# Do We Still Need Protests Or Is It All Just Spam and Wanking Nowadays **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 26, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322 "2017-09-26T01:33:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/41 "2017-09-26T18:40:47Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Protesting today is about two things. > > 1. Cargo Cultism. The civil rights movement had protests and they won, so if we have protests we will win too. The problem is that the civil rights protests were carefully designed to appeal to the median voter. They featured well dressed and well behaved people invoking the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. They picked test cases to illustrate their point and invoke compassion amongst undecided voters. For example, Rosa Parks was a small, hardworking women on her being bullied by a mean bus driver. Ruby Bridges, was a small little girl being bullied and screamed at by adults. They were also able to get the authorities to attack them on so people would have to choice between the peaceful protesters and the violent authorities. > Since then most protest are counterproductive. OWS was a bunch of dirty hippies camping out and making a mess. The football players are protesting the anthem and the flag. Presumambly, motherhood and apple pie will come later. > 2. Recruitment and fundraising. The protests generate publicity for the groups doing them. If you go to one of these protests you will be on a mailing list and will be the target of fundraising appeals. They also serve as free publicity to attract money from wealthy donors looking for radical groups to support. Um…I’m genuinely curious here, but how do football players fit into your narrative of the difference between civil rights protesters (clean cut, hard working, etc) and OWS (dirty hippies)? Aren’t football players generally attractive, rich, fit young men playing a game developed in the US (and almost exclusively played in the US from what I can tell) and watched by a large percentage of the population? I mean, I guess baseball is THE American sport (right?), but football is up there as well. (Full disclosure, I have never been a football fan and don’t really see the appeal, but then I don’t watch any sports so I don’t generally get it wrt this stuff) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/42 "2017-09-26T18:45:21Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Being organized is not the same thing as public protests. I’m not aware of any public protests by sex offenders, and I highly doubt if such would be productive. Do you have any examples? > > [I’m aware of some instances of sex offender registries being rolled back somewhat by court challenges, but I could also imagine an organized effort to provide relevant information to lawmakers possibly having some effect, if it can slip by under the radar. Public protests are another story entirely.] The California legislature just passed a law to reform the sex offender registry, making it less onerous. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/43 "2017-09-26T18:47:06Z")
One thing that seems to help the cause is when the protestors are treated badly by the authorities. When people in the whole of the US saw Civil Rights protestors set upon by police dogs and fire hoses, the protestors (and their cause) became much more immediate and important to a lot of people who otherwise not have cared all that much. When the National Guard shot those students at Kent State, it was like a sea change had struck. Sure, there were the die-hards would think “they got what they deserved”, but they were in the minority. And I think the White Supremacist protestors we are seeing today are purposely trying to egg on the counter protestors (Antifa, or whatever) so they look sympathetic to middle American. They need to figure out, though, that middle America isn’t particularly sympathetic to Nazis, no matter what is happening to them. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/44 "2017-09-26T18:48:33Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Protesting today is about two things. > > 1. Cargo Cultism. The civil rights movement had protests and they won, so if we have protests we will win too. The problem is that the civil rights protests were carefully designed to appeal to the median voter. They featured well dressed and well behaved people invoking the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. They picked test cases to illustrate their point and invoke compassion amongst undecided voters. For example, Rosa Parks was a small, hardworking women on her being bullied by a mean bus driver. Ruby Bridges, was a small little girl being bullied and screamed at by adults. They were also able to get the authorities to attack them on so people would have to choice between the peaceful protesters and the violent authorities. > Since then most protest are counterproductive. OWS was a bunch of dirty hippies camping out and making a mess. The football players are protesting the anthem and the flag. Presumambly, motherhood and apple pie will come later. I bet that’s what you said back in the sixties, too, right? You weren’t one of the ~80% of white people who thought the protestors back then were hurting the cause of civil rights and who thought them ineffective, were you? ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/45 "2017-09-26T18:57:45Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Um…I’m genuinely curious here, but how do football players fit into your narrative of the difference between civil rights protesters (clean cut, hard working, etc) and OWS (dirty hippies)? Aren’t football players generally attractive, rich, fit young men playing a game developed in the US (and almost exclusively played in the US from what I can tell) and watched by a large percentage of the population? I mean, I guess baseball is THE American sport (right?), but football is up there as well. > > (Full disclosure, I have never been a football fan and don’t really see the appeal, but then I don’t watch any sports so I don’t generally get it wrt this stuff) The football players protesting are (mostly) black and (for the time being) very well-paid. That cuts against seeing them as clean-cut or hard-working, for many. They’re “lucky duckies” who should be grateful and quit complaining. (To be clear, I’m describing, not advocating this POV.) ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/46 "2017-09-26T19:04:58Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > One thing that seems to help the cause is when the protestors are treated badly by the authorities. When people in the whole of the US saw Civil Rights protestors set upon by police dogs and fire hoses, the protestors (and their cause) became much more immediate and important to a lot of people who otherwise not have cared all that much. When the National Guard shot those students at Kent State, it was like a sea change had struck. Sure, there were the die-hards would think “they got what they deserved”, but they were in the minority. > > And I think the White Supremacist protestors we are seeing today are purposely trying to egg on the counter protestors (Antifa, or whatever) so they look sympathetic to middle American. They need to figure out, though, that middle America isn’t particularly sympathetic to Nazis, no matter what is happening to them. Good point about non-violent protesters using violence against themselves as a tool. That goes back to Gandhi, I think? The protester shows the rightness of their cause by their willingness to suffer violence, and shows the wrongness of their opponents’ by their willingness to inflict it. The alt-right/whateverists are generally not doing traditional non-violent protest at all (even when they abstain from violence in specific cases). Showing up armed and/or armored, ready to “defend yourself,” is a whole different strategy (for a whole different ideology – I mean, a fascist/ethnonationalist society like the one these guys want is not going to embrace nonviolence as a virtue). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/47 "2017-09-26T19:16:24Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > The football players protesting are (mostly) black and (for the time being) very well-paid. That cuts against seeing them as clean-cut or hard-working, for many. They’re “lucky duckies” who should be grateful and quit complaining. (To be clear, I’m describing, not advocating this POV.) So, still confused here (I know it wasn’t your narrative btw). Weren’t most of the civil rights protesters black as well? And, afaik (correct me if I’m wrong), isn’t playing football pretty hard work? Don’t you have to train pretty extensively to play? I mean, you can’t just walk off the street and play on a professional team, right? As for clean cut…well, I haven’t seen a lot of football games, but I’ve seen some athletes on commercials and such and they look pretty clean cut to me, generally (though I have no idea if they play baseball, football or basketball…or even soccer or other stuff :p). Anyway, I don’t want to hijack the thread, it just seemed an odd comparison with OWA hippies and civil rights protesters then onto football players. Maybe it’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/48 "2017-09-26T19:26:36Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The football players are protesting the anthem and the flag. Presumambly, motherhood and apple pie will come later. Wait. Wait. “The football players are protesting the anthem and the flag”? They are? What is it about those things that are they protesting? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/49 "2017-09-26T19:32:53Z")
> [@snoe](#): > > The alt-right/whateverists are generally not doing traditional non-violent protest at all (even when they abstain from violence in specific cases). Showing up armed and/or armored, ready to “defend yourself,” is a whole different strategy (for a whole different ideology – I mean, a fascist/ethnonationalist society like the one these guys want is not going to embrace nonviolence as a virtue). 😕 I’m not sure how an ideology based on force could present itself as non-violent. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/50 "2017-09-26T19:38:57Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So, still confused here (I know it wasn’t your narrative btw). Weren’t most of the civil rights protesters black as well? And, afaik (correct me if I’m wrong), isn’t playing football pretty hard work? Don’t you have to train pretty extensively to play? I mean, you can’t just walk off the street and play on a professional team, right? As for clean cut…well, I haven’t seen a lot of football games, but I’ve seen some athletes on commercials and such and they look pretty clean cut to me, generally (though I have no idea if they play baseball, football or basketball…or even soccer or other stuff :p). > > Anyway, I don’t want to hijack the thread, it just seemed an odd comparison with OWA hippies and civil rights protesters then onto football players. Maybe it’s just me. We totally agree on evaluating the football players. One factor in favor of (others) seeing civil rights protesters as more “clean-cut” is that they were protesting 50 plus years ago. Their issue preferences are quasi-universally accepted today; they weren’t back then, as others have pointed out citing polling from the time. The consensus on the March on Washington at the time was: it’s inappropriate, and will hurt black Americans. (And Colin K is not going to be seen as clean cut by many for another reason: he’s got a frickin’ big-ass Afro!) ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/51 "2017-09-26T19:45:24Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 😕 > > I’m not sure how an ideology based on force could present itself as non-violent. That was my (probably poorly expressed) point! I was responding to someone who compared the alt-right’s tactic of inciting Antifa violence to the civil rights movement’s tactic of inciting state/white supremacist violence. I guess it’s tactically similar, but yeah – you’ll never be an effective recruiter for your Nazi\* cause by being a non-violent Nazi\* and getting punched repeatedly. That’s not why people want to be Nazis\* – to get punched for their beliefs until they gain the moral high ground. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/52 "2017-09-26T20:44:54Z")
Bringing it up again, Occupy Wall Street has 3 interesting characteristics a. The problems the protesters were griping about were real and affect 95% of the population. Contrast that with gay marriage, where only a small (under 5%) subset of the population is even affected. And out of the gay community, the percentage that actually want to get married is smaller still, marriage is kind of an archaic and not so great legal contract to sign. b. I don’t know of a protest in modern times that had people actually camping for months or protesting on the scale that they did. c. **Nothing** has been changed. Income inequality has steadily grown worse at the same or accelerating rate it was at before OWS. Hell, right now, the economy has finally recovered and there’s low unemployment, but wages are still flat. You can get a job, just don’t expect to be paid more than you would have made in 1978 for a comparable position. d. \*\*None \*\*of the folks responsible for their get rich scheme blowing up and taking the entire global economy down have gone to jail. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/53 "2017-09-26T20:51:16Z")
Thing is that income inequality - and methods to change it - is a much much more complex issue than gay marriage. So it’s much harder to do anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/54 "2017-09-26T21:05:37Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Thing is that income inequality - and methods to change it - is a much much more complex issue than gay marriage. So it’s much harder to do anything about it. It’s harder for many to even agree that it’s a problem, and even if there is agreement that there is a problem what the solutions are. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/55 "2017-09-26T21:06:07Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Thing is that income inequality - and methods to change it - is a much much more complex issue than gay marriage. So it’s much harder to do anything about it. Especially when doing anything about it would mean decreasing the share that the .01% takes. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/56 "2017-09-26T22:39:13Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > I disagree because I see other forces at work,that seem to have a greater effect on the failure to replace Obamacare than protesting (total Republican incompetence, mainly.). …but “other forces” are always at work. Were the protests the sum-total of the civil rights movement? Or were other forces at work there as well? > [@](#): > > phone call to GOP offices or elected representatives don’t seem to me to be protests. That’s the mainstream political process. Contacting one’s parties and elected officials to express your will is your duty as a citizen. Receiving and reacting to it is their duty as elected officials. Most of those hundreds of thousands of phone calls were part of a co-ordinated protest campaign that ramped up as each attempt at “repeal and replace” came close to the vote, that included people ringing multiple times reading off scripts (that were provided by protest organisers.) with the intent of overwhelming the phone lines of the senators that they targeted. This “mainstream political process” fits the definition of “spam” much more closely than marching on the streets. Yes: this is part of the “mainstream political process.” But marching on the streets, holding political placards, making your voice hear is part of the “mainstream political process” as well. It always has been this way, and in lieu of a constitutional amendment that bans political protest in America, it will be part of the mainstream political process in the future as well. > [@](#): > > I don’t think so. Others may disagree. Taking a knee is still respectful. Colin Kapernick put his money where his knee was. What is your benchmark then? When does a protest “cross the line”? > [@](#): > > I think it’s gone beyond that, and now it’s simply a virtue signifier. So you think that Colin Kapernick takes the knee not because he thinks that “black lives matter”, but because he wants to “enhance his social status within a social group?” I don’t agree with that at all. > [@](#): > > Almost all the spam I receive is an ad of some form. You may wish to rethink this. I don’t need to rethink anything. There is nothing about an advertisement that is inherently spam. And there is nothing about a protest that is inherently spam either. > [@](#): > > In this country, I think it is as there are already valid channels that give voice to viewpoints, there is no need for standing on a soapbox, or marching with signs. Still not spam. > [@](#): > > I’m surprised you went that route. Your surprised I gave an honest answer to your question? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/57 "2017-09-27T07:40:31Z")
