Code that helped end Apartheid

> Protests and petitions are completely ineffective

They have been effective for millenia, even before democracy. The only thing ineffective now is people saying so. With all the evidence in the world that protest works, people bizarrely disarm themselves.

The targets of the protests take great pains to convince you of it; that should tell you something. They'll bluff until they lose.

I think this greatly depends on rhe type of protest, specifically whether it threatens the ruling class's ability to make a profit or to govern. In recent centuries liberal governments have gotten better at channeling discontent into forms of protest that are less consequential and more performative.