'Turn Trafalgar Square into Tahir Square'

The people doing these things tend not to grasp the full picture of what they are doing. E.g. "I hate cuts", raise taxes to pay for more things then its "I hate all these extra taxes".

In their heads they probably genuinely believe the two events are similar, where as the majority of sane people know they are talking nonsense.

I don't really have a solution to it as I really wouldn't want to take away the right to protest, but these are getting a bit tedious now. Put aside the fact that they do nothing to help the situation (why would the government care that some people decided to walk down the road? They'll soon get bored and go home), it just inconveniences everyone else and costs a load of money - meaning more cuts would need to be made anyway to cover the costs (or more likely, the country being in larger debt for longer).

The problem is they surround themselves with people who agree with them. On TSR if you have a point of view it gets challenged everyday, every time you post something. You're constantly re-assessing and re-evaluating your opinions and views based on counter arguments. These protests spend their time in meetings and with people who don't challenge them but egg them on and convince them further.

Really there's no way to solve this and it's a problem inherent in the far-right and the far-left; in all forms of fundamentalism.

And in the centre. A lot of the people involved aren't on either end of the spectrum, they are just completely uneducated on the topic, are told by the media they will be worse off so just take their word for it without figuring how or why, and just join the bandwagon.

Same with the bank thing. Ask someone why they hate the banks and it will be "because they caused this crisis" - no reasoned opinions on the matter just "banks/bankers have lots of money and are bad".

The people doing these things tend not to grasp the full picture of what they are doing. E.g. "I hate cuts", raise taxes to pay for more things then its "I hate all these extra taxes".

In their heads they probably genuinely believe the two events are similar, where as the majority of sane people know they are talking nonsense.

I don't really have a solution to it as I really wouldn't want to take away the right to protest, but these are getting a bit tedious now. Put aside the fact that they do nothing to help the situation (why would the government care that some people decided to walk down the road? They'll soon get bored and go home), it just inconveniences everyone else and costs a load of money - meaning more cuts would need to be made anyway to cover the costs (or more likely, the country being in larger debt for longer).

worth discussing as a seperate incident.

I think it's pretty disrespectful to draw parallels between the hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens fighting for their fundamental rights against a dictatorship and the usual students, hipsters and anarchists protesting against cuts in the UK.

Same with the bank thing. Ask someone why they hate the banks and it will be "because they caused this crisis" - no reasoned opinions on the matter just "banks/bankers have lots of money and are bad".

The problem is they surround themselves with people who agree with them. On TSR if you have a point of view it gets challenged everyday, every time you post something. You're constantly re-assessing and re-evaluating your opinions and views based on counter arguments. These protests spend their time in meetings and with people who don't challenge them but egg them on and convince them further.

Really there's no way to solve this and it's a problem inherent in the far-right and the far-left; in all forms of fundamentalism.

I am afraid to tell you that most of the people protesting yesterday were neither of those. They were normal people. Normal people who are worried about losing their jobs, and about their futures. People like my gf's mother who works in the NHS.

The banks know they ****ed up, yet they're still giving the bankers huge bonuses throughout the year. I don't get any bonuses, yet I do far much more work than they'll ever do *blatantly bitter lyk*

I don't have what you'd call "reasoned opinions on the matter" because the above is all I need to know to be of the opinion that the bankers that partake in that bs are complete *****

Firstly, I'd be surprised if when asked on the matter, you specify banks that have needed bailouts and which gave out large bonuses.

Secondly, you may do far more work (I doubt it - what do you think bankers do exactly? - the type that get big bonuses anyway), but you don't do it for a company with a huge profit margin and a mobile workforce.

It's supply and demand. The banks want the best, so they compete to pay the best. If bankers are so rich and it's such an easy job, I'm surprised so many people moaning about it decided it wasn't the career path for them...

You'd be unsurprised, trust me
I don't watch the news nor does it interest me.

I work with my hands for a living, so whatever I say is going to be a typical working class spiel. That wall won't build itself.
One of the guys I've been working with recently knows a couple of bankers and what they do in their jobs, and he says that what I could earn in a year they could earn in a few months without the bonuses, and they spend most of their day sitting on their arses with a pen in one hand and a Subway in the other. Go figure where my bias comes from

I think the should experience what Mubarak's regime was like first.

Send them to Burma.