A protest demonstrates a level of unhappiness with a group or policy. People may not believe what they see on the news, facebook, or youtube, but hopefully we have not reached a point where they refuse to believe what they see with their own eyes.

The point is to demonstrate "we are not alone in this feeling", that's it...

Sounds like the plot of "Big Brother" by Cory Doctorow

Try "No agenda, no attenda" - see if a touch of levity helps.

Lovely essay, tone reminds me this book which has a similar vibe.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/truck-on-rebuilding-a-worn-out...

I think there may be an issue with your link, it's just taking me to the thrift books home page.

I also really enjoyed the writing style.

I suspect it is this book.

https://www.booktopia.com.au/truck-john-jerome/book/97808745...

Kernighan!

And how can we leave out the OG of tech writers: Donald Knuth. He got a bit distracted by developing TeX but he got a well deserved Turing award for the series.

That's exactly what the Lizard overlords are doing! /s - wouldn't be surprised there's a few conspiracy theorists who believe this...

Parent comment is working from The Gervais Principle[1] of office politics. There are companies where that's an accurate description of reality, unpleasant though it might be.

[1] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...

This is where defensively blocking off your calendar comes in!

I don’t get why municipal investment isn’t more of a thing - why can’t cities and counties be their own PE, buy a small fire truck company and turn it into a non-profit? If they captured the surplus that’s going to the PE company surely costs would be cheaper?

I guess that’s socialism though, so not gonna happen.

A tangent - sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Koli - a key plot component is a chatty Sony AI music player. A little YA, but a fun read..