#demo2010
Here is a quick test to find out how good your opinions are, using the student fees protest as an example case. If you thought:
“The protest was a bad idea, students should just suck it up and pay. It’s a reasonable price for your improved job prospects.”
Sorry, you don’t score any points this time. Not only does your opinion suck, but I’d bet you are a really indignant person who uses the fact that you work and pay taxes to complain about everything and I can’t shake the intuitive feeling that you probably have a weirdly-shaped head so you are going to have to look elsewhere for now.
“It’s about time someone stood up to the Government’s evil plans but it’s a shame the day was ruined by a handful of people smashing up Tory HQ.”
Uh oh, you said the magic word, ‘ruined’, and now you too lost all your points. You strike me as pretty boring and way too idealistic and we all know that people with ideals are always trying to ruin your day with them. Zero points.
“Disregard protest, acquire riot!”
Correct! Whether through apathy or ignorance you’ve arrived at the correct stance that the Government are going to do whatever they want and the worse things are now, the slimmer the chance they’ll get re-elected when their term is over. You might still be hanging on to the tiny thread of hope that comes with the alternative vote referendum that the Lib Dems might not completely let down everyone who voted for them (and hopefully Miliband will step up and do something at this point), or you might not give a single fuck. But at the same time, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that rioting is fucking badass and those guys who smashed up 30 Millbank and lit fires outside were pretty awesome, turning an otherwise shitty and forgettable event into something that brings the angry right-wing kids out from under their rocks to decry what they feel is the lefties’ false sense of entitlement to a publicly-funded (or at least heavily supported) higher education and also the boring lefties themselves have popped their heads up to loudly denounce any connection with the people doing all the fun rioting and to promise that all the actual students there were well-behaved and peaceful because everyone in Whitehall will probably think “oh, since it wasn’t any of the students fucking up that building I’d guess we’d better listen to them and do what they want, right?” and everyone will live happily ever after.