the federal government to lie down immediately and just give up, turn democratic and liberal, enact single payer healthcare and stop needlessly sending people to places like “Alligator Alcatraz” without due process. If that was your expectation, you are stupid. I still think you’re great, of course, but you are either willfully ignorant or woefully naive.

    A lot of naysayers who are supposedly “on the same side” are poo-pooing all over this with statements like “it was pointless” and “it achieved nothing”. Be ignorant like MAGA if you want, it’s a free country.

    My small, rural, southern town that held a protest was planning for around 150 people to attend. Last I heard, the official number of attendees was around 300. It might not sound like much, but that was an enormous surprise to pretty much everyone. We even had a Trump supporter drive around dozens of times blasting his horn and doing the most pitiful attempt at rolling coal you’ve probably ever seen. It was great!

    But, I know for a fact, I personally realized that there are way more of my neighbors than I thought who are politically aligned with me. I saw dozens upon dozens, maybe even hundreds of people in their cars honking, waving, blowing kisses, giving thumbs up. I guarantee you at least some of those folks drove down the local highway feeling like they were alone, outliers, and surrounded by haters, then they hit the first intersection in town and saw literally hundreds of their neighbors who agree with them politically. That’s empowering and that’s absolutely NOT pointless.

    • RobotsLeftHand@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      But, I know for a fact, I personally realized that there are way more of my neighbors than I thought who are politically aligned with me.

      I keep seeing people ask why and this is the answer. I was surprised to see the number of people I did in smaller towns across Texas.

    • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
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      7 days ago

      I saw coverage on several of the networks and PBS. I swear, I start to fall into conspiracy theory thinking when I watch news these days. All the coverage was NYC, Atlanta, Seattle, etc… Blue cities that have been demonized by the press and magats for years, despite reality. I think it would have been way more helpful to see coverage of protests like where you are. I went to my local one, there were a few thousand people, but honestly, that was expected.

      • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net
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        7 days ago

        I live in small town Washington, population 2k, and we also had around 300 people show up in the rain to protest. In the rain!

      • BanMe@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I live in Little Rock. Our Pride march was mixed with the No Kings march. Estimates were for 10-20k people between the two events, and I would say we got that many at least. The local conservative paper said “hundreds” gathered for the No King’s rally, the local Fox affiliate said “dozens” gathered for Pride. If you weren’t there, you would have no idea how big it was, a single video angle couldn’t begin to capture the size as they spread across multiple city blocks. Would be nice if they could at least try for honesty.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 days ago

    I live in an ultra red shithole and even we had an easy 300+ people turn out and line an entire intersection with signs. Shit is looking good.

    • Kite@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Same. I drove through them and it was great to see. What I was surprised to see was that most everyone was late gen x and boomer age. Very few young people.

      I gave them a thumbs up out my window and they all started hollaring. It was fun, seemed like a great vibe.

  • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Big crowd in Tennessee yesterday! I’m floored by how united we are against Trump and the MAGA minority across the country, even in my deep red city. Then idea of any kind of left-of-center gathering happening here 15 years ago would’ve been unthinkable

    • Eldritch@piefed.world
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      8 days ago

      We had a nice crowd in Kansas City as well. If only our fascist governor would let our voices matter too. But it’s nice to see that people are waking up.

  • blave@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Our estimate is based on reports from local officials, local organizers, and attendees, and suggests the count from organizers — who report 7 million participants nationwide — may be a bit optimistic (but is not impossible). Still, regardless of whether the precise number is 5, 6, 7, or 8 million, Saturday’s events are very likely the biggest single-day protest event since 1970, surpassing even the 2017 Women’s March demonstrations against Trump.

    • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Wow, its crazy seeing my little hometown get recognition. Shout outs to

