re: Have protests ever changed a mind?

Biden has condemned the protests and stated it has not affected his stance on the Gaza situation. Both sides are reporting this.

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Now 50 kids on a college campus aren’t going to do shite or change the course of history even a little bit.

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Not saying this is one of them but all social movements started small. The difference is the people who started them actually had skin in the game...the shite they were protesting, to start with, was shite that impacted them directly and negatively.

I don't know that they ever moved the needle when it was mercenaries doing the protesting on behalf of someone else from the get go. The take over of BLM protests by white women is a pretty good example....

The protests now seem to be different. The goals of protests now seem less about getting “change” and more about pissing off people who disagree with you as much as possible, because you hate them.

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That’s what I find ironic about protests… my belief is they benefit the other side moreso than their own. Because they inadvertently generate support for the other side that oftentimes wasn’t there before.

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This is certainly true when the protestors aren't really impacted by what they are protesting, like these protests. Some of those students are no doubt Palestinian but the vast majority are American kids who have absolutely no skin in the game at all....they will tire of all the fuss, accept some modest compromise and go onto the next big thing because they can't possibly have any conviction because they have no direct interest in the conflict they are protesting.

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These protests also had talented mouthpieces behind them, such as MLK jr


Not so much today

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They did not have those mouthpieces in the early stages. What they did have were people with conviction whose lives were directly impacted negatively by the issues they were protesting and the issue had pushed the people to a point where they had no real alternative. Were these people going to Israel or Gaza and doing what they are doing with conviction in their heart they very well may cause change for the good...that ain't happening because they lack conviction because it is a taken up cause for most....most have no skin in the game directly.

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It's not about changing minds. It's about somehow thinking you are going to force your issue by camping out.

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Seriously, camping out? WTF is sleeping on a lawn in a tent doing to change minds? One the other side of the coin, what is it hurting? Killing the grass? so what. It will grow back. Trashing the campus? Again, it can be picked up. Their seizing buildings is one thing because history teaches that often times such buildings are seriously damaged. Instead of pepper spray and knocking them in the head hand out marshmallows, graham crackers and hershey bars...they do not have any conviction, they can easily be distracted. Pepper spray and knocking them in the head is wrestling with hogs....

Before last year if I wanted a cheap, domestic lager I was probably as apt to order a Bud Light as I was a Coors or Miller. I didn't have a strong preference. Whatever was cold and available was good enough at that moment. However, when BL's marking department signaled I was not among their preferred customer base through their vapid virtue signaling, I figured all things being equal (and they pretty much are) a Coors or Miller is just as good. So I've just ordered those in that situation since.

I don't know if that counts as a protest. I haven't ever cut a plastic garbage can in half and used it as a shield while running at someone drinking a Bud Light. But I guess that backlash technically changed my mind.

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The right to assemble peacefully and communicate a common message is invaluable and has been enormously successful throughout history.

What we are witnessing is an instigation of rioting and civil unrest. Not the same thing.

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This nation was founded on violent protests by a people who had convictions and had been pushed to the brink with little to lose further. These protests have nary a one of those elements. Not in Los Angeles or New York or Atlanta. They might in Gaza or Jerusalem but this is just the latest outrage in an endless stream of latest outrages. It will last until about fall, liable to get really ugly this summer, and then something sexier will come along and the protestors won't even know what is going on in Gaza....because it does not impact them and they have no skin in the game....

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This nation was founded on violent protests by a people who had convictions and had been pushed to the brink with little to lose further. These protests have nary a one of those elements

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Pretty much all of the protests in the country since 2016 have had no point and were founded on BS. The police brutality stuff was started by a junkie who was saying I can’t breathe long before he was on the ground. Another big one was Jacob Blake, who raped a girl then threatened a cop with a knife. Another was Breonna Taylor, whose boyfriend shot a cop and was shot back at as he ran away, and she was in the door. These are the people that they were protesting over. Overstated the amount of unarmed black deaths at the hands of police officers by a factor of 10, understated the number of white deaths, as well as the disgustingly high crime rate in the black community which lead to more encounters with police officers. Pointless, brainless movement that basically eliminated any hope of there being racial harmony in the US.

That’s what the protests accomplished. So yeah. Protests are dumb. They are worthless now. And that trend was started by BLM.

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locations that have no power to deal with whatever they are protesting and can't influence any outcome.

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well, considering the fact that they're protesting for their universities to divest from israel, where else should they protest?