to be utterly sick of protests, marches, rallies, and riots

[NameChangeMay2026]

What happened today in Belfast was dreadful. Of course it was.

When Sarah Everard died, there were marches. But a day before she died, an Indian woman Sarah's age was knifed to death in the street in Leicestershire. It was an "honour" killing, I think.

Where was HER lantern on the doorstep of Downing Street? Where was HER march?

My point is, dreadful things happen every day and I am so sick and tired of news items sparking so much public rowdiness. It used to be that the media could report on current events without starting a riot. I know that we have always had riots, but they were the occasional one. And because they were not common, they helped effect change. They were a desperate measure reserved for when nothing else had helped.

Now, together with marches, rallies, and protests, society is constantly disrupted, and I am so, so sick of it. I live in a major city and I can't go anywhere without checking what march, rally, protest, or riot is happening, especially at the weekends. And they are so common that they don't help effect change anymore.

The riots are terrible. Thousands and thousands of pounds' worth of lost property in fires, injured bystanders, police calld away from other duties to attend them. And there are "professional" rabble-rousers who travel to marches, protests, and riots. It's not because they're passionate about a cause. They're just passionate about causing trouble.

I travel for work to major American cities and it's even worse over there. Another day, another riot/protest/march/rally.

They have become a feature of today's society, and I wish they would just stop.

Edit: I actually stay in more because of them. I don't go out of my hotel as much when staying in America, and I don't go to the city centre where I live as much. It's so bad when regular people are put off from walking around city centres because of all these annoying dickheads.

I think it is worse in America, and I'm tired of feeling scared to go out when there, in case I run into an uncontrolled crowd - where the police have guns, and the protestors might, depending on the state.

The burning buildings in Belfast are a disgrace. It's not the owners' fault that this happened.

I completely understand. People on every side of every issue are consumed with anger and want to see blood. There's no real debate, listening or compromise. Everyone wants action now, but doesn't accept that in a democracy with laws things take time. And everyone seems emboldened to take physical action for their cause against their 'bad guy'. It feels lawless.

YANBU. Racism is rife.

It does feel lawless. And, where I live, there is a full calendar of public events almost the whole year. There are many more pulic events everywhere than twenty years ago, it seems.

So with the public events, plus all the marches, riots, rallies, and protests, it feels like city centres are permanently gummed up with crowds that could turn at any moment. And forget driving into the city.

I wish everyone would shut the fuck up and just go home. And I wish city councils wouldn't run so many public events.

Yes, it's getting worse and worse and worse. Whipped up by all these events, which are facilitated by fucking social media. And there aren't enough police to maintain law and order, thanks to the cuts made by successive governments.

The police have lost control of public areas, imo. Not their fault - there's just not enough of them.

People are angry at things that are happening every day. The protests are their way of telling politicians to get off their backsides and make the necessary changes. Or would you rather everyone was quiet and obedient, and people continued to be abused daily while the authority looked the other way and pretended it wasn't happening?
Of course building and property damage is not good, protest should be peaceful, but protest needs to happen when things are not right.

Without protest, women wouldn't have the vote, grooming gangs would still be an open secret and the Equalities Act wouldn't exist.

Protests can work and can be a part of bringing about real change. In democracies they are a way of people making their voices heard. In oppressive regimes they can topple the government.

BUT

I think that we have fallen into a pattern now where the performance of outrage is considered a way of changing things when it isn't. Or the idea (largely driven by social media) that you should be Angry and that the Angrier you are the more you care and the more moral you are. It means that actual meaningful change is harder because people assume that they changed their Facebook profile picture, or went on the demo and that's job done. It also means that the people who are considered the most engaged are the angriest (ie the ones smashing things up) and you get politicians saying they must be "listened to". Because the angriest people are also the least likely to be able to articulate what they want it's very easy for politicians to manipulate the situation by making themselves the spokesperson for "what people want". The views of the people who aren't smashing things up are viewed as less important or even "out of touch" (because if you were in touch with the situation you'd be angry and smashing things too).

I particularly hate the way personal tragedies are hijacked because while solidarity/empathy is one thing a lot of the anger seems to be a parasitic need to put themselves at the centre of it. Or an idea that the victim isn't the actual victim but society and specifically the angry person. Which is a backslide in the case of sexual assault.

