Revolutionary Fashion Week: Why Modern Protesters Swap Causes Like Seasonal Trends.
The outcome audit: zero policy changes, maximum emotional satisfaction, infinite flag sales By The Almighty Gob | 18 January 2026,
A brief note on yesterday’s article: I made factual errors in yesterday’s piece - nothing that changed core analysis, but errors nonetheless. I’m currently dealing with health issues (head fog) which isn’t an excuse, just context. Those errors have been corrected. When I write about holding institutions accountable whilst making mistakes myself, that matters. Apologies. Today’s piece has been fact-checked to a tighter standard.
A protester in Leeds carries a banner at a Gaza solidarity march on 17 January 2026: “RACIST RAPISTS OFF OUR STREETS.”
Who exactly? The banner doesn’t specify. Because precision requires evidence. But Emotional Democracy — where feelings trump facts, where tribal performance replaces examination — doesn’t work that way.
Modern protest movements have evolved from political action into seasonal fashion.
The Market Evidence.
An eBay search for “protest flags and banners” (January 2026) returns 50 results on the first page alone. Pre-owned protest backpacks at £19.36. Filter by price and condition.
Photographic evidence shows an actual flag exchange stall. Banner: “TRADE YOUR PALESTINIAN FLAGS FOR VENEZUELAN FLAGS HERE.” Someone operated a currency exchange for causes. Protesters queued to swap props when fashion changed.
The Rotation Schedule.
American commentator Matt Van Swol documented the timeline through social media posts: Ukrainian flags February-April 2024, Palestinian flags May-August 2024, Iranian flags September-November 2024, Venezuelan flags December 2024-January 2025. Eight to nine weeks per cause. Same faces, different flags.
The Professional Protest Circuit operates on schedule.
The 2018 Trump Baseline.
13 July 2018: Trump visited the UK. According to BBC, CNN, and The Guardian, an estimated 250,000 protesters (organizers’ figures) gathered in London. Bristol residents chartered buses. A six-metre Trump Baby blimp flew over Parliament Square. Security cost £12+ million. Trafalgar Square hit capacity. Jeremy Corbyn addressed crowds.
Trump told The Sun the protests made him feel “unwelcome.”
The Outcome.
Trump completed his visit. No UK policy changes. Trump won the 2024 election. His second term (January 2025 onwards) implements more aggressive policies. The blimp sits in the Museum of London.
According to American Immigration Council analysis of ICE data (December 2025): 68,440 detained, 328,000+ arrested, 327,000 deported in 2025, nearly 40,000 detained with no criminal record, deaths in custody at record highs.
The 2025 Silence.
Where’s the blimp now? Where are the Bristol buses? Where are the 250,000 protesters?
Trump implements those exact policies more aggressively. Documented ICE operations include raids across American cities, family separations, and the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in Florida. No blimp flies. No massive mobilisation. No Bristol contingent.
The flag stall operator anticipated this.
Gaza Solidarity: Same Pattern.
Since 7 October 2023, hundreds of thousands marched repeatedly. An estimated 800,000 attended one London march (11 November 2023). Student encampments appeared nationwide. Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s mailing list quadrupled to 270,000.
Outcomes per UN OCHA and UK government sources: Over 50,000 Palestinians had been killed by March 2025. UK refused ceasefire calls (November 2023). MPs voted against ceasefire (15 November 2023). Arms sales continued until partial suspension (August 2024). Fighting resumed March 2025. Palestine Action designated “terrorist group” (2025). On 9 August 2025, 446 arrested in single protest—largest mass arrest in London history.
Achievements: YouGov showed sympathy for Palestinians rose from 23% (May 2023) to 31% (May 2024). Labour called for ceasefire February 2024, four months after protests began, achieving no change in Gaza.
Iran: The Silence.
16 September 2022: Mahsa Amini, 22, died in custody of Iran’s morality police. According to Human Rights Watch and UN Fact-Finding Mission, mass protests erupted across all 30 provinces under “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
Facts: 500+ killed (2022-2023), 22,000 detained, 12 executed. Regime implemented AI facial recognition for hijab enforcement. Executions doubled in 2025. January 2026: protesters shot with live ammunition in heads, eyes, genitals (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center documentation).
Western street response: Minimal. No mass London demonstrations. No blimps. No Bristol buses.
Iranian women fighting theocratic dictatorship don’t fit the calendar. Complicated narrative. No simple flag. Doesn’t suit “anti-Western imperialism” template.
The Pattern.
