To be honest, that doesn’t fly. Our conservatives voted with the right wing party in parliament once on a proposition and on a law that didn’t even pass a couple of weeks ago. That was announced on Tuesday, voted on on Wednesday and Friday. Over a million were on the streets by Sunday, distributed over the whole country with some protests exceeding 300.000 people.
While in the US, things are a lot worse and it’s been weeks and it’s been known to be coming for months. I would have expected millions on the streets by now, hell, I would have expected there to be huge protests on day one.
Of course, that’s not on those who try their best to get things organized. But it’s shocking to me, that there are so many people still remaining passive, and that’s not only on the media, other groups are dropping the ball here, too. First and foremost of course the Democrats but also local businesses, sport clubs, charities, unions, churches, they all join in when big protests like that are organized in Europe.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU’s actions. That large protest wasn’t the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024
The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It’s a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump’s strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it’s hard for anything to break through the noise. It’s designed to make people so numb they don’t think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can
Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like “we’re cooked”, “why is no one doing anything”, “where are the people protesting”, etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think
but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
Am I? Democracy died within months in Germany when the Nazis took over.
I get that building up a movement takes time, but it’s not like Trump or Project 2025 are new things. Nothing he does is surprising, is it? And still, it seems the opposition is rather unprepared and unorganized. I really hope this changes quickly. Defeatism or doomerism don’t help, that’s true, but I also don’t see the sense of urgency necessary to build up an effective opposition. Then again, I’m also an ocean away, so maybe I don’t have all the insights.
I think you mistake what I am saying. I am not saying their shouldn’t be larger numbers. I am telling you why it has been difficult to get those back again. But the movement is starting to grow again. Comparisons to the crescendos of other movements isn’t helpful to understand what it takes to make that happen
Yes, it’s not new which is also why protestors are burnt out. There were millions protesting across the US during his first term and that movement did work - it lead to him getting voted out in 2020 and limited his damage to be less than it was this time around
But five year have now passed between him getting voted out of office and so the movement against him lost energy. It has to be re-build essentially. Now people are much more cynical after he was re-elected. The 1st time people were absolutely pissed about him getting elected. No one like him had in their lifetimes. But now, it’s no longer “how could this happen?”, but “this is happening again”. That’s a much harder starting point for a movement - one with less hope
Plus, the US media environment is actively worse - making the news about pushback harder to find. The protest aren’t covered anything close to as much as they were in 2017. The US media is now much more concentrated in billionaire control than it was in 2017. Since then Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and made changes, CNN’s new billionaire owner John Malone has shifted coverage, Elon Musk bought twitter, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times and blocked endorsements of Harris, and so on
There has been plenty more resistance that aren’t just protests right now too. For instance, in the courts with more success in getting him to stop things than you otherwise might think. Yes, he has been somewhat ignoring the courts, but mostly following them and they are blocking a lot. Hundreds of lawsuits are ongoing, many of which were filed on day 1 of his 2nd term. Here’s one tracker
There has also been more resistance from state and local governments too - at least ones where Democrats have control. States and cities have a fair amount of power in the US. For instance, many have been blocking collaboration with ICE using local police and such (which slows the federal government down a lot)
To be honest, that doesn’t fly. Our conservatives voted with the right wing party in parliament once on a proposition and on a law that didn’t even pass a couple of weeks ago. That was announced on Tuesday, voted on on Wednesday and Friday. Over a million were on the streets by Sunday, distributed over the whole country with some protests exceeding 300.000 people.
While in the US, things are a lot worse and it’s been weeks and it’s been known to be coming for months. I would have expected millions on the streets by now, hell, I would have expected there to be huge protests on day one.
Of course, that’s not on those who try their best to get things organized. But it’s shocking to me, that there are so many people still remaining passive, and that’s not only on the media, other groups are dropping the ball here, too. First and foremost of course the Democrats but also local businesses, sport clubs, charities, unions, churches, they all join in when big protests like that are organized in Europe.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. Once a movement has grown it can organize things more quickly, but you’re looking at things at way too short of a time scale here.
I assume you are referring to the recent protests in Germany based on your description. There were already growing protests of the AFD in Germany well before the CDU/CSU’s actions. That large protest wasn’t the first at all. There were protests growing earlier in 2025 and even some smaller ones going back to Jan 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024–2025_German_anti-extremism_protests
The fact that things are declining at such speed in a weird way makes getting protests spread harder. It’s a lot easier to unify around a single bad thing than five thousand things. Nothing feels shocking in that environment. Keep in mind that Trump’s strategy is to flood the zone with so many bad things it’s hard for anything to break through the noise. It’s designed to make people so numb they don’t think they can do anything. It takes time to remind people they can
Especially with the online social media environment in the US repeatedly telling Americans that no one is fighting back. Comments like “we’re cooked”, “why is no one doing anything”, “where are the people protesting”, etc. have more of a negative impact than you would think
Am I? Democracy died within months in Germany when the Nazis took over.
I get that building up a movement takes time, but it’s not like Trump or Project 2025 are new things. Nothing he does is surprising, is it? And still, it seems the opposition is rather unprepared and unorganized. I really hope this changes quickly. Defeatism or doomerism don’t help, that’s true, but I also don’t see the sense of urgency necessary to build up an effective opposition. Then again, I’m also an ocean away, so maybe I don’t have all the insights.
I think you mistake what I am saying. I am not saying their shouldn’t be larger numbers. I am telling you why it has been difficult to get those back again. But the movement is starting to grow again. Comparisons to the crescendos of other movements isn’t helpful to understand what it takes to make that happen
Yes, it’s not new which is also why protestors are burnt out. There were millions protesting across the US during his first term and that movement did work - it lead to him getting voted out in 2020 and limited his damage to be less than it was this time around
But five year have now passed between him getting voted out of office and so the movement against him lost energy. It has to be re-build essentially. Now people are much more cynical after he was re-elected. The 1st time people were absolutely pissed about him getting elected. No one like him had in their lifetimes. But now, it’s no longer “how could this happen?”, but “this is happening again”. That’s a much harder starting point for a movement - one with less hope
Plus, the US media environment is actively worse - making the news about pushback harder to find. The protest aren’t covered anything close to as much as they were in 2017. The US media is now much more concentrated in billionaire control than it was in 2017. Since then Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and made changes, CNN’s new billionaire owner John Malone has shifted coverage, Elon Musk bought twitter, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times and blocked endorsements of Harris, and so on
There has been plenty more resistance that aren’t just protests right now too. For instance, in the courts with more success in getting him to stop things than you otherwise might think. Yes, he has been somewhat ignoring the courts, but mostly following them and they are blocking a lot. Hundreds of lawsuits are ongoing, many of which were filed on day 1 of his 2nd term. Here’s one tracker
There has also been more resistance from state and local governments too - at least ones where Democrats have control. States and cities have a fair amount of power in the US. For instance, many have been blocking collaboration with ICE using local police and such (which slows the federal government down a lot)