It's CONSTANT. And I don't think politicians are swayed by trouble-makers anyway.

ETA: The media busted the grooming gangs. Votes for women had a clear objective against something that was very clearly not fair. And they didn't riot like they do nowadays. The Equality Act was updates to existing anti-discrimination legislation and would have happened without marches and protests.

I'm not saying there is never a place for protests. But they are ALL the time, and they are often not peaceful.

Because it's upsetting your comfortable little life?

A guy just almost had his head chopped off in Belfast and you're sick of the protesters???

Yanbu. It's disgusting, and it's being orchestrated by Musk and Putin. Where is Tommy Robinson right now? In the Kremlin with Musk's father.

There will have been tens of stabbings across the country in the last few days. Many carried out by white men. Where is the outrage? What separates the violent man who stabbed the man in Belfast and the thugs out rioting setting fire to innocent people's homes with them inside? Absolutely nothing, they're all scum!

Sick of protesters setting fire to houses with innocent children inside. Yes, yes I am. If you defend the actions of masked gangs of thugs terrorising innocent people in Belfast today you're just as despicable as those carrying out the violence. Look at history and look where we are now. We're on a very dangerous trajectory that doesn't end well for anyone - not even it's most ardent supporters.

People are being whipped up into a frenzy by two of the most malign people on the planet. Putin and Musk. Putin is KGB agent who would love nothing more than to see the UK destroy itself from within. While Musk is a rabid racist (and NeoNazi IMO) who enjoys playing God and watching the chaos unfold just like clockwork.

That was my thought too.

People are having their lives wrecked or taken through no fault of their own, but the OP is fed up with the inconvenience to her domestic and social routine.

OP, also bear in mind, legitimate protest acts as a pressure valve. Without protest, anger can build up into something far more dangerous.

Totally agree.

When protests are peaceful and occasional, they can bring about change. But the idea of a protest has been hijacked by trouble-makers who organise one every five minutes. They don't have the impact they used to, they don't have clear aims, and so they do nothing but clog up the streets and often injure people and property. A net negative.

Today's protests have shapeless aims that are far too wide in scope. Governments are not going to change their entire plans because of a protest. Votes for women was a clear aim with an achievable fix, and women were protesting to ask for that fix.

In contrast, we've had:

The March for Palestine. What fucking good did that do, given that the UK has no power to do anything about Israel/Gaza/Palestine?

There was the Unite the Kingdom march. What good did that do? Nothing. What did they even want?

There was Tommy Robinsons anti-immigration march. Well, we still have immigration, because we need it, since our birth rate is low. And that's due to soaring costs of property, higher education, and COL.

March against the Far Right - THAT WORKED. NOT!

Just Stop Oil - yeah, right, The British government were really going to stop all new gas, oil, and coal projects.

I don't believe most of these organisers are genuine. They're just anarchists who love trouble. If they were genuine, they'd have a clear ask, like "Stop drilling in X oilfields by 2035" or some such. But that's not as virtue-signalling as pure rage, is it.

People are murdered every day. Why is there not a riot for every single one? Why this one? It's stupid. The perp will be brought to justice the same as any other perp, riot or not. So what on earth was the point of this riot, except to spread more misery to people who don't deserve it?

I think people became aware of the grooming gangs at different times... There was a documentary by channel 4 in 2004 but it was only in 2011 that the first trials happened and a Times journalist did a story about it. That's when I heard about it and when the first big wave of anger happened and it started to be reported by more papers. 2011 is also when operation Bullfinch was launched to investigate those crimes leading to trials in the years after. Each of which would expose horrific details and more questions about why it had been allowed to go on for so long. The BBC also did a drama "3 girls" that brought it back to people's attention and looked into the failings of authorities. The first report into this was in 2013 but there have been more inquiries since. Eg in 2019 a report into the historic child sexual exploitation of children in Sisha bars in Oldham was launched by Burnham after Burnham council rejected it.

But some people only became aware of the issues after Elon Musk tweeted about it and think that he was therefore the one to break the story and save the day.

