Pro-Palestinian Protesters Blocked Golden Gate Bridge, I-880 In Oakland
The internet, for all its inhumanity, has some good aspects to it. It’s harder to completely dehumanize any group of people because you can literally see what they’re up to. Wanna check out what’s happening in Afghanistan? Go on Snapchat, go to the heat map, scroll over to Afghanistan or any other nation of your choosing and you’ll see people doing normal shit.
Cultural universals are nothing new. Everybody essentially wants the same shit. People want safe places to live, safety for their loved ones and a future for their families. Everyone wants that. Everyone relates to that.
So when people see a ton of people just like them getting bombed to hell, it tends to piss people off. Where does this anger go? Many places, but mostly online because the internet has been a safe space to scream into the void. But there are a select few who venture offline into the real world to display their grievances to the world, and those people are called protesters.
And that is what happened yesterday on the Golden Gate Bridge and on I-880 in Oakland. Protesters blocked traffic. They blocked me in. I drive on I-880 in Oakland almost every day to go to work in San Francisco.
Good.
Local Journalism for Working stiffs
We write for the poets, busboys, and bartenders. We cover workers, not ‘tech’, not the shiny ‘forbes 100 bullshit’. We write about the business on your corner and the beer in your hand. Join the Bay's best newsletter.
Politicians don’t listen to the American people about anything. They go onstage, lie to you and then get in office and do whatever the people that funded their campaign essentially told them to do. The only way to really get any attention in America is to disrupt the economy because money is really the only thing America cares about. Everything else is periphery to the main goal and that goal is getting to the fuckin’ bag. Even if getting to the bag involves putting children in body bags.
No one wants to see children in body bags and we’ve been seeing a lot of children, especially Palestinian children, who are innocent and had nothing to do with the horrific attack on October 7th in body bags. Everyone is tired of it. This isn’t some fringe left-wing stance either, the majority of Americans are against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Only 36% of Americans think Israel’s assault on Gaza was justified according to a recent Gallup poll.
Despite this dismally low approval, the Biden Administration has continued to give seemingly unconditional funding and weapons to Israel.
I know being stuck in traffic is annoying. I hate traffic, I like to drive fast because it’s fun. It is. I know some pro public transit person is going to say some sneak diss about how cars are shitty, and you know what? That person is right. Cars are shitty, but I wanna have fun and driving fast is fun.
After the protest was all said and done, 38 protesters were arrested.
I wish all of them a speedy release because you know what’s worse than being stuck in traffic? Having your house bombed for a crime you didn’t commit.
Have some empathy. Or at least don’t complain when other people do.