People have already protested the Trump administration with marches, walkouts, and massive demonstrations. But on the anniversary of the election that made Donald Trump America’s 45th president, thousands of Americans are trying out a new tack: banding together, craning their necks to the heavens, and screaming helplessly at the sky.
Folks in at least nine cities across the country—including Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, New York City, and Chicago—are organizing demonstrations on Facebook, all titled something along the lines of “Scream Helplessly at the Sky on the Anniversary of the Election.” More than 3,000 people have indicated they’ll be attending their local shout fest on November 8. In New York alone, at least 2,100 are slated to get together in Washington Square Park and scream their heads off from 7 to 8 PM.
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“Join us cucks and snowflakes, safe spacers and libtards, as we enjoy a collective cathartic yell into the heavens about our current political establishment,” the NYC event’s description reads.
The nationwide phenomenon started in Boston, where local organizer Johanna Schulman first dreamed up the idea for a massive, communal howl. More than 4,000 planned to flock to Boston Common next month, but the Facebook event was shut down on Tuesday because of what Schulman called “circumstances beyond our control.” Still, Schulman didn’t make her pitch for naught; almost all of the events planned outside of Boston cite the original as an inspiration.
Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars bashed those planning to attend as “petulant children,” and the Daily Wire wrote that the events would “accomplish absolutely nothing.” And while shouting yourself hoarse might not change what the Chicago organizers call “the shit show that is American politics,” it could be pretty cathartic. In a Medium post, New York organizer Nathan Wahl put the impetus behind the nationwide wail pretty well.
“Listen, there’s a lot of shit I care about,” he wrote. “But frankly, I can’t keep up with it all. Every time I think of the laundry list of social injustices on top of my own shit like my actual laundry I get overwhelmed. Every news notification on my phone is a reminder of something over which I am powerless. And I think a lot of people feel that way. So fuck me for thinking it’d be nice to yell about it.”
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