2003 Iraq War: An estimated one million marched in London (15 February 2003). Britain went to war (20 March 2003).
2018 Trump: An estimated 250,000 people, Trump felt “unwelcome.” Won 2024 election, second term more aggressive.
Gaza: hundreds of thousands for 15 months. Over 50,000 Palestinians dead. UK policy shifted ten months in, changing nothing.
Pattern: massive mobilisation, zero measurable impact, flag sales afterwards.
If history proves protests achieve nothing measurable, why keep doing them?
The Actual Function.
Protests aren’t about outcomes. They’re about performing tribal membership, generating emotional satisfaction, demonstrating you’re on the “right side.”
That flag stall met genuine demand. When rotation changes, protesters need different props. The cause is interchangeable. Performance is the product.
eBay shows 50+ results because there’s industrial infrastructure serving this market. Same faces with different flags every eight weeks because emotional reward comes from participating, not achieving. Trump gets 250,000 in 2018, silence in 2025, because fashion changed. Iranian women get shot without Western support because they’re off-calendar.
Why Ambiguity Works.
That Leeds banner doesn’t specify because specificity requires evidence, investigation, verification.
The slogan triggers moral revulsion without specificity. Who defends racist rapists?
It works through emotional charge, not precision. Maximise emotional impact, minimise specificity, prevent examination. Same principle as the flag stall. The cause doesn’t matter. What matters is feeling righteous, carrying the right flag, performing resistance against the approved target.
What Gets Achieved.
Protests provide emotional satisfaction. Generate profitable flag markets. Allow institutions to point at “extremism” justifying increased control. Exhaust political energy on ineffective action.
Everyone gets something except the people protests claim to help. Trump implemented policies. Palestinians kept dying. Iranian women kept getting shot. But protesters felt righteous, vendors made sales, museums acquired exhibits.
The Questions You Answer Alone.
When did you last check whether your protest achieved anything measurable? Not whether it felt important. Whether it changed anything.
Why does one cause move you to the streets while another—equally urgent, equally documented—leaves you scrolling past? Who decided which suffering deserves your Saturday and which doesn’t?
If it’s really about justice, why does your flag change every eight weeks? If it’s really about outcomes, why do you keep using methods that history proves achieve nothing?
When you carry that banner, are you demanding accountability from power—or demonstrating tribal membership to your peers?
The revolution’s been commodified. Resistance went retail. And somewhere between the eBay listings and the museum donations, the point got lost entirely.
Because here’s what the outcome audit actually reveals: the system isn’t threatened by your protests. It’s sustained by them. You exhaust your political energy on theatre while actual mechanisms of power operate undisturbed. You perform resistance while institutions get stronger. You feel righteous while nothing changes.
The most effective thing you could do is stop performing and start examining. Not what “they” are doing wrong. What you’re doing that achieves nothing despite feeling like everything.
But that’s harder than buying a new flag when the season changes.
The Revolutionary Fashion Week calendar is already printed. Spring 2026 has its causes selected, flags ordered, routes planned. You’ll march. You’ll chant. You’ll photograph it for social media. You’ll feel you did something.
And five years from now, someone will search eBay for “protest flags and banners” and find yours listed as “pre-owned, good condition, no longer needed.”
Because the fashion changed. And you moved on. Again.
The question isn’t whether the protests achieve nothing. The evidence answers that.
The question is whether you’ll keep participating anyway.
Sources:
BBC, CNN, The Guardian (Trump UK visit coverage, July 2018) The Sun (Trump interview, 13 July 2018) Museum of London (Trump Baby blimp acquisition) American Immigration Council (ICE detention data, December 2025) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) - Gaza casualty figures UK Government sources - Gaza policy timeline YouGov polling data (Palestinian sympathy, May 2023-May 2024) Human Rights Watch - Iran protests documentation UN Fact-Finding Mission on Islamic Republic of Iran Iran Human Rights - execution statistics Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights - Iran protest violence documentation Metropolitan Police - protest arrest figures BBC and police estimates - 2003 Iraq War protest attendance Matt Van Swol - protest rotation timeline (social media documentation)
I’m John Langley (The Almighty Gob), Bristol’s most prolific blogger and an independent satirical commentator specialising in Bristol City Council accountability and UK institutional dysfunction analysis. In the past year, I’ve published over 400 blog posts including 88 investigative articles examining the gap between political rhetoric and measurable outcomes, utilising systematic Freedom of Information requests and council meeting analysis. My writing combines rigorous documentation with satirical commentary, operating from what I term a “politically divorced” anarch position—maintaining analytical detachment while examining institutional capture.