      P̷̧̱̳̗̫̯̜̒̍̋͂̊̈́̊̉̈́̂̈́̔̐͋͝l̴̰̣̤̣̱̻̱͙̽́͂̾̑̔̎͑͒̊̉̀̐͑̈́̈́͂̚̕̚͠ą̶̥̘̗̭̍̔̔̏̇͌͑͘̕͝͝c̴̡̡̛̝̖̥̹͕̙̘̹̜̭̣̗̮͎͎͇̙̮͓͈̖̖̘̥̎̑̌̊̿͋̃͗͒́͐ͅȅ̵͖̹̹͈̗͎̟̰̮͚̻̺͊͋̕͜ͅv̵̢̧̧̛̯̞̩͖͈̲̙̯̳͎͕͉̬̱̘͈͕̳̦͋̄̄̃̽̓͆͊͑̔͑͑̿̿̐̏̿́͒̍̈͊͛̓̅͌͌͛͘͘͜͝͠ͅi̸̡̧̛̬̣͎̥̖̣̹͖̮̜̲͍̙̪̘̤̫͇̫̳͙̞̳̘̰̬̮̖̠̎͂̀̄̑̎́̊̿͐́̔͂́̀̂͗͂̍̓͋̀̓͆̅̇̌́͐̚̕͝l̸͍̂̒̃̎͊̿́l̵̢̡̢̨̧̛̛͇̞̖̯̩̺̤̪̠̪̙̼̖͎͉͈̼̼͍͓̼̪̹̦̈́́̽̊͗̾̍̀̀̂̂͂̉̀̀̏̈́͌́́̅̏̌̑͘͘̕͜͝ͅe̷̡̡̡̧̛̗̣̯̫̣͍͓̜̩̘̦̟̣͓̘̦̘̳̹̩͓̭̫͔̾̈́̀́̂͆͒̀́͐̓͋̈́̀̈́̾͌̉͆̈́̂̍͑̌̊̚̕͝͝͝ͅͅ,̴̦͓̪̦̼͔̾̋̈̀̀̈́̃͗̒̓̎̊͑͊͌̏̐̕͜͠ ̸̡͔̥̹̞̪͉͍̮̣̫̙̻̠̮̺̝̙͔͖̘̭̙̥̬̥͈̹͇̯͌͒̋̉͒̇̓͆̐̇̀̂̓̓̓͆͗̓͘͝S̴̢̡͔̲͎̮͍̪̙̥̫͓̳̣̙̥̟̟̬̹͚͚̬̠̘͓͙̦̪̪̓͑͌̑͑͛̂̊̔̔̓̀̅́͆͘̕̕͝͠ͅT̶̡̛͖̖͙̺̖̩̫̞̅͌͋͗́͑͋̓̇̍̂̋̽̊͆̀̈̀̆̕̕͝͝

  • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I’m not sure who pegged the number for major change at 5%, but the good news is that with the numbers seen yesterday, a rough 1.45%-2.33% of total U.S. population (342,678,000 est. as of Oct. 18) made it out. Great work by the organizers and demonstrators, roughly halfway there.

      • spaduf@slrpnk.net
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        7 days ago

        Absolutely nobody should be taking this site seriously. It’s pretty disappointing that a non honey pot alternative hasn’t popped up yet (with Union support).

        • tamal3@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Take what seriously, exactly? The number count isn’t an accurate representation of who would be willing to strike. I don’t even know what would happen if 11 million people actually signed strike cards. But isn’t it doing its job of getting the word out that this is a possibility, and that it’s something we can work toward? Isn’t it giving people a way to organize and purposefully spread the word about the power of a general strike? Unless there’s something nefarious that I’m missing it’s doing exactly what I would want it to do.

        • cenzorrll@piefed.ca
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          7 days ago

          They do have options to show support that don’t involved putting yourself into a database, but yeah.

      • CircuitGuy@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I enthusiastically marched yesterday and at the demonstration in June, but I am against a third of those, skeptical of a third, and supportive of the rest. So I would be mostly against their causes. The No Kings rally yesterday focused on respecting the Constitution and opposing Executive overreach. My point is the longer the list demands, the greater the chance of alienating people.

  • jaaake@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I want to find some reliable numbers, but I think it’s going to take time for this google doc spreadsheet that is collating numbers to have accurate estimates. Especially since it community driven, using news articles that don’t have good data themselves. For example, I’ve seen drone footage of the San Diego march that clearly shows more than the 25k that is being used. SDPD said there were “over 25k in attendance.” Analysis of the video puts the crowd size closer to 35-40k (and that’s just for what was in frame for the video, at the time it was taken).

    • aquovie@lemmy.cafe
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      7 days ago

      I’d say the protest I was at was at least twice as big as what’s listed in that sheet. It wasn’t a major city so it’s not that hard to count either.

  • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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    7 days ago

    So it beat the women that protested Trump’s first inauguration?

    Edit: oh, I think that one is still #1 for a single city. This is a sum of protests across the whole country

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    So, roughly a little less than 2% of the country protested. Awesome.

    It’s pretty clear after attempt number 3 that the vast majority of Americans either support trump, or just really don’t give a shit about any of this

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        And how much do they think they’ll be able to afford once the cheeto is done with his changes?

        • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          Approximately 53 million Americans work weekends. And around 8.48 million have more than one job.

          I turned out, but I had friends that couldn’t.

        • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          If you know a business open on the weekend, that’s someone who couldn’t take a day off from work. I work Saturday/Sundays on my gig. Fully against Trump, just can’t take a 2.5 hour bus ride one way and a day off of my job to attend. That money is going towards paying for the healthcare and rent of my family.

          Edit: Sorry that I have a job to provide my family PugJesus. I know you hate that I have a life outside of Lemmy, unlike you.

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      This is such an insanely stupid and ignorant comment. Maybe don’t weigh in on topics you know nothing about.

