Part of what I see with 50501/Hands Off protests is that they have a theme of “defending the Constitution” from Trump. This is really a somewhat conservative position and doesn’t have much historical rigor to it.

Prof. Aziz Rana of Boston College Law School is having a moment on Jacobin Radio right now. His basic thesis is that the Constitutional order is so deeply antidemocratic that the left argued with itself and the liberals over whether to focus efforts on challenging it in the early 20th Century. In the broad sweep of history since then, Americans have come to view the Constitution as a sacred text, but in fact, that order is part of what gives the Republicans and the far right their advantages despite losing the popular vote.

The shorter interview: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S250424 (April 24, 2025)
The 4-part long interview: https://thedigradio.com/archive/ (see the Aziz Rana episodes starting in April 2025) - Part 4 isn’t up yet.

So why should we venerate the Constitution, when it holds us back from real, direct democracy? I think part of what our liberal friends and family hold onto is a trust in the Constitution and the framers. They weren’t geniuses, they were landowners worried about kings taking their property. Use these interviews, or Prof. Rana’s book, to handle those arguments.

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    5 hours ago

    almost every comment here reads like an LLM sharting out a light novel in response to a prompt that didn’t tell it to format it as a comment…

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
      1·
      4 hours ago

      Here’s a fun exercise: Look over posts on beehaw that do give opportunities for someone to come in and start yelling about how the Democrats are the worst thing in the world, or how protests are scary and complicated and we don’t need to protest, or (in this case) that we don’t need the constitution and it’s super important to get into extended academic infighting right at this moment and take big shits on one of the big rallying points that could potentially get people together to resist Trump.

      Notice how many comments there are, and how there seems to be this super-vocal contingent that is (1) saying something that doesn’t make a whole ton of sense (2) yelling about it and belittling the other participants.

      Then, look at the other posts. Mostly it’s just quiet, normal comments.

      Look back at the hot-button posts. All angry yelling and not making much sense.

      Look back at the normal posts. Even on controversial topics, it’s not just this cesspool of yelling.

      Wonder why that all is. I have a theory.