A pro-Palestinian protest action briefly blocked all traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Wednesday morning.

A pro-Palestinian protest action briefly blocked all traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Wednesday morning.

Starting at about 7:45 a.m. Protesters stopped cars and stretched banners across the roadway denouncing Israel’s bombing of Rafah in the Gaza Strip and demanding that the U.S. stop arming Israel.

Northbound and southbound traffic on the bridge was at a standstill as of 8 a.m.

  • ember@lemmy.ca
    3019·
    9 months ago

    I don’t get it. When does it become morally acceptable to block traffic?

    Between Just Stop Oil and Stop Arming Israel, they both have equally valid points. So why is it that blocking the Golden Gate Bridge is “based” while blocking various feeder roads in Britain makes you a twat?

    Edit: messed up the titles

    • sjmulder@lemmy.sdf.org
      2619·
      9 months ago

      It’s absolutely acceptable. Driving isn’t some untouchable human right that goes above everything else and can’t yield to something else for a little bit.

      • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
        2316·
        9 months ago

        Nah brah. There could be an ambulance carrying your child to a hospital in that queue.

        Or a dude on its way to an interview after more than two years trying to land a job.

        Or a person about to catch a flight.

        So, not absolutely acceptable. No.

      • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
        103·
        9 months ago

        I just question the effectiveness of it. We want more people to join the cause, but making them sit and listen to honking for 15 minutes might have the inverse effect.

        Great for spreading awareness, though.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        22·
        9 months ago

        Actually the right to travel is a human right. You are the oppressor in this because you are inflicting your will on everyone else.

      • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
        410·
        9 months ago

        It absolutly is not, protest how ever you want with or without a permit from the municipality, you are responsibly for your own actions. If you delay an emergency vehicle, those lives are on your head.

        When I lived in Boston this happened multiple times. The one that comes to mind was some eco-protest that linked the protesters to oil drums filled with concrete on mass pike (the main east-west highway into the city). There were emergency vehicles stuck in the jam and someone died that was on their way to the hospital. IIRC most of the protestors are still in jail for murder.

    • DarkroomDoc@lemmy.world
      139·
      9 months ago

      They’re both twats. They aren’t making converts or reaching the people who can even effectuate a change. All the do is poison the well for the middle of the country that otherwise might have been receptive.

      If I’m on my way to work, or the hospital, or to visit gram gram and some whack job makes my life noticeably more miserable then I’m always going to have negative feelings for them.

      • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
        67·
        9 months ago

        Nope. Not always. Next time you have to drive a loved one to the hospital, and then there is a blockade because of “the children of North Korea,” let me know if you feel like sympathizing with the blockers.

        Edit: I understand the whole Palestinian crisis is a very sensitive subject, and people get emotional with this kind of topic. But we can’t have that “either you’re us or against us” mentality. It’s not like I’m saying “don’t protest, and your cause sucks!” I’m saying “yes, protest, and yes, disrupt, but disrupt it to the people who can actually do something about it.”

          • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 months ago

            If it’s an emergency an ambulance will drive an alternate route because they have contingency plans in place for blocked highways like with major car accidents or infrastructure failure.

            Sure. Because an ambulance can totally divert to an alternative way when it’s already on the bridge. And if it’s not on the bridge already, then the “alternative way” is the “already too late” way. That’s why there is a bridge there in the first place.

              • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
                1·
                9 months ago

                Insightful comment. Thank you.

                I still gotta add, though: just because ambulances are trained to deal with protest blockades, doesn’t justify said blockades. Like a cop is trained to deal with thieves that shoot at them, we don’t say “ok! Violent burglary attempts may continue to happen, then.” So yeah, good to know that ambulances have an alternative, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with these blockades all of a sudden. Plus not everyone wanting to cross that bridge (or road, or whatever) has a good contingency plan.

        • lemmingrad@thelemmy.club
          97·
          9 months ago

          Yeah I’d take that risk lmao

          Beside, buddy there’s traffic jam in front of my house every morning, how do you think that does for ambulance circulation?

          • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
            410·
            9 months ago

            That’s a false equivalence. The traffic in front of your house is not caused by some people who can’t think of better ways to protest.

            • lemmingrad@thelemmy.club
              97·
              9 months ago

              Of course not. It is caused by people who can’t think of a better way to pollute.

              At least protesters stands for something. They are not poisoning the air for the sake of not moving their collective fat asses.

              Beside, your way of thinking about it is suspiciously close to the one of those who want protesters run over.

              • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
                34·
                9 months ago

                Again… not the point. And that’s another false equivalency. “People with different reasons to be on the road are blocked by people are being a public threat in the name of some cause.” “Well, serves them right for being a public threat with their cars!” No, that’s not a good argument.

                your way of thinking about it is suspiciously close to the one of those who want protesters run over.

                I’m just going to pretend you didn’t write this absurd sentence.

    • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
      1112·
      9 months ago

      When does it become morally acceptable to block traffic?

      When there is a truck with people carrying your mom to a lynching site.

      Other than that, I agree with you. Blocking traffic is one of the dumbest way to protest. You won’t get any sympathizers from that car queue.

    • derf82@lemmy.worldEnglish
      48·
      9 months ago

      Unless you are DIRECTLY saving a human life, it isn’t.

      I get that it gets your movement noticed. But not by the people that can do a damn thing about it.

      And the people that maybe can do something, like Biden? They will never reward such tactics so as to not encourage more protests of the type.

      And you want to point to civil rights protests doing the same thing? When the first Selma to Montgomery march happened, it was Sunday, a day when at the time few travelled anywhere but church won Sunday. They deliberately chose low traffic times and announced it well in advance.

    • HorseRabbit@lemmy.sdf.org
      714·
      9 months ago

      Britain is the rotting husk of a colonial empire. The people are psudo-fascist bootlickers obsessed with institutional proceduralism who think good things fundamentally cannot happen.