Post #2144012

2026-04-14 17:28 UTC

#5 Worst Protest Chant: "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, [So And So] Has Got to Go!" Hate to break it to ya, but “so-and so” who has got to go, is just gonna be replaced with another schmuck who, in fact, has got to go too. The cycle continues and you will be able to holler this chant ad infinitum, and pass it on to your grandkids and their grandkids, to also holler at schmucks who have got to go. Is simply hollering the whole point of the exercise??? One of the biggest problems with shitty chants is simply that they reveal a theory of change that does not make logical sense and expose the chanters’ naivete. OK, sure, on the surface, we can agree that Donald Trump has got to go. Who the hell is gonna replace him, someone approximately as evil but slightly less demented or more likeable? Do we really want that? Furthermore, such a chant (and any chant like “Vote Them Out” or otherwise about voting) simply upholds the legitimacy of a system that has failed to bring fundamental change every 2, 4 and 6 years since your grandpaw was chanting at schmucks. [“Oh great, we voted them out!” Four years later “You're telling me they’re back in again?!”] We can do better than this, folks. Leave the vote-stanning and election-erections to the political parties and polling places. Also, the Hey-Hey-Ho-Ho chant is like, the first chant every toddler learns. It’s overused. It’s tired. It needs end-of-life palliative care. Be more creative. Ya schmucks. https://archive.org/details/top-5-worst-protest-chants

Replies (2)

@riotmuffin@ni.hil.ist 2026-04-15 19:01

#4 Worst Protest Chant: "When [Bla Bla Bla] Is Under Attack, What Do We Do? Stand Up Fight Back" Chants that over-promise and engage in hyperbole risk doing more harm than good. This chant may help install a sense of solidarity in some, emphasizing that we are collectively resisting. But ow are we fighting back, exactly? Because right now, at the time of this chant, it looks like we’re walking in a circle on the sidewalk around the empty state capitol building, or waving signs on an overpass that nobody down below can read anyway. Is this fighting back? Is fighting back in the room right now?? Sometimes this chant cycles through multitudes of various people and things under attack (Women’s Rights! Education! Health Care! Trans Rights! Immigrants! Voting Rights! Voting Lefts!) and goddamn, suddenly that’s a lot more fighting back than we might've bargained for. We already knew it’s all under attack anyway. Are we fighting back by making lists??? Related: “If we don’t get it? Shut it down!” Let’s get real for a sec, are you REALLY gonna shut it down though? Because if you chant this, you need to actually have the interest, willingness, and capacity to shut it (whatever IT is) down. And chances are high that you're not gonna get IT! Then, if you don’t shut IT down, nobody’s gonna take you seriously the next time IT happens, and you don’t get THAT either! https://archive.org/details/top-5-worst-protest-chants

Open ##2144013
@LukefromDC@kolektiva.social 2026-04-14 18:29

@riotmuffin "if we don't get it BURN it down" while anything is actually burning is another matter of course...

Open ##2144020