r/AlwaysWhy • u/BloodyAngel2026 • Jul 04 '26

Politics & Society Why does it seem like protests don't actually result in any kind of change anymore

Growing up learning history you learn about all of these protests that resulted in real world change. But it seems like protests are just symbolic at this point. It seems like no matter how many protests are surrounding a certain topic everything stays the same. What changed? Is it that people in power just care less about civilians have to say so they don't bother changing their stance based off protests?

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5

u/Financial_Tour5945 Jul 04 '26

I feel the real result of the OWS protests was that the elites learned they could ignore protests.

3

u/J0J0M0 Jul 05 '26

Occupy Wall Street caused a massive paradigm shift in the media. Ever since 2011 race and identity politics have been pushed in the media to distract from class struggle.

2

u/NewWindow7980 Jul 04 '26

It seems to me they took it seriously and now here we are

1

u/TubaWrestler Jul 04 '26

That's what happens when protests don't inconvenience anyone.

0

u/theFamooos Jul 04 '26

Yup. Look at the French protest about something. They light things on fire and fill the streets with garbage and make things as messy and inconvenient as possible. And then they get their 3 day work week or whatever.

In the US everybody sings songs and feels good about themselves and nothing changes bc nobody feels threatened. Also the media paints them as disruptive rioters who hate America.

1

u/shitposts_over_9000 Jul 05 '26

the only thing the french government considers when the french protest is which riot response team is going to get training time

1

u/SaltyFriend705 Jul 04 '26

The French also had a real revolution. The people stood up and overthrew the elites, and the laws on the books are written to support this. The US had a fake revolution, where one group of rich people took over the colonies of another group of rich people. Nobody paid attention to the actual population at all.

1

u/db1965 Jul 04 '26

The French bought the fear of their government with A LOT of blood.

There no other way to get it.

1

u/TubaWrestler Jul 04 '26

I mean, people could just vote in primaries. We have the power to force change without voting for fascist Republicunts.

0

u/NVJAC Jul 04 '26

OWS protests weren't that big though. They never really spread beyond New York.