I Hate Protests

I really dislike protests. They don't accomplish anything. The people doing the protesting get to raise their self esteem by thinking they are doing something awesome. They're not. I'll tell you why I feel that way. 

1. First of all, they don't accomplish anything. The one case where I think they did was the Martin Luther King/Rosa Parks, etc, social protests in the South in the 50's and 60's. I think people in other parts of the country didn't know how bad things were. It brought attention to it and that led to changes. For the Vietnam War, cuts in spending going on today, etc, pretty much everyone knows the issues already. You aren't bringing attention to it. Everyone knows already. You're saying that you are upset about it. Everyone knows that, too.

2. The powers that be aren't listening. During a war, the people that declared the war knew there would be protests. The fact that there are protests, then is no surprise to them. In fact, the powers that be don't want to appear weak by changing their policy because of protests. They figure that would just encourage more protests, so they dig in even harder. The Vietnam War didn't end early because of marches. In fact, it might have ended earlier. North Vietnam figured if they could just hang on long enough they could ultimately win. And Donald Trump doesn't seem like the sort to back down because people don't like what he did. In fact, he seems to kind of like making people mad.

3. You turn off the people in the middle. A famous baseball manager, Casey Stengel, said the secret of being a great manager is keeping the people that hate you away from the undecideds. On most issues I think the majority of people are somewhere in the middle. Protesters, especially violent ones, upset them and they move away from what you want. 

4. You bring out the other side. People that would have stayed home are now taking to the streets because you did. That happens for groups like Neo Nazis. In fact, they are all for you coming out. Their goal is to be visible and have others have a counterprotest and attract media attention. The more yelling and anger, the more they like it.

5. There are better ways to respond. Samuel Johnson said, "You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument". A senator once said that a well written letter from a constituent saying how he feels about an issues did a lot more for him than a petition with a thousand names on it. 

You have the right to protest, but it would be better if you did things that actually made the world better.