Prior to 2011 of course there were lots of people who knew about it and people like Maggie Oliver who were trying to do something. She is a hero. And there was an attempt to cover up/ignore it prior to 2011 for sure. But by the time Elon Musk was involved and there were riots it had been public knowledge for a very long time.

And of course, Musks shitstirring and Reforms attempt to farm anger risked delaying the passage of a bill to actually put the Jay report recommendations into law. So there was that.

What GOOD does this riot do? Do you think that without a riot, the perp will walk free, or something?

Again, it's all about the anger of the people protesting. Everyone has a "right" to be angry. Everyone has a right to any emotions they want. But I don't think people have the "right" to take a tragedy and make it all about them/their grievances (a pressure valve)/a chance to feel a sense of lost community. Especially when the family asked not to.
And it makes real change harder because it allows opportunists to muddy the issue and means everyone is too busy catering to the adult toddlers that the initial issue gets deprioritised.
That and the need for instaneous gratification, the mainstream media to report things at the same speed of speculation on Twitter is rotting people's brains.

Well, the French managed to stop having their state pension reduces with mass demonstrations, so obviously they sometimes do some good.

A riot is not a strike, but it's more exposure than sitting on the couch moaning.

Then you need for people to trust that justice will be done.

People do not feel like they can trust the government, the police, ANY of the establishment at the moment.

And so, as they ever have, they will make their own arrangements.

Every light sentence, every blind eye, every drop in living conditions. The pressure has been building as people are being told to swallow more pain.

And now the dam has burst.

These men are dangerous regardless of the trigger. They're pathetic men and boys who have the emotional intelligence of toddlers looking for any reason to kick off. If only they actually developed themselves as human beings, got some hobbies etc.

This quote is becoming more prescient by the day, "The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."

Brutality, too much leisure time and stupidity!

Self mythologising and the drama triangle.

Stop excusing thuggery. They're no better than the so called 'uncivilised invaders' they claim to be defending us from. They're cretins and represent the worst of British society.

We need to DRIVE this Government OUT, that's why we should take to the streets.
We are fed up to the back teeth of feeling poorer.

Unless this Government gets a grip of the economy there will be civil unrest. People can only take so much. Governments can only tax so much until the economy collapses.
No country has ever taxed its way to prosperity!

We need GROWTH, jobs, lower youth unemployment and less benefits paid out.

We now have the highest youth unemployment in Europe and why.... because Rachel Thieves lowered the rate at which employers have to start paying NI from £12k to £5k. All those little jobs.....gone.

Britain is a nation of small businesses and every which way she can she's taxed them to the hilt, stifling entrepreneurship. She's squeezed the lifeblood out of them instead of looking at the likes of Amazon, or going after "the big boys" who offshore profits. Profits should be taxed in the country they're earned.

Thats why there's going to be unrest! We're becoming a third world country, a basket case requiring an IMF bailout like Greece was one time.

Blah blah blah.

And yet, every day someone (like the OP) says 'Why is this happening?'

If people dont trust their leaders, and they get angry enough, the government will be overthrown.

It doesn't matter how you feel about the people involved. If there are enough of them, change will be forced.

And @canuckup as well.

OP is fed up with the inconvenience to her domestic and social routine
Because it's upsetting your comfortable little life?

Since neither of you can read, I'll repeat the issues:

• Huge damage to property, costing the owners of buildings, cars and shops large amounts. This is totally unfair.

• This damage drives up insurance costs for everyone.

• Police are called away from regular duties to deal with this shit. Their numbers are low enough already after years of cuts.

• The protests do not effect change because their aims are wide-ranging and unclear. See my list above of huge protests that achieved precisely fuck-all.

• Innocent people get caught up in riots and protests and get crushed, killed, or injured.

The government is not going to stop immigration as long as our birth rates are low. Partly they are low because everything costs too much. But you don't see anyone mounting peaceful protests for a clear aim with a feasible outcome, do you? When was the last time anyone protested or marched for affordable childcare? Because it's only professional trouble-makers who do this rabble-rousing.

But yeah it's all about my comfortable little life.

If you can't get the police or a fire engine when you need one, because they're at marches, rallies, riots, or protests, or you or a loved one are injured in a riot, or crushed at a march, you might feel differently.

Something far more dangerous? "watches buildings burn in Belfast"