Oh, yes, I guess you haven’t been at it for long, then.

Protests are not the only thing going on in social change situations. When speaking about it, you will find people just assume you know about the shitton of other concurrent organizing associated with movements.

Protests are about building participation as much as threatening the monopoly of power. (Note that smashing store windows is not what threatens that monopoly, that’s usually idiots or provocateurs.)

Think of protests as foundation, and the civil development of organizations as walls. They also need a unifying idea to cover things, and since anti capitalism is taboo in the USA, that’s where they’re really fucked.