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.

Maybe, just maybe, we should have done something about the violent, racist pro Palestine marches that caused mayhem every week?

If millions take to the streets, violence will result.

If people really want to make a point, a day's general strike where everyone downs tools in protest against the government would cause a truly enormous amount of disruption, much more so than any march or protest.

But it will never be organised, because the people who organise all this stuff aren't interested in peaceful protest. They want anarchy. Well, a strike would be anarchy, but these people want physical anarchy.

@ijustwanttoworkoutI think you might be the victim to an echo chamber because if you talked to many people from all walks of life you would quickly understand that’s not the case. So do you think I, and other people on here are bots? I feel like you are simply trying to shut the conversation down. You don’t want to engage at all despite admitting you agree. You think immigration needs to be controlled

When did the peaceful anti-genocide marches burn houses down?

As does pretty much everyone. Which is why this government is controlling it.

Farage alluded to the fact that immigration might fall by posing in front to provocative posters showing lines of people.
He also explicitly told other people that he expected the decline in migrants from Europe would allow MORE migrants from the commonwealth. There were South Asian people who voted for Brexit for this reason.

It wasn't a secret, you could have checked at the time and seen he was promising this. Other people also warned Brexit was unlikely to result in a net decrease in immigration. But people were, angry and didn't want to listen. Even to the people supporting Brexit like Farage.

It wasn't a failure of democracy. People got exactly what they voted for. Likewise the people protesting Novak's killing because of immigration presumably weren't listening when they were told the killer was born here. Or aren't really protesting about him at all.

Excellent example of totally pointless mayhem. What the fuck do people think the UK government can do about Palestine? Or Israel? Or Gaza? Or Hamas?

The right to peaceful protest has been commandeered by anarchists into constant civil unrest, making our streets unsafe too often.

Wait, while I go search for random links on the internet to prove it. Because the government covers up the official numbers.

So people voted for lower immigration and got higher. My point stands.

As I’ve just said on another thread. People have forgotten the Troubles so quickly.

People in Northern Ireland literally killed each other for years and years. White people killed white people.

That needs to be born in mind in the context of the protests.

There was a vigil and other protests for Sarah Everard, OP.

The stuff in Belfast is racist violence and utterly appalling. The media should not call them "demonstrators", they are just violent right wing thugs.

The people protesting Nowak’s killing are the same ones who would’ve told him to fuck off home 10 years ago because he was of Polish descent

The numbers quite literally prove you wrong.

This. I'm sure some people don't know their recent history.

Oh God this is exhausting now.

Do you think protestors ‘ignored’ equivalent crimes and zoomed in on Sarah Everard for
no reason?

Of course not because you know the aggravation there was the fact it was a serving police officer. Here it was the aggravation that it was an ‘asylum’ seeker, that had no reason to be in the country other than the fact he said he was unsafe but proceeded to try to behead somebody and gouge their eyes out.

There will sadly always be a ‘baseline’ of crimes committed by homegrown scum but why impose an excess on the public by allowing mentally messed up people from war zones and backwards countries with misogyny issues to come here in their hundreds of thousands?

They wouldn’t identify as right wing.

The day I would’ve seen boyz coming out of the Shirt Strand to protest on the Newtownards Road. Boys in kneecap balaclavas in East Belfast.

Making stuff up again. Lying about people abusing a dead boy. Thats low, even for someone on the far left. There is no evidence that anyone ever said anything of the sort to Henry Nowak.

I must’ve missed the part where the IRA carried out public beheadings after removing eyeballs, of random passersby?

Tell me you know nothing about The Troubles

Yes actually they did ignore Sarah Everard, evidenced by the fact they didn’t burn anything down, and their cult leader Farage actually called for the police to be protected after that incident.

Same goes for Olivia Pratt-Korbel. They ignored it.

Mental that you’re admitting you’re fine with women and children being harmed, as long as it’s white men doing it.

The IRA and the security forces both carried out horrific atrocities.

They are not coming in hundreds of thousands. Stop spreading misinformation.

I’m not “far left”.

I also never said that they did - I said in a hypothetical they’re the same people who ten years ago were told to hate Polish immigrants. Reading really isn’t your strong suit is it?

Yes, and also the Loyalist equivalent.

Yea this is really true. Social media companies know that outrage gets engagement so thats all algorithms push...newspapers know that outrage headlines sell so thats what theyve always done too.

People need to stop buying into it. We are all so easy to wind up, then we go go go with the angry posts and shares. We should get off social media and start sharing and making happier kinder stories in real life, look around a bit and appreciate real life again. But I doubt that'll happen as everyone is now surgically attached to their phone.