the gangs sell the crack, the crackheads use it. protestors are the crackheads, and the NGOs and local government operatives are the gangsters. i've personally witnessed this kind of local level corruption in practically every place i have ever lived. i also have had somewhat close contact with antifa, i met a famous one who was imprisoned for knifing a nazi punk in Sofia 14 years ago. i also spent an evening at an antifa bar where i saw this guy pictured on a poster on the wall. they are militant activists. they literally are footsolders, shock troops. do you have sympathy, inherently, in those who let themselves be sent to be slaughtered on the front line, or the ones that rot in prison for going AWOL or refusing to obey the command to enlist and be conscripted?
no, i don't think protesting is a right. nor do i think that begging to media companies and politicians is ever going to do anything but serve their nefarious ends. the extent to which i consider protest to be valid, is simply writing and speaking against something. i write and speak against injustice all the time. i'm completely obsessed with it because i have been victimized so much in my life. i also, because of that experience, know what the machinations of manipulation look like, because that is always the first line of attack, before the physical. manipulating, spectacles. the reference to terrorism you made, it's not quite correct because what is common is spectaclular events. the purpose behind it is different, and particular to each individual who joins the protest.
the best example i can give is my philosophy on how it came to be that cannabis was legalised in much of the USA: ever heard the expression "overgrow the government"? or noticed the hydro shops in every city?
that's why it ended. people just literally stopped buying cartel mexican weed and smoking local, high quality, often organic indoor, highly bred, high quality cannabis.
idk even what the protestors are trying to achieve tho? it's not like it's invisible the other side of it, the rising crime rates, the rape gangs, the jihadis, and then the blac blocs, molotovs and convenient stacks of bricks placed around the night before a planned protest.
it's just a waste of time to protest. direct action is always better. i applaud the brave saboteurs who destroy surveillance and speed/traffic cameras, and other people who grief toxic injust bureaucracies. the people who grow and smoke their own weed in their own house. the immigrants who actually try to integrate and are actually looking to live in a better place, not to turn the new place into the same as what they supposedly ran from.
because it's getting like that. there is going to be a lot more violence yet, and promoting joining those protests is going to become very obviously a bad idea to most people without psychiatric disorders. staying in the cities where they are happening, is also going to become more and more a bad idea.
i mean, look at the protests over the AI data centers happening in the eastern states these days.
anyhow, as to the question, there may be some cases of people being paid to protest, and i'm pretty sure there has been at least some cases, but what's more disturbing is that they are being taught to be agent provocateurs.
summary: the protests are not organic, grass roots movements. that's enough for me to discount any stories about it, on either side. the que bono? is very clear to me. it's warfare between oligarchs.
● Summary: NGOs, Paid Protesters, and Protest Training in the USA
Documented Protest Infrastructure
Professional Training Networks:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Fithian, a 63-year-old "nonviolent direct action trainer," charges over $300/day for consulting. She was observed at Columbia's 2024 protests
teaching barricading techniques. NYPD labeled her a
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nypd-release-video-showing-professional-protest-consultant-columbia-university. She claims she doesn't
organize protests, only provides safety training.
Commercial Paid Protest Services:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowds_on_Demand, founded by Adam Swart in 2012, openly provides paid protesters ($100-few hundred per person). The company reported a
https://www.foxnews.com/media/crowds-demand-ceo-provides-insight-paid-protester-requests-up-400-under-trump. Swart claims he turned down $20 million for anti-Trump protests and is now
https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/ceo-congress-law-who-pays-protesters/ about protest funding.
Active Congressional Investigations (2025)
The People's Forum / Neville Roy Singham:
-
US House committee probes far-left anti-Israel group for alleged China links
Pressure on the People's Forum, and the associated Palestinian Youth Movement, comes amid push to crack down on wide-ranging activist network;...
investigating The People's Forum for alleged CCP ties and potential FARA
violations
- Singham (Chicago-born, Shanghai-based billionaire) donated
Fox Business
American multimillionaire couple funds Marxist group coordinating anti-Israel protests
A left-wing activist group called The People's Forum organizing protests against Israel is primarily funded by a multimillionaire tech mogul and hi...
to
The People's Forum through shell organizations
- Funding saw
OpIndia
The People's Forum, financed by Newsclick-fame Neville Roy Singham, saw 803% increase in funding
Asccording to thw Washington Examiner, 'The People's Forum' received a whopping $4.4 million in 2022 while it could rake in only $4,...
($486,900 to $4.4 million)
-
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_doj_fbi_-_code_pink_and_the_peoples_forum.pdf sent letters to DOJ/FBI requesting investigation of Code Pink and The People's
Forum
Anti-ICE Protest Funding (January 2025):
-
WBMA
FBI to investigate funding anti-ICE protests; organizations involved
The FBI says it is now investigating the funding behind the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
into LA
anti-ICE protest funding
-
House Judiciary Committee Republicans
House Judiciary Committee opens probe into taxpayer-funded group’s potential ties to LA anti-ICE riots
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether an activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party that received nearly $1 million i...
investigating CHIRLA (received ~$1 million in Biden-era
grants)
- Crowds on Demand revealed it received
Fox News
Anti-ICE riot funding investigated after ‘numerous high budget requests’ for paid agitators were reported
Federal and congressional officials investigate funding behind anti-ICE protests in major U.S. cities as questions arise about organized financial ...
but declined
What Fact-Checkers Say
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@politifact
Is George Soros paying campus protesters? What we know
Is a billionaire bankrolling student protests at universities across the country? "We all knew it but now it’s confirmed
found "several degrees of separation" between Soros funding and specific protesters
-
Open Society Does Not Pay People to Protest
Nonviolent public protest is the hallmark of a vibrant democracy, and the right to protest is protected by the U.S. Constitution. But the Open Soci...
paying individual protesters
-
Factually
Your Personal Research Companion
notes: funding for "coordination, data, and communications is materially different from payroll for protest
attendees" - no evidence of "systematic micro-payments to each marcher"
Key Distinction
The evidence shows:
1. Infrastructure funding exists - NGOs fund training, logistics, transportation, communications
2. Professional organizers exist - people like Fithian are paid to train protesters
3. Paid crowd services exist - companies like Crowds on Demand operate openly
4. Mass individual payments unproven - no documented evidence of widespread per-person payments to ordinary protesters at major demonstrations
