I’ll try not to overlap too much with what shads has said, since they really gave a better explained and more complete answer than I would have.

What interests me here is the disparity between our points of view. In the spirit of finding understanding and common ground, as you have championed, I’d consider digging a little deeper into that. Of course I can only say how it looks from my perspective. It seems that your point of view is that we should all seek to be cogs in the machine, and any concerns we may have about the nature of the machine should be discussed quietly without ruffling anyone’s feathers. The problem I have with that, is that the machine is clearly working to increase corruption and wealth disparity. We are heading for disaster.

So while there is great social value in work and building a strong economy, it is also extremely important to call out injustice and corruption, and fight for the rights and representation of the people. Otherwise those economic benefits will only expand the financial obesity of a few people, while 99% of us are gradually reduced to serfdom or worse.

And this, it seems to me, is where you have a blind spot. You’re saying that protesting and wearing banned slogans on clothing is a bad thing. We’re focusing on a particular act of protest which was clearly successful, as it brought publicity to the absurdity and overreach of this ban on speech, while also combating the chilling effect it was intended to have. But you will not acknowledge that it was successful. You say it only serves to polarize opinion against the protestor. I can only suppose that this reflects your personal reaction to it. You’re applying a circular logic that says because you feel negatively about protest, then protest must be a bad thing because it only causes negative feelings.

But circular logic aside, why else would you feel negatively about this? Is this woman not fighting for your rights? Is she not fighting against corruption and injustice? It seems your principal argument is that you believe it to be ineffective, which rests on your own perception and the aforementioned circular logic.

I wonder where those self-reinforcing negative feelings come from. I would guess they are the product of conservative ideology, which even if you disagree with it on principle, seems to have left a tendency to view certain groups of people, such as students or protestors, in an overwhelmingly negative light. Is further education, or taking a stand against corruption, really such a bad thing? Where does the reinforcement of that mindset come from? Who does it serve?

EDIT : having seen your answer to shads it seems that’s maybe not how you feel about protest and activism as a whole, so perhaps I’ve got the wrong impression of your position here. Well, maybe it is or maybe not, I’ll just leave this up here anyway