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.

@NameChangeMay2026if you care, why not try to engage and try to understand and consider why a growing number of people are responding as they are? Shutting it down and saying they don’t know what they want and they are just “howling at the moon” is surely just as pointless in itself? Word salad to make you feel superior this morning as you drink your coffee. That seems to be all these threads achieve.

Two incidents.

Two individuals of whom, one was a British citizen and the other was a genuine asylum seeker granted asylum from Sudan.

How does burning houses down help?

The police have guns in Belfast too you know @NameChangeMay2026

@NameChangeMay2026 of all the days to start this thread

I can be sympathetic about a stupid obscure political cause causing disruption like just stop oil or whatever. They're well known for aiming to cause disruption for the sake of it, they don't actually want to stop oil.

But the attempted beheading of one man by a man who absolutely shouldn't be here -there is something really wrong with people aren't angry about that.

You talk about the "perp" - there's the individuals committing the crime and the governments who are literally encouraging them to do this. Welcoming them with free food and accommodation

Which perpetrators are going to be brought to justice? And when is that actual justice?

No, of course burning up the property of people who have nothing to do with it isn't right

like many people, I am absolutely furious. Read the room. Today really isn't the day for this complaint. And some of your comparisons are absolutely crazy.

The protesters require a very large police presence, police who would rather be focusing on the investigation, public reassurance and other similar related work than dealing with the rioters.
The news becomes deviated from the poor lad and other related news to the rioters/protesters.
The rioters/protesters may have a point, but it gets lost in the violence or disruption, and their point can also not be addressed while they are being dealt with.
I could keep going on, but in short, the protests and riots only misdirect the anger and frustration and disrupt the proper action. Always understandable, but so counterproductive and quite like a bunch of kids throwing their toys out of the pram as they can't get what they want fast enough.

I think we should be allowed to protest about whatever we want. However Mob mentality damaging other people’s property and businesses is not acceptable at all. But I’m not sure how you stop the latter whilst still allowing people to protest against things.

Since you say people are accused of being racist when they protest, I guess you mean immigration when you say the government isn't listening. Well, mass immigration has spanned all governments for at least twenty-five years. And it doesn't matter how much people protest, we need immigrants because of our falling birthrate. That's why Britain has been importing so many immigrants for so long, and isn't going to stop. Without them, we would have far fewer taxpayers and far less money, and we would be far less productive. We're not a high-productivity country as it is.

I think people have always been angry at their governments, but they used their votes, wrote to their MPs, wrote to their newspapers, and canvassed, if they felt really strongly. But thanks to social fucking media, mass protests can be organised at the drop of a hat by people with nefarious motives. They have no clear aim, no clear request, they are just railing and yelling, because they want to cause anarchy.

People could protest to bring back rent control.
People could protest for affordable childcare.
People could protest for government controls on the wildly over-inflated house prices.

Having those things would make having children seem more possible for more people. Then we night not need so many immigrants, if that matters to some.

But instead, we just have all these rabble-rousers causing a ton of trouble and disruption, ALL THE TIME, with no clear aim or request, and so society gets disrupted all the time with nothing to show for it.

Why is it not the time?

Remember when 9 year old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot and killed by a white man and the same “protect women and children” lot were silent? Remember when Sarah Everard was brutally raped and murdered by a police officer and the same lot were silent?

Spare me the “they’re angry” - they’re not. They’re violent racist thugs who want an excuse to go and burn peoples houses down.

But what is the rioters' point?

I used to work near parliament square at that time and there were lots of protests going on. Iraq war protest and countryside alliance ones were big ones around that time but there were lots of smaller ones. There was that anti-war guy who spent years living opposite the houses of parliament.

@TheDivergentEnigma "police who would rather be focusing on the investigation, public reassurance"

how much investigation is actually required? The man with the sword should've been put to a swift end in the street. The police are armed, aren't they?

Public reassurance - close the fucking border and I might have some chance of being reassured. Otherwise, trying to reassure the public with weasel words only makes them more angry.

At this point, I'm not the only one thinking that must be the aim.

I attended several of the anti-lockdown protests, and they were huge. Yes, those ones. The ones which never happened, according to mainstream media, because it didn’t suit the narrative of people obediently staying at home; the BLM ones were a useful distraction. The BBC stretched a mention to “a couple of hundred conspiracy theorists on Speaker’s Corner”. I saw with my own eyes that these were easily hundreds of thousands of people, ordinary people concerned for their future, especially their children’s, under what was looking like an increasingly oppressive “new normal”, which kept being extended by stealth. The march was about forty people wide, and literally a mile or more long.

Why did we attend? We were angry that the government was destroying people’s lives with lockdown, dragging it out for month after month, destroying businesses, careers and livelihoods, controlling the public with fear; and one of the worst things was the way that debate was completely stifled. Nobody was allowed to mention the harms of lockdowns on our children, because to do so meant you were murdering grannies. And that was long before Partygate came to light. Lockdown flattened many things, except “the curve”.

And we couldn’t get “all riled up” on mainstream social media: we were swiftly deleted if we tried. We used other methods of communication; like actually meeting face to face, even though the government tried to forbid it.

It seems that all protests are equal: but some are more equal than others.

Oh, you're just baiting now

Ok that's a fair point, they are just violent yobs who called t control their themselves.

I started this thread BECAUSE of today. Have you seen the crazy rioting in Belfast? How does that help anyone?

And the attacker did what he did because of his character, not because he's Sudanese or an asylum seeker. As if white British men never do horrific things to the populace. Wayne Couzens ring any bells?

Wonder if these people always displaying faux, performative rage over the protests are equally outraged by rapes, sexual assaults and violent crime committed by migrant men. Are the equally sick and tired of the electorate constantly voting for lower immigration but getting open borders instead.

Wonder if their workery distinguishes between these things.

Are you as outraged by the vast majority of these crimes being carried out by white men?

Oh dear. About every 10 posts on this subject someone explains the principle of averages and per capita. Do you still not understand it? It’s not that hard a concept to grasp.

So the answer is no.

If you actually cared about women then you’d realise this is a male problem. But you don’t really give a shit.

So you don’t understand per capita. I’d leave a google link, but I expect you’d struggle even then.

I actually don’t have any issue in general with protests, a rally, anything like that really. Historically we have seen- it works.

BUT, I can’t understand how burning down the cars, homes and businesses of your own streets really helps with the cause here, or anywhere really.

People are angry, I get that, I agree with that, but the riots like these ones do seem to be people who enjoy a kick off rather than people who have a meaningful point or suggestion on what change could look like.

Violent men of every colour commit horrible crimes every day. Right wing agitators (one of whom is a multi billionaire who directly controls his own social media platform for this exact purpose) only show people the crimes committed by a particular group of people.

Be angry.

Be angry that our population is being manipulated by people with a fascist agenda.

No I understand it perfectly.

But the issue is, when women and children are harmed by white men and you just don’t care, it kind of defeats the entire point of your argument.

Yadnbu. We don't have rioting or destruction of property round here but we do have the same pathetic bunch of unemployed men gathering in various places to wave their flags while drinking beer and 'saving the wimmen and kidz innit'. They post Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson shite all over the local Facebook groups and organise their little racist circle jerks because they have nothing better to do. After a hard day's protesting they fuck off for a curry, all on the tax payers dime because there isn't a job between them.

I don’t think you understand the point of the argument.