      Change can be encited with a small group of people, and this was not a small group of people. Public opinion is the only weapon we can weild right now, and it’s emphatically working as Trump’s approval ratings are plummeting.

      Discounting our success publicly is exactly what Trump does. If you’re going to do his work for him, you should at least get paid - go apply to OANN.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        Uh huh

        And how much exactly changed after the previous no kings protests, after which people like you made the exact same claims?

        Yeah, absolutely nothing

        And what changes after the previous one?

        Nothing

        What has this protest done so far? Well it did something, it made trump release this really weird AI video of him shit bombing US citizens… Not sure if anyone else had this in their bingo cards, but alas, the times we live in.

        I’m not saying that at some point a protest might make a difference, but I’d you look at how people protest world wide and how they protest in the US, there is a very marked difference.

        If you want to make change with a smaller group, that’s fine if you continuously protest, all day, every day, and have more and more people join in. You could also go the violent way (would not recommend) and out the country in turmoil and chaos.

        The US, however, has had pretty much three major protests.

        Three

        And what showed up was around 2% ish of the population.

        It’s not enough and it won’t make a difference. Show up with 30 million people and you EILL get attention. This, however, is the third attempt and it is yet again too little, too late.

        Wanna protest again? Trump government doesn’t care. They have the propaganda channel setup to lie about the protests. As far as maga supporters are concerned, these people are terrorists that should be shot. That didn’t change.

        Unless you have a thousand days of protest planned as a follow-up to this one, this latest protest won’t do shit

    • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 days ago

      My options were because I work Saturdays, where the closest protest is over 90 miles away:

      • Take a bus the day before, spend the night before in a motel. Skip a day of work, then get food and protest, then come back home.
      • Take a bus of the day, skip a day of work, and arrive about the last hour or so of the protest, and risk the police harassing me for being at a protest after they decided it was over.

      So I lose our on $138 dollars to help pay rent/food, and then spend $90+ dollars on the motel and food, to attend the protest.

      If there was one in my hillbilly area I’d consider it before wondering if the redneck dipshits might shoot a chubby queer.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        I get it, this is a very pragmatic response. The problem, however, is that if everyone has this response (and let’s face it, it’s America, most people are so fucked over with their jobs, income, medical expenses, etc that they’re all in your same boat) that these protests will never swell to a tipping point.

        Meanwhile maga turns more powerful every day and son enough they’ll be able to stop protesting altogether. Them it will be too late and then what will you do, especially being a person somewhere on the LGBT line?

        I get it, you make a whole lotta sense and under any other circumstances I’d say that you’re totally right but I think it’s hard not to feel like we’re in Germany 1939, and there are rapidly shrinking amounts of options left to stop this before the jailing of LGBT “for their own protection or some other bullshit” will start

      • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        Many Europeans genuinely do not understand the sheer size of our country. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything else they seem to not understand about our shitty culture that’s been glorified and lied about on TV for generations.

        • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          The fact I can cross that via a bus is pretty nice. But the fact I don’t own a car nor have to drive (never needed to, the buses here are pretty decent and have decent rates), does impact me for a lot of events. I’ve been able to attend some about a mayor in my area when he falsely accused a homeless shelter of a gunshot wound, but the police officer who said it faked it all for attention.

          So the mayor made shit up, about something that was made up. A protest was organized in front of city hall, and it was very close to a bus stop for me. Attended, hung out with some organizers and helped sign some ballot initiatives. Overall a decent time telling a Republican mayor to fuck off.

          Edit: Sorry that I have a job to provide my family PugJesus. I know you hate that I have a life outside of Lemmy, unlike you.

    • CircuitGuy@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      So, roughly a little less than 2% of the country protested. Awesome.

      I think that’s actually a lot. It’s around 4.5% of voters. Just under half of voters voted from Trump, although some of them may have changed their minds since the election. There are some people who aren’t into demonstrating on the streets. There is always some percentage of people with something else going on. For example, my teenagers didn’t go because they had both run grueling races yesterday morning. My wife and I were at risk of being late because we went to a neighboring city yesterday morning to watch our kids race and because the roads and bus system were overwhelmed with people going to the demonstration and to the Badgers game, but when we arrived thousands of people were still pouring onto East Wash (the main road the Square).

      That was just our life. I’m sure someone else’s kid had a big race or performance that did conflict, or their parent just received a bad medical diagnosis, or they had to work, or they’re in the middle of moving house. 4.5% of voters getting out and marching is a lot.

    • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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      7 days ago

      Paraphrasing Susan Sontag, 10% of people are decent, 10% evil and the other 80% don’t really give a shit and juat go along with whatever…

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        80% of the people just want to live life, enjoy their friends and family. That too is decent.

        I’d say that 10% is the hero that is an activist, that is Willie to risk themselves for the betterment of everyone else