As Trump is inaugurated, activists ask: is there any point in mass protest? | Donald Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-activists-mass-protest

by GeraldKutney

21 comments

  1. I’ve felt for a long time climate activists have to take technical roles in government positions and must campaign to win seats in local governments – simply protesting will have a deleterious effect on acientific culture. The reason why is simple: Only good government can serve as antidote for bad government.

  2. Sad day. I’m old. I ain’t got much time left, but I feel bad for young people.

  3. Mamsy pamsy hippy protests where you snap your fingers and yell retarded slogans sure won’t be. Get serious, and accept that meaningful pushback will have real consequences. You can’t protest safely anymore. It’s just useless. So, don’t protest until you’re angry enough to fight and get hurt.

  4. Well, activists are already arrested. Mango Mussolini is already going after people and has said as much and is staunchly against any type of science or belief that there’s a problem. 2+2

  7. Depends on what you mean by “any point”.

    Any point as in that the administration would listen and acquiesce? Absolutely not.

    Any point as in it’d help spread the message? Possibly.

  8. no save your energy for whatever comes next. The next few years they are going to grind down everybody so we accept apathy just like Russians do.

  9. Protesting does nothing. The rich and powerful don’t care about you. Get involved in politics, develop or boost progressive media, boycott, learn and educate yourself on how to make the change you want to see.

  10. mass protests work in a number of ways on politicians… “ooo look at all these people who really care about this issue. If I pander to them, I may get their vote” this doesn’t work if it goes against the flow of money “I refuse to acknowledge this because I’m lining my pockets with corporate donations..”

    in which case, it needs to be a big central angry protest at their front door.. with a representative that can deliver concise, reasonable and simple demands, that if they go through, we will go away.. that’ll make a politician more than happy enough to put it through.. as long as their corporate donors who gave them billions don’t have a gun to their head to not budge an inch.. ideally we can find something in between

    we should also do this to keep corporate money out of politics… it works against our collective best interests to such an extreme I can’t begin to imagine how it could have ever been legal

  11. It’s a hard question.

    Trump doesn’t give a crap about those that don’t support him. In fact because he has no core principles, protest might even be counterproductive, as he’d set policies just to spite his “enemies.” Remember half his first term was undoing whatever he could that Obama had done, simply because Obama had done it.

    Also… the other half is what’s the point, because everyone knows what an awful piece of garbage Trump is, and they still voted for him.

    If you hold a sign that says “Trump sucks” who are you going to convince? His supporters will smile and say “yes that’s my guy!!!”

  12. Protesting and marching as long as it’s down to the election registers office, to register to vote. AND VOTE. Also helps to donate to candidates, and pressuring them when elected. Most people vote, then never pay attention for 4 years.

  14. No. Go join a union and hurt capital. That’s where they actually do care.

  15. The only benefits are seeing that you’re not alone. We all know that already. No use anymore

  16. If they didn’t think protests could work, they wouldn’t make such an effort to discourage it. 

    They want everyone who disagrees with them to feel they’re in the minority and unable to accomplish anything, and that’s specifically because mass action freaks them out.

    They hate unions and social justice protests and even voting for the same reasons.

  17. Luigi Mangione did more than any protester ever has. 

  18. Peaceful protest is just a way to make people feel like they are doing something, a more robust form of protest is needed to enact change.

  19. The only real way to send a single is to consume only what you need. The only thing they care about is profits, make decisions with you wallet.

  21. I marched with over a million people in London against the Iraq war. We were ignored. I marched with 10s of thousands in the Sydney women’s march and a sky writer wrote “TRUMP” over them and nothing changed.

    Mass protests don’t appear to convince anybody and it’s very easy for them to be counterproductive.

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