A public protest is the mildest form of political violence, but violence should be a last resort. We, of all people, should be mindful of that, since we undertook violence of the worst kind to free ourselves from a relatively tepid form of oppression. The British treated half the world worse than they treated us. A lot worse. Were the American colonists, as an historical fact, treated worse than we treat some of our own citizens? Do we have right to demand loyalty from such people? Don’t we tacitly admit that they have every right to resist? After all,we did. We started shooting Redcoats over taxes and boarding soldiers in our homes. And now we are too prim and proper for some public disorder and uncouth behavior? To resist an unjust and futile war, not enough cause? To resist callous violence from men sworn to protect and serve, no good enough reason? We note that the comfortable and secure seldom protest in an unseemly manner. But, of course. Perhaps that is the solution to the vexing problem of protest right there. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/58 "2017-09-27T13:28:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You think you’re kidding, but… > > Way back when, the first issue of Hugo Gernsback’s _Science Wonder Stories_, June 1929, ran “The Threat of the Robots” by David M. Keller, M.D. In it robots play football inside empty stadiums because people could watch the games better in their homes via television. > > We can do that today. Yet people flock even to exhibition games to be part of the crowd. They might spend half their time watching the Jumbotron and the other half checking their phones for tweets, but they’re there and they make great efforts and pay large sums of money to be there. The richest people with the best technology pay enormous sums to sit in boxes at the Superbowl and entirely ignore what’s on the field. > > Half the people at protests are using their phones to record other people so they can live-stream the protests to people who watch from a distance. We want to be part of that crowd, and technology just helps us become part of bigger and better crowds. It’s additive rather than substitutive. Along with that thru the magic of Photoshop, a photo of a dozen people at an event can be a 100 with some editing. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/59 "2017-09-27T13:32:26Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Bringing it up again, Occupy Wall Street has 3 interesting characteristics > > a. The problems the protesters were griping about were real and affect 95% of the population. Contrast that with gay marriage, where only a small (under 5%) subset of the population is even affected. And out of the gay community, the percentage that actually want to get married is smaller still, marriage is kind of an archaic and not so great legal contract to sign. > > b. I don’t know of a protest in modern times that had people actually camping for months or protesting on the scale that they did. > > c. **Nothing** has been changed. Income inequality has steadily grown worse at the same or accelerating rate it was at before OWS. Hell, right now, the economy has finally recovered and there’s low unemployment, but wages are still flat. You can get a job, just don’t expect to be paid more than you would have made in 1978 for a comparable position. > > d. \*\*None \*\*of the folks responsible for their get rich scheme blowing up and taking the entire global economy down have gone to jail. You missed one major issue. The fact that OWS was a grass roots protest and didn’t get supported by either major political party. NO WAY would the democrats support it because at that time, their man Obama was president. However I did notice Obama scaled back his meetings with corporate leaders during this time. Republicans wouldn’t support it because they are more of the target. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322/60 "2017-09-27T13:35:57Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Anyways, it was an enormous protest, and it accomplished zilch. But it **wasn’t** enormous. Occupy Wall Street basically amounted to one big demonstration in 2011. A big protest isn’t ONE demonstration. That’s like saying a big war is one battle. A big protest is many sustained demonstrations, constantly poking and prodding and bothering. Dr. King didn’t just do one bus boycott; organizing demonstrations, protests and the like was literally his full time job, and he was only the most prominent activist. To use the Civil Rights movement as an example, the protest was enormous because it consisted of many demonstrations, and it was sustained over years and years of effort. OWS lasted basically a weekend. There were a few farts in the wind after, but that was it. If it was still going on today, six years later, then it would be a big protest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-still-need-protests-or-is-it-all-just-spam-and-wanking-nowadays/797322.md?page=4)