No Stupid Questions

That's a great question. What I would say is the wheels of justice turn painfully slowly.

I am sure Antony Blinken is well aware of domestic concerns over the wellbeing of Gazans, the unfortunate reality is any big decision against or at Israel will come with negative consequences.

The path of least resistance might be allowing the Israeli's to squeeze out their own leader democratically. Is that the best way? Well, probably? Not always?

A pacifist may look to the Vietnam War, Libya or Iran and say action was injustice, an activist might look at the Rwandan Genocide and say pacifism was injustice. Diplomacy has to do it's thing.

Depends who's protesting and what's the support for the protests among general population. The problem with most of the protests you see is that the people that do the protesting are the same people that oppose the government. So yeah, no government is going to react to protests done by people that don't vote for it, no matter how big. If the actual people that got the government elected protest or support the protest then they listen. Of course most of the time people know what they are voting and the government is doing exactly what it promised so they will not protest.

They do alot more then bitching about something on social media and expecting that to change anything...

Better than staying inside and not doing shit. It shows community activism.

Read up on the civil rights movements or how women got the right to vote.

Protests 100% work

Farmers protested all over Europe recently and got what they wanted, which is to get rid of latest environmental regulations (that would have enforced an end of subsidies on diesel, reduction of nitrates use in fertilisers etc).

Absolutely, they provide the police with bodies they can beat with impunity.

I recently looked up the history of a 1969 civil rights protest at the college I went to, and found a newspaper article tracing changes at the school right through to the current day.

A big difference is they were protesting decisions at a university. It may have been a general movement across the country but it was really a large local protest against a local entity. The protests against Israel are generally not in Israel, and even if the goal is to change one or more supporting country’s policy, the protests really aren’t that big relative to the whole country or its government.

I think the protests are still too small, given the scale at which they’re trying to influence a change

It depends on the amount of violence and monetary damage.

Just like boycotts, you need to have many many people joining and supporting the cause to actually make an impact within the world and the community, otherwise it’s not very impactful and govs could easily do any to prevent it from happening aka silencing ppl.

Though that saying, ppl shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for not doing so, if certain circumstances prevent them to do so eg disability, addiction, lack of options etc etc cuz unfortunately in the world we live in today, capitalism plays a huge part in our society today, therefore there’s is no “truly” ethical consumption in the world we are in today.

Depends. If they're focused on specific demands and done at the right time combined with direct advocacy, they can do a lot to affect change.

No, protests can't enact policy in democratic countries. Voting can, boycotts can, and strikes can. You can organize all of the three as part of a protest, but it's a lot more work than shouting with a fancy sign, and a lot less fun to do.

It works when a government already sympathetic to the cause is in office

Protest movements against hostile state apparati usually have to get a bit more....intense, before they get change.

Difference between the civil rights movement and the Egyptian Arab Spring uprising

if protests did nothing, they wouldn't be forbidden in China and Russia and every other autocratic society

No

i'm pretty sure you could crowdsource an assassination and get more results,.

with or without guns?

Only ones that can materially disrupt things.

A protest with a permit or with permission is a parade.

Some, but not all.

Just remember, if the protest is peaceful and easy to ignore then nothing will probably get done. You must disrupt the flow.

It depends if you live in a fascist regime or a democratic one.

You need to use your protests as recruiting grounds for more direct pressure on your government. You should establish or join a lobbying organization and recruit volunteers. You will have these people write letters to the editor, solicit for donations, call and write to your representatives, and schedule in-person meetings with government officials.

Standing on the street and yelling by itself is not enough, you need to become a part of the establishment to affect change, but you can grow your organization by finding people who have proven to be motivated. A protest is a great place for that sort of thing.

Nope.

The world is fucked.

Only thing that could possibly turn the tides would be a massive return to the guillotine.

Preceding the Iraq War, there was the largest worldwide protest in history to try to stop the war from happening.

Protests are helpful at showing public sentiment, but they rarely change policy.

MLK was assassinated after he started focusing on class issues. The FBI tried to threaten him with an anonymous letter telling him to kill himself.

The Stop Cop City protestors in Atlanta are being charged with terrorism.

Yes because:

1. There is a visible action taking place. You are standing for something you believe in. This gives other people who may lack confidence or opportunity something to notice.

2. Those in authority cannot claim what they do is an unopposed position.

3. Those you are protesting on behalf of, even if they are going through hell, know that someone somewhere is not prepared to let their circumstances go unnoticed.

4. Those you are protesting against know that someone sees what they are doing.

Yes, mobilization is a strong message to government in democracy. It says we do not like the direction, we are going and we will vote you out or cause more disruption. In my town we mobilized in front of our MP's office due to the partial privatization of medcial aid. Our MP ended up changing his vote and siding against his party, as it was the will of the people. Participation in democracy is a powerful tool.

Protests generally don't change policy, although politicians may use them as justification for something they already want to push through.

Sometimes. It depends on a lot of factors. Protests can convince people to change their mind, it has happened in the past and does happen on some situations these days as well. Protests can also have negative effects as well, considering things like where, when, and how a protest is carried out can either change people's minds or entrench them even more in their own opinion.

At the end of the day, the outcome of a protest is just as unpredictable as what a person will do in ten years. Or even the next hour, really.

There have been more criticisms from governments as time has gone on - Brazil in particular has been in the news today for it.

South Africa has taken actions as well. And even if these two countries didn't do this because of protests, they help to encourage protests in other places, to help to change more minds.

You can never know exactly what a protest accomplishes, that's one of the ways they are so easy to minimize.

Only if it hurts their bottom line