Change can’t happen if people don’t confront laws and issues that are wrong.

The protests in Chicago in 1968 got Nixon elected.

What about the protests in Selma, Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s?

What about the protests in India in the 1940s?

Protests are not the only way to bring about change, and their effectiveness may vary depending on circumstances. But they can work, and often do.

Srsly, hw s th Bng-Bng wrthy?

Absolute failure would be to be chinese or tibetan, and get caught protesting when the world’s eye isn’t on you. Nice never knowing ya.

Significant failure would be to subtly flash a message that everyone’s heard, that the media would edit out, that wouldn’t reach anyone. Waste of time.

Success would be to get the media to talk about how a totalitarian regime adversely affecting a popular well-liked figure who’s protesting totalitarian regimes during a huge PR event where the regime can’t afford to disappear said figures.

So who’s failed here? We’re still talking about what they’re trying to highlight.

You think they went to china so they could watch some sports? Pfeh.

The Chinese government seems to think protesting elsewhere is fine, but no protesters, foreign or domestic, are allowed in China.

Hypocrites.

Tell me @Tehrab more about who you are, and what you do with your life, that makes you so capable of disregarding Brian?

Protests are not the only way to bring about change, and their effectiveness may vary depending on circumstances. But they can work, and often do.

Let’s take a look at how those protests “worked”. People were killed. Is that what these protesters are hoping for? That they will be martyrs?

I don’t think so.

Idiot provocateurs? Stir up “trouble”? Spoken like a Chinese government agent.

Spkn lk prsn wh hts ll thngs Chns.

It’s Boing Boing worthy because Xeni thought it was. You want to set policy here? Convince whoever is in charge to let you join up. Or, if you’re living in the free world, start your own blog, without fear of government repression.

Amazing how the free world works, isn’t it? Of course, if you’re living in China, you’ll have to restrict yourself to government approved speech, or possibly be carted off to jail.

light a fire, because dead babies are good eating ;)

sum.zero

You PRC agents need to become better acquainted with outside culture if you hope to effectively troll for your tyrannical regime.

Very few cold-heartedly calculate that a change must be made and weigh the number of hours that must be spent in a jail-cell and the lives that must be extinguished to bring about the change. One protests because one’s heart cannot withhold the protest.

Thr r lt f myths bt frng Tbt tht r t thr nd t sms tht bngbng s cntnng th myths.

never to go near that debate again.

I don’t get it. What’s your point?

Rght, flks r cncrnd bt th hmn rghts f Chns bcs thy ht th Chns.

<>Y PRC gnts nd t bcm bttr cqntd wth tsd cltr f y hp t ffctvly trll fr yr tyrnncl rgm.

Yh, nd myb y Lm fns cld d bttr jb f ffctvly trllng fr yr tyrnncl thcrcy.

The Chinese are horrible and sure they can put on a nice show…but they are a totalitarian regime with no respect for human rights.

Just see how they have suppresed tenemen square.

secondly I think I am the only person I know who doesn’t support a Free Tibet.

You might as well support any group that wants their own country, see how much global chaos would ensue then.

Tibet has historically been a part of China since the 1700′s. The Communist regime didn’t exist then so it makes sense they would send troops in the 1950s to keep the region within the fold.

China’s stance on Tibet is a matter of their national security.

China is not America. They do not have a Bill of Rights. Maybe they should, but its their country not ours. Why don’t you fight for a cause a little closer to home where you can actually make a difference.

I don’t get it. What’s your point?

That there’s a profound irony to you criticizing peaceful protesters in China, when China’s own communist rebellion was incredibly bloody.

For example, what would you think of a person who goes into a grade school and disrupts classes because he was upset that they were teaching evolution?

Did one of the Americans arrested in China actually walk into a classroom