[tharmas]

But that's what makes a protest effective: it's inconvenient! Otherwise, the protest has no power to change anything. As long as its not violent or blowing things up I think "the establishment" should at least concede that.

Case in point: look what happened in Israel when the Abraham Accords were signed, Hamas decided to go for the "nuclear" option.

[tensor]

Harassing people, preventing people sleeping for weeks, this is not "inconvenience" it's violence and intimidation against fellow citizens. I have zero sympathy or tolerance for violent occupations that force people out of their home, nor their supporters who try to pretend these things didn't happen.

[adamomada]

Your bar for violence is so low you might accuse me of it for laughing in your face

It is 100% inconvenience, and if there’s one thing that can not be tolerated in these times, is any sort of inconvenience.

[marcosdumay]

Funny. If the police did wake people out several times every night, it would be clearly considered not only violent, but outright torture.

[Marsymars]

> But that's what makes a protest effective: it's inconvenient! Otherwise, the protest has no power to change anything.

Well that's kind of the point - protesters don't have the power to change anything based on physical inconvenience. The inconvenience is merely a PR effort because protesters don't have any more effective form of of PR - if people are famous/wealthy/powerful/etc. they have better forms of PR available.

The problem with some styles of protest is that they're asymmetrical in terms of damage. A relatively small number of people who get worked up enough can congregate in one location and indefinitely shut down the operations of a person/group/organization/government. At some point the legitimate governing body needs to enforce the functioning of society, or they'll lose the mandate to govern.

[tharmas]

Union Picket lines?