# You control where and when a group or cause you hate is going to protest - what's your choice? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 27, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680 "2018-07-27T14:33:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/21 "2018-07-29T04:11:44Z")
That Onion article about a Black Lives Matter group protesting the lack of proper African representation in ISIS/ISIL and doing human chains to prevent their armed trucks from getting to their genocide destination with ISIS completely bewildered on how to stop it sounds about right. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/22 "2018-07-31T12:54:41Z")
Other - _inside_ the Capitol. Why should _ordinary_ citizens have to suffer? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/23 "2018-07-31T15:12:40Z")
Center of an active lava-filled volcano. Even the signs would burn. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/24 "2018-07-31T15:15:21Z")
Chernobyl. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/25 "2018-07-31T22:01:09Z")
I would want the group to maximize how annoying they are so their attention grab backfires on them, so I pick that they “Shutting down a major highway in the middle of rush hour traffic, in a major city” and that city should also be annoying, so somewhere on the west coast, like Portland or Seattle. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/26 "2018-08-01T18:19:55Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Surface of the sun? But at night time, so they don’t hurt themselves. Hey, I’m not a MONSTER. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/27 "2018-08-01T18:38:50Z")
> [@Textual\_Innuendo](#): > > Sure, that’s one way of thinking about it - bury it and nobody sees it or supports it. > > But I think if you keep going past nobody seeing it, there’s a more effective means to work against their cause, and that’s to stage their protest in a very visible way that pisses everybody off, so now not only will nobody support it, but people will actively work against it because they were irritated by it. > > Which to my mind, is better than burying it - if you bury it, you leave their bad cause about where it was before the protest, but if you enlist the rage of rush-hour commuters on your behalf, you’ve actively harmed the bad cause. Then it would make sense to assess “where it was before the protest.” If it was effectively invisible, then preventing it from attaining visibility would be the way to go. Only if the vegetarian restaurant puppy-falafel movement had achieved a significant level of notoriety that they were trying to parlay into greater active support would it make sense to try to associate them with the idea of “things that inconvenience Joe Sixpack.” Anyway, what’s the big idea, assigning me authority to decree the when and where of the demonstration without giving me the power to simply ban the organization by fiat? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/28 "2018-08-01T18:39:39Z")
Chain Locker. Titanic. > **[Titanic Deckplans](https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/)** > > Detailed RMS Titanic deckplans. Explore the design of the Titanic in high resolution deckplans. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/29 "2018-08-01T18:48:46Z")
Front and center in the town square, just like any other group or cause, whether I support them or not. Free speech and all that. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/30 "2018-08-01T20:01:34Z")
I’d want them to protest where they want to protest, even if I opposed their cause, and even if it messed up my commute. What is this push for convenient democracy that says “Yeah, yeah, yeah, just don’t make my commute longer”? I get that the OP is about groups I hate. I loathe the West Baptist Church, but as sickened and outraged as I am by them and all they stand for, I’m not going to limit where they get to protest. Come on, we all know the Right to Assemble Peaceably is easy to believe in when we’re not inconvenienced and we agree with the protestors, but that it’s when it inconveniences us or when we oppose the protestors’ goals that it’s most important to defend it. I mean, don’t we? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/31 "2018-08-01T20:02:52Z")
Drop the threadshitting. If you think the poll is stupid, move on. We don’t all need to know how stupid you think someone’s thread idea is. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What an unbelievably bizarre and stupid poll. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/32 "2018-08-02T01:17:47Z")
Missed the edit window. That should be Westboro Baptist Church. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/33 "2018-08-02T01:27:36Z")
> [@Textual\_Innuendo](#): > > Inspired by this [thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21111802). > A group that wants to mandate that all male teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 are issued RPG’s and AK-47’s. You get the idea, whatever they want, you vigorously oppose. I, for one, would support kids being issued Role Playing Games. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680/34 "2018-08-02T01:40:30Z")
I would repeal whatever laws or regulations were in place requiring them to have a permit in the first place. I would encourage and support non-violent protests. I would meet violent protests with quick and overwhelming force, that force if possible targeting the actual violence and allowing the rest of the protest to proceed. It’s good that people’s lives are disrupted by protesters, just not violent ones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-control-where-and-when-a-group-or-cause-you-hate-is-going-to-protest-whats-your-choice/818680.md?page=1)