Whether the protesters are trying to solve a problem that actually exists is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether protests work
How so? If the problem doesn’t actually exist, the protests are guaranteed to NOT work. They might have a variety of different consequences but they cannot work in the sense of solving that problem.
I meant that whether these specific protesters are attacking a non-existent problem isn’t relevant to the effectiveness of protesters in general. One could make an argument that there’s a more general tendency for protesters to attack problems that don’t really exist and therefore can’t be solved, as a reason why protest is generally ineffective, but I’m pretty sure alienist wasn’t doing that.
How so? If the problem doesn’t actually exist, the protests are guaranteed to NOT work. They might have a variety of different consequences but they cannot work in the sense of solving that problem.
I meant that whether these specific protesters are attacking a non-existent problem isn’t relevant to the effectiveness of protesters in general. One could make an argument that there’s a more general tendency for protesters to attack problems that don’t really exist and therefore can’t be solved, as a reason why protest is generally ineffective, but I’m pretty sure alienist wasn’t doing that.
There is no good answer to the question of the effectiveness of protesters in general. The answer will always be “It depends”.