Clashes in the streets are never pretty, and Ray Zinn says they never really do much other than cause more division and anger. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray lays out why protests are negative by nature, but are they evil?
Rob Artigo: It seems like we’ve spent the better part of the last seven years in some state of ongoing protest by one group or another. Got a big group out there right now in various cities doing who knows what, blocking freeways, access to airports, what have you. Typically pretty small groups. I mean, they look big in the areas that they’re congregating, but they’re not particularly a large percentage of the American population. They’re typically pretty small. But they’re very vocal. They’re sometimes violent. They’re kind of a patchwork of causes or cause du jour. You’ve written that you think that protests just in general are evil. Can you explain that?
Ray Zinn: Well, yeah, because a protest is evil. Anything that doesn’t uplift is evil. So you have to say, “Okay, what are you protesting about?” You’re protesting about something that you disagree with or that you feel strong about or whatever. And unfortunately it’s anger. I never heard of what they say they call friendly protest. I don’t know what a friendly protest is. I mean, I don’t think it can possibly be friendly, a protest.
Rob Artigo: Also, peaceful protest is another term they use.
Ray Zinn: Peaceful, okay. Peaceful.
Rob Artigo: Which ends up not being peaceful most of the time.
Ray Zinn: Well, I don’t know what peaceful would be. The only time I’m have peace is when I have joy and happiness in my heart. I don’t feel peace at all when I’m upset. And so peaceful protest is kind of an oxymoron. I mean, by definition, you can’t be peaceful or you wouldn’t be protesting. So again, we need to define what is peace? Peace is have joy and happiness. That’s what peace is. So then why are you protesting? If you’re happy and you have joy, then what’s the reason of the protest? Protest means you don’t have happiness and joy. So it’s kind of an oxymoron to say it’s peaceful. Let’s don’t kid ourselves. Protests are evil. They’re evil. And anybody that does protest, examine their reasons, their feelings, and they’ll see they’re filled with anger and hatred and animosity. They’re not filled with happiness and joy. That’s what peaceful is. Peaceful is happiness and joy.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, I mean, if the person you talk to that’s going to protest or coming out of a protest, sometimes that’s all there is, is the anger and hatred part. They don’t even really care about what the reason for the group protest is. They’re just out there to express their anger and hatred. And they have no solution. They don’t care about the solution. They only care about getting out there and raging.
Ray Zinn: Well, they’re yelling and screaming. And you know that when you’re peaceful, you’re not yelling and screaming. You’re smiling, you’re happy, you’ve got a smile on your face. I don’t see any protestors out there with smiles on their faces. All I see is their fist in the air, they’re destroying property. They’re putting signs up that negative. They’re terrible signs. They don’t uplift anybody. They’re negative. Ever seen a negative protest? Or, excuse me. Ever seen a positive protest sign? I doubt it.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, like, “Go us,” or something. One thing that I’ve noticed about protests in these recent years is that they seem to have lingered. And in American cities around the country, we see the remnants of those ongoing. I mean, sometimes the protests were like a year long and they would just destroy downtowns, attack police stations. And then they kind of took over parts of downtown that are blighted and tent cities and signs and no-go zones and things like that. People used to do protests over the weekend and then after that they went away.
Ray Zinn: Yeah. One of the reasons we did this podcast is because we’re trying to see how much hate mail we get.
Rob Artigo: Yeah.
Ray Zinn: Well, that’ll define again, that’ll make our point, won’t it?
Rob Artigo: Yeah, exactly.
Ray Zinn: As opposed to ones that will agree with us. I think there’s more people are going to disagree than agree, because that’s the hatred side.
Rob Artigo: Yeah.
Ray Zinn: Because we’re hitting their hot button. “Well, wait a minute, I want higher wages, or I want this or I want that.” It says, “I want,.” It’s I, I, I, I, I and there’s no I in team, so there’s no team spirit. There’s, “I want this, I want that.” So again, we hope that you take this particular podcast in the right frame of mind. Again, the purpose was to talk about peaceful protests, no such thing.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, but there’s a peaceful way of going about things too. I mean, if you feel like you want to change a law or end a law or you want society to go in a kind of different direction, there’s a way to do that, and there’s a system in place for doing those kinds of things, and all you have to do is go work within the system. But it’s a majority rule country.
Ray Zinn: Well, the key is peaceful.
Rob Artigo: The idea is be peaceful. Get people to come onto your side.
Ray Zinn: Yeah, be positive. Don’t be negative.
Rob Artigo: Get 51% and then make your change. But if you’re 2% of the population and you’re out destroying things to get your way, sometimes that works because the people go, “Okay, well, we’re just going to surrender to you.”
Ray Zinn: Or fear. It’s fear. It’s fear.
Rob Artigo: Fear, right. Out of fear. Or in the idea that if we just do this, they’ll go away, kind of thing is, no, I think they just come back and do more. I think it’s a selfish avenue for getting something done when you have an avenue for getting things done peacefully.
Ray Zinn: Right. There’s no such thing as a peaceful protest. I want to say it again. No such a thing as a peaceful protest.
Rob Artigo: Well, Ray, for our listeners, we have all these avenues for people coming in and supporting the Tough Things First Podcast. They can go to toughthingsfirst.com and find links to your social media, but they can also go to their favorite podcast platform, probably the one they’re listening to now, and just click like, rate the podcast, do what you will. We know that a lot of people are listening to this podcast in Silicon Valley. It has always been, since its inception, a fast-growing podcast. And top rated in Silicon Valley, so be part of it, continue to be part of it, by rating this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks, Ray.
Ray Zinn:
Thanks, Rob.
