Protest are the Church of the left

Some political commentators have said that protests are the Church of the left. Where Christians go to Church, leftists go to protests.

This is quite an apt comparison.

It's just a fact that whenever there's yet again a massive protest by the far left, the vast, vast majority of people were summoned there, they are in essence "hired protestors", they are there because they were called to be there, not because they actually care or even know the intricate details of what the protest is about.

There are numerous examples of people going to interview people in such a protest and (when they actually get someone to talk, perhaps because that someone had not been successfully indoctrinated into not talking to "the enemy") these people are pretty much oblivious to what the protest is actually about. They might be able to tell the headline version of the reason, but that's it. Ask any details, and they usually have no idea.

In one particularly funny video the interviewer asks what the sign that the protestor is holding is about, and the protestor has to actually read it, clearly not even remembering, or even knowing, what it said. It was extremely clear that she was just handed that sign by someone else, and she hadn't even bothered to read what it actually said. And, unsurprisingly, the "explanation" that she gave of what the sign was about was very vague, hand-wavy and made-up on the spot.

There are, of course, many many other examples. Protestors asked what the protest is about, and besides the headlines version, having no idea about the details. In one video the protestor was able to at least name the person that they were protesting, but when asked what exactly that person had done to deserve the protest, she could not tell. She had no idea.

It's quite clear that the vast majority of protestors in these leftist protests are going there because they are summoned (by some ring leaders). To them it's like a social event, a gathering. They do it because it's "the right thing to do", rather than because they actually know what it's about. Like going to Church on Christmas: The vast majority of people (especially in certain countries) go there because it's tradition, not because they actually know and believe all the intricate details of the theology behind it.

This is also the reason why you see so few mass protests by their opposition, ie. the people who are skeptical of their politics. The skeptics do not have the brainwashed masses who will just show up to a protest when summoned, without having to even explain what it's about. The skeptics care about what they are protesting, they want to know, understand and agree with the protest. And quite often they can't be bothered even when they do know and agree. It's the reason why when there's an anti-leftist protest once in a blue moon, you typically see maybe a hundred people there, rather than thousands.

To the skeptics a protest is not just a social event, a gathering, something you do automatically when summoned because "it's the right thing to do", regardless of what the protest is about. They aren't brainwashed into automatically doing it when told. It's not tradition. It's not Church.