@tzimmer_history America did not repeal discriminatory laws the moment Rosa Parks boarded a bus and sat down. Should she not have bothered?

The Lovings won the right to marry each other, but racism didn't go away. Should they not have bothered?

Dr. King and John Lewis marched with thousands, but those protests changed nothing in and of themselves. Should they not have bothered?

@tzimmer_history
(Preface: I'm in favor of the No Kings protests and hope they are huge.)

I don't think those who criticize the protests, or those who attend them, have in mind that many attendees *explicitly* believe that occasionally attending a protest is all one needs to do. I think that the criticism is that (a) this is all many of these people *do* in fact do, because (b) they simply don't reflect on the question at all.
I would guess that a huge chunk of people you could ask at the protest, if you asked what else they are doing to fight fascism, most would say attending protests like this and voting. Those are both important (in my opinion), but it reflects a very limited political imagination.