Justin Sane Quotes

As a young man, causes of one kind or another engaged me, and I thought the media is where you express yourself in that. I lived with the illusion, for quite a long time, that if you described something accurately, something would be done about it.

Social change comes not only from the courtroom, but from talking to the media.

I think it's a myth that American public or any other public is so stupid that they need to be constantly pricked.

You know, as somebody who writes op-eds and appears on the television, I appreciate as well as anybody that... there is a limit to what that accomplishes.

The electronic media introduced this idea to the larger audience very, very quickly. We spent years and years and years meeting with activists all over Europe to lay the groundwork for a political response, as we did here.

People say I manipulate the media. Well, duh. We live in a media culture, so why on earth wouldn't I?

View talk radio not as entertainment but as a tool for organizing and action.

To say that the newspaper press represents public opinion is to administer insult to intelligent men. It is the property of speculators, political leaders, large contractors and railway directors.

No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough.

People were asleep, but I think they're waking up now. Trump has given everybody a good kick, and people are waking up and realizing they've got to get involved.

If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play.

You can spread awareness through entertainment.

With any minority group, it takes a strong presence in the public eye to make a change because everything nowadays is social media.

When I was in high school, people would ask me what I wanted to do, and I would always say I wanted to 'lead marches and give speeches.'

If you want change, and you want things to get better across the country, there's different ways to go about it.

People are not going to change because an activist goes around shouting.

I have a platform, and I can help. I can be in spaces that reporters will never be in because I'm a protester.

Activism in the street is truth-telling, and organizing is talking to people for a specific goal.

I think more people are engaged in the issues I want to talk about.

It is important to keep protesting, to keep forcing a conversation in the public arena. In any case, when you know what the right thing to do is, or that something must be said, it can be immoral and dangerous not to act.

[Occupy Wall Street] had an impact on consciousness. It was not effective in realizing change.

I used to believe that we could change the media. I was as naive as anybody.

I just think that a much more important part of the problem we face, which was evident 10 years ago and is even more evident now, is that the way we share information among ourselves as American citizens has been radically transformed. The line between news and entertainment has almost dissolved, where ratings now have a big impact on what kinds of stories are covered and not stories.

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

The media is not going to change.