# What method of protest (for a cause you disagree with) would persuade you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 29, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325 "2020-08-29T18:23:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325/21 "2020-08-30T18:09:39Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> That there might have been deliberate provocateurs, I can buy. That fits with the facts. But that there were guys who wanted sports memorabilia and so used the protests as an excuse to loot a small shop, that doesn’t really seem to match the facts.
I doubt that the criminals who were looting that store wanted sports memorabilia. They were looking for something that was valuable and easy to steal that they could resell for cash.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2020, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325/22 "2020-08-31T12:08:12Z")
There’s only one major issue I’ve done a 180 degree turn on, and that’s capital punishment.
I didn’t change my viewpoint from any sort of protest either. It was the Innocence Project finding eleven innocent people on Illinois’ death row.
Even so, I thoroughly endorse the executions of John Gacy and Ted Bundy.
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325/23 "2020-08-31T15:26:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> The purpose of the protest isn’t to change minds. The protest is supposed to make people pay attention to the cause. The cause then has to convince people on its own merits
Agreeing with this.
If nobody protests, those who aren’t immediately negatively affected, and often some of those who are, are likely to just take the status quo for granted – ‘that’s just the way things are’. Protests both make the issue noticeable for those who haven’t noticed it, and make those who thought the situation unchangeable realize that there are people who believe that it can and should be changed. Large and obvious protests make it clear that there are a lot of such people; which can make change look possible to those who had previously assumed that it wasn’t, and can make change look advisable to those who hadn’t previously paid much attention to the issue.
I think, as far as changing one’s mind about an issue that one’s actually already formed a clear opinion on, that minds rarely change instantly, on the spot, in the middle of a thread or a conversation or a protest. But that doesn’t mean the thread or the conversation or the protest doesn’t change minds – it’s the accumulation of multiple such, over a period of time, that often does cause people to change their minds. And minds do change – look at the public perception of gay marriage, for instance.
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### Author:  [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-of-protest-for-a-cause-you-disagree-with-would-persuade-you/919325/24 "2020-08-31T15:46:47Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> what method of protest would work to convince _you_ to support a cause you currently oppose?
I don’t know why you would even ask the question. Because it seems to presume that the aim of protests is to convince people who “disagree” to change their minds.
Have you considered that the purpose of protests is—or might perhaps better be—to convince those who are indifferent to get off the fence? In considering racism, for instance, racial indifference and a refusal to “see color” is not the opposite of racism.
So… what Little\_Nemo said.
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