Thoughts going to a festival that will be protested

I’m getting ready to go to a festival in a short bit. This festival will have protestors. I’m going for two reasons — to be a support of people at the festival and to be a presence of peace to the protestors. It frankly doesn’t matter what festival I’m talking about or what the protest is. The words that I wrote can apply to a variety of gatherings. I’ve been to many such gatherings before.

The question that always stays with me is why some people come to protest other people. The people gathered don’t do anything to hurt anyone else. We’re not talking about a KKK or neo-Nazi rally — rallies that have violence as their core foundational belief. And no not all rallies/festivals are equal.

Often when I have gone to such things, those in protest are usually carrying signs and yelling at the people gathering. These are usually not pleasant well wishes of course. Often they are crude, rude, and dehumanizing judgmental statements. They are statements that clearly project that the protestor is more concerned with “correct” belief rather than the well being of people.

I have a serious question — how many people have ever been yelled at with obscenities by strangers and stopped and said to themselves, “You know what, they’re right. I’m going to change my mind about this.” I’m willing to guess that the answer is 0. Yet this method of protest persists for some reason even though it clearly doesn’t work.