General Discussion

....but pointing out that blocking freeways is a very stupid way to protest isn't patronizing. It's an objective fact.

People who miss court dates, job interviews, weddings, funerals, flights, classes, or visiting dying loved ones aren't going to think those blocking the freeway might have a point. They're going to think they're selfish jerks who made more than a mild intrusion into their routine. It's not going to generate any sort of sympathy for the cause.

And although the protestors don't intend to let houses burn to the ground or people die because emergency vehicles can't get through, but it can happen. (This is why a freeway blockage was disrupted in my area with some minor violence a few years ago - blockages like that have to be arranged in advance so emergency vehicles can be re-routed, but this wasn't announced.)

Just saying.

(And yes, I get that protests aren't supposed to make people comfortable. But they're also not supposed to make people dead.)


(Should add - the absolutely stupidest protest I ever saw, on video, was an anti-nuke protester in the 1980's who put his legs across the rails in front of an oncoming train carrying nuclear warheads. Even the other protestors begged him to move on the grounds that by the time the train turned a corner and its driver could see him, the train would be physically incapable of stopping. Basic F=ma and p=mv would take over; the train was too massive to stop in less than about a mile, and it wasn't even moving at high speed. But he kept his ground, insisting that the train could stop. Which it couldn't. He lost both his legs, and he was successfully sued by the train driver for mental anguish.)