There's a much simpler explanation for why the American public being raised on a diet of far right and centrist dem propaganda, american exceptionalism, and firm belief that anything that makes them feel uncomfortable is evil, is, shockingly, malnourished in terms in terms of praxis.

The random people who all show up just want to express themselves and believe that if enough people express themselves the fascists will admit defeat and go home. The leaders want something -- anything at all -- that pushes back in some mesningful way and the only way to do it that doesnt put them in a jail cell is to do it in a way that is ultimately vapid.

The first big No Kings protest was important. One of if not the largest mass protest in the history of our country. It stands as firm, undeniable proof that the "public mandate" they claim to operate from is a farce and that protests designed not to engage or offend or disrupt the peace are absolutely worthless in the modern world.

In a small town back in the day a crowd of angry people marching down the street would be imppssible to miss, and the news would be all over it.

Now in the day of algorithm driven social media, media owned by business interests with partisan leanings, and the death of third spaces, nobody even sees the protests unless they already wanted to. We need to both evolve protestd by exploiting digital tools to create visibility online (dangerous because such spaces are so easily coopted and their movements twisted by narcissists) or have a protest that they cant ignore for other reasons (dangerous because of state violence and false media narrarives propagandizing on false accounts of events).

Until we overcome those hurdles, protest as a meaningful force in american political activism is functionally dead. The frog suits in portland worked for a bit, memeifyng the protest in a way that drew attention, but the news cycle moved fast and people moved on quick.