“Lately I have struggled to understand the function of symbolic protests. I have even wondered if they serve to placate people by making us feel we have acted when we have not engaged in actions that will lead to tangible outcomes; it stems from my disdain for injustice and my frustration with not ending that. But maybe symbolic or performative actions provide people with hope too or some psychological feeling of being able to take other action later? Maybe they are just natural human expressions of grief or anger?

Still, I am not convinced and prefer actions that leads to concrete changes rather than a feeling of hope/lack of despair. Sometimes the most actually most effective thing in the world is a hopeless person filled with despair who is thinking very carefully. And the most dangerous thing is someone filled with a sense that they are doing very much when they are performing emotional displays.

I also may just be wired strangely and have less tolerance for injustice than usual.”

— an anonymous informant (SB)