Activism

doll face.:

I agree with both. PeTA, for example, I've always found a bit shady.

I'm glad someone agrees with me.
PETA exploits the bodies of women and various tragic events to 'shock', as well as puts together controversial ads.
Their ads don't need to have naked people in them. Naked people have nothing to do with animal rights.
All PETA supports is shocking the public and making money.

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I do a lot of recycling; seriously, I throw nothing out. I have about five glass bottles sitting by me right now, ready to be used for storaging.
I love recycling. It's very fun.
I also do some DIY. Right now I'm knitting a scarf. I don't know if that counts as activism, but it sure does save me some money.
I can't say that I'm really a member of an sort of organization.
I mean, I did Day of Silence, and I always donate money to sick kids when people at the cash register ask me if I want to.
To be honest, I don't want to join any organizations.
I like that freerice.com website, though. It's pretty cool.
The truth is, I'm not too big on animal rights. I love animals, and I think it's great there a people who want to help them (peta not included), but I could just never get myself interested enough to do anything. Besides, I love meat.

Old thread but it should be okay. I hope it's okay to revive old threads like this. ^^'

I'm an activist as well. I've been into activism online for many years though I didn't start with street activism until around November of 2011. For now, I've cut back on my street activism by a lot because right now, I'm just not in proper health to be taking part in that sort of activism. I'd love to one day get back to it and I hope that soon enough, I'll be feeling up to participating in protests more. I still got to a protest every couple of weeks, but it's nothing like the multiple protests a week I used to do last year. I still do my online activism through petitions and talking to people about things to try and educate them. And hopefully to convince them to help out, even if it's just a little bit. Online activism is just as important as street activism, it's a good way to get people educated and sometimes, petitions can help make a change. Even if you can't participate in street protests, you can still help online or even just by talking to people face-to-face about the issues.

I'm a completely peaceful activist, I don't think violence has a place in protests because most of the time, it doesn't do anything but get the protesters hurt by the police. If you're participating in protests, please don't be violent and please don't antagonize the police. It will only result in your fellow protesters getting beat on by the cops. And trust me, getting beat on by the police is no fun. Violence is just not worth it. You are only making the police's job harder and getting innocent people hurt. It's better, safer, and smarter to be a peaceful activist than a violent one.

I'll admit I've broken the law a few times during protests. Though the extent of my law breaking was usually only trespassing, and that usually consisted of blocking the doors to a large bank. I've trespassed like twice within a vacant building though. Both times we were cleared out by the police. I've never been violent and I've never gone too far with breaking the law like some people I know, though I know a lot of people frown upon any law breaking at protests and I respect that viewpoint. I don't break the law much anymore during protests because I have more to lose now. I have to be more cautious.

I've had a number of run-ins with police (most of them being when I was with Occupy), some of them I would call police brutality and others I would say were justified. I can still clearly remember the first time I experienced police brutality at a protest, it was over a year ago in January of 2012. It was a night protest in Oakland. The Oakland police are known for being corrupt, they're known for their brutality so it's not surprising my first taste of police brutality was from them. Funnily enough, I felt my first taste of police brutality at a march against police brutality. We were headed off by the police and the police started surrounding us from every direction. Everyone starting panicking because we knew what a kettle meant. A kettle leads to violence when it comes to the OPD. And sure enough, the police rushed us. The ones surrounding us in the back left just as the front officers rushed us, causing everyone to panic and run away from them. They released us from their kettle because they knew the front officers were going to rush us. It was really scary. I don't even know to how to describe what it feels like to be in that situation. I was hit by a couple officers that night and had one point a gun in my face, but I thankfully escaped arrest. The police chased us for probably a mile before they gave up and stopped trying to hurt us. That attack was fueled by hate. You could feel the hatred for us coming from the officers. It was an unprovoked attack.

I've been through a lot at the hands of the OPD. I've been tear gassed by them. Tear gas fucking sucks, I'll tell you that. I've been pepper sprayed by them. I've been chased by them. I've been tackled by them and I've been beaten by their batons. Those things hurt like hell I'll say. I've rarely had problems with the San Francisco police, they are much more calm and know how to handle protesters since protesting is pretty much a daily thing in SF.

I think the fact we're helping people and raising awareness to issues is what makes activism worth it. I enjoy the activism that I do and I feel passionate about a lot of causes. I don't particularly identify myself with any one organization, I prefer supporting any that appeal to me. I will only support organizations I know are trustworthy. I've worked with Code Pink, Marriage Equality USA, American Foundation for Equal Rights, Move On, and The World Can't Wait just to name a few. I was with Occupy for a while but I've left them because they've been overtaken by nothing but violence. I still agree with them, I just can't support such violence.

Very long post. I'm sorry.

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