Ohio

You have to understand an aspect of human psychology for protests to make sense: We have this misconception that we get inspired, and then inspiration causes us to act. That's rare. Just ask anybody who's ever procrastinated. Much more reliably, we act, and action generates inspiration. Marketers, scammers, and other abusers know this—if you can get a person to do some small action, you've got an 'in', and you can get them to escalate.

So, if you can get people to get off of the couch to go to a protest, that's the first step. Now they're much more likely to take more actions in the future, and increase their commitment to the cause. Plus, people who might be in a position to act are much more likely to do so, if they feel that they have a lot of support from throngs of protesters.

At the very least, protests are just a way for the marchers to avoid sitting at home and sinking into despair, which